In this episode of The Traveling Introvert, the discussion centers around the importance of prioritizing personal and professional development. Key points include:

1. Self-Prioritization: Emphasizing the need to regularly make oneself a priority and not see it as selfish.

2. Vision Clarification: Encouraging listeners to envision their desired future and lifestyle, and align their career aspirations accordingly.

3. Documenting Goals: Stressing the importance of writing down goals and creating a plan to achieve them.

4. Strengths Over Weaknesses: Advising an effective focus on enhancing strengths rather than just fixing weaknesses, and the utility of performing a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats).

5. Purpose and Goals: Highlighting the process of setting goals to discover one's purpose and maintain motivation.

6. Mental Health Benefits: Pointing out that having a clear direction can improve mental health by providing a sense of purpose.

7. Relationships and Resources: Considering the necessary relationships and resources required to achieve the desired life and career.

Listeners are encouraged to take 30 minutes to draft a personal development plan, focusing on what they want to achieve and why, to improve their overall well-being and career satisfaction.

Hello, and welcome to the Traveling Introvert. So today, I want to talk about when's the last time you made yourself a priority. And what I mean by that is when's the last time you sat down, thought out about your goals, hopes, dreams, career aspirations, wrote down a plan on how to get to wherever that place is for you in your career, and then followed that plan. When was the last time that you did that? And not because work forced you to because of, your, like, annual performance review. Whenever you sat down and thought thought about what it means to you. You see, we we're generally sort of taught that thinking about ourselves is kind of selfish. That's not necessarily true. And so things you need to think about when you're thinking about self improvement or professional development is 1 1 thing is really paramount, and you you kinda need to do this on a regular basis because things change, is clarify your vision.

And by your vision, I mean, like, what do you want your future to look like, and what kind of lifestyle do you want to have? Because if you want a certain type of lifestyle but the jobs that you are looking for, you The currently in, can't don't agree with that, then you need to have a plan on how to transfer out of that career that you are in into 1 that is more in the lifestyle that you would like to live and or maybe change your lifestyle sort of expectations. And so really sitting down and intentionally thinking, hey. In 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 12, whatever amount of time it is, years, months, weeks, I would like to have a job where I get the summers off. You should probably be a teacher. Or I'd like a job where I can travel. Like, thinking about these sorts of things because and the life that you want to live because there's no point having a job that is sort of when you're on a call, when you want to be able to do something on a regular basis. And then you should document it. Document that This is what I want to aim for, and then start thinking on how to enhance your strengths.

An effective self development plan focuses on strengths over weaknesses. It's not that you'll ignore your weaknesses. You won't. You can't. But you can outsource, delegate, automate, and learn anything you want to learn, but it's far more efficient to focus on what you're naturally good at and like to do and how that dovetails into the the work and the the life that you want to live. Your personal development plan requires for you to sort of perform a little analysis on yourself in each area of your life to develop and identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, hence, SWOT, that may exist. And don't just do it for yourself. Get someone else to do it on you because there might be things that you don't realize because we're very good at having blind spots as humans.

And with that vision and thinking about your strengths, you might consider, okay. Hey. This is my purpose. This is my goal. This is my North Star. This is what I want to do. And as you set goals and determine why you want to get to that goal, that process should lead you to discover your purpose. It may not be your whole life's purpose because that might change as you learn and grow.

However, it can supply you with a reason to keep going. The continued search gives you that energy to keep going, keep doing the things that you do, why is it you do the things that you do, and it helps you keep working and taking that little step towards the goal. Having a direction to go in and not just being lost in the murkiness that is sort of going to work every day and having a a plan and a strategy will improve Introvert your mental health just because you you have something to aim for. You have a target. You are aiming in this direction. You're not just sort of aimlessly wandering around and kinda going through life, and so it will make things better for you. And in general, sort of thinking about relationships and resources that you need to create that life that you want. Putting this plan in place and thinking about what is needed will then help you craft what you need to do to get those things in place for you to have The life that you want to live.

And only you know what that is, and it can change. But at least having a plan on somewhere that is written down or on a notice board or somewhere that you see it will remind you every day of it, why you're doing what you're doing. And so just just be selfish for a little bit. It's not even selfish, but make yourself a priority for 30 minutes today and map out a really rough draft of a personal development plan of where you want to be and why. Thank you for listening. This is Janice at The careerintravet.com, helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.