Personal Growth Plan: A Personal Asset Inventory
Take Stock for a Self Growth and Personal Development Plan
Sep 19, 2008
Taking stock of one's personal assets is a good way to begin planning future personal growth activities and goals. Before beginning personal development planning, one should inventory the assets that form the foundation for growth. Follow this personal asset inventory process for the six most critical resources necessary for continuing growth.
Every company maintains an inventory of its assets, a requirement for public corporations and a useful activity for the sole proprietor. Individuals often maintain a financial asset inventory which is useful in planning for retirement, a child's education, or career transitions. A personal asset inventory serves a similar purpose, providing awareness of the resources available to fuel growth.
Six Personal Assets
The six assets important to a personal growth plan are Life Purpose, Passions, Unique Strengths, Lesser Competencies, Values, and Beliefs.
- Life Purpose is the fundamental building block of a good life. Without clarity of purpose, a person tends to drift through life following popular pursuits of the day, copying the lives of friends and family, and jumping from job to job, or marriage to marriage, seeking meaning through others.
Life purpose, though, is not to be found in others. One's life purpose is to be found within oneself, in the deep, inner wisdom from which people rise to be their very best.
- The second asset to inventory is life Passions. Everyone has activities they absolutely love to do. They gravitate toward these activities whenever possible, often making time for them over other responsibilities. One's passions are the activities which bring them great energy.
- Unique Strengths, the third asset one should inventory is composed of the small set of skills and abilities at which a person is very, very good. Everyone has many competencies, but only a few unique strengths. A person using strengths is creative, energetic, and highly productive. Excellent work is the product of one's strengths.
- Lesser Competencies, the fourth asset to inventory, is at the opposite end of the spectrum from unique strengths. Lesser Competencies, often called weaknesses, are those activities at which a person struggles. If necessary to use a lesser competency, a person lacks energy and enthusiasm, becomes easily frustrated and distracted, and generally produces below average productivity and quality.
Though psychologists recommend against spending time and energy to improve Lesser Competencies, inventorying provides the awareness necessary to minimize dependence on them.
- Values are the fifth asset useful for personal growth planning. Values are the components of life integrity. When honoring values a person feels right, in-tune with and true to themselves. Stress often results from being out of alignment with values.
- Beliefs are the sixth and final asset to inventory as the basis for future personal growth planning. Beliefs are a person's truths, their rules for living, and their view of the way life is. While being out of alignment with values causes stress, being out of alignment with beliefs causes anger.
An up-to-date inventory of personal assets - purpose, passions, strengths, lesser competencies, values, and beliefs - gives one an overall view of their state of personal development, similar to a corporation's assets and liabilities reports.
In preparation for beginning a personal growth plan, read A Seven Stage Personal Growth Plan
To begin the asset inventory process, read How to Inventory Personal Assets: Life Purpose
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