Overview

Your PDP

What is a Personal Development Project (PDP)?

A Personal Development Project (PDP) is a regularly scheduled set of exercises designed to help a person achieve three basic goals:

The self-mastery and skill development that results from performing challenging tasks based on commitment rather than convenience
The sense of accomplishment and self-confidence that comes from consistently meeting specific goals
The self-awareness and self-actualization that comes from repeated investment in constructive or creative action

Simply put, a PDP is something you do every single day for a set period of time in order to become a better version of yourself.

I embarked on my very first PDP nearly five years ago when I challenged myself to write a blog post every day for a year. When I first needed to get back in physical shape, I did a 30-day PDP that involved jogging every day for twenty minutes. On a different occasion, I did a 30-day PDP that involved reading for two hours per day. Any activity can be a PDP as long as it challenges you to grow and as long as you stick with it.

The PDP for this course will not be easy, but it will be immensely rewarding if you can stay the course. It’s not designed for the purpose of just keeping you busy with work to do. It’s designed to give you the opportunity to put your prior lessons to the test in the one area that counts the most: creative action.

The following PDP will challenge you to grow in several specific ways. For starters, you’ll find it difficult at some point to stick to the schedule. No matter how easy or hard the task, there is something inherently challenging about showing up everyday and being consistent with something. Secondly, each of the below exercises will require you to practice your decision-making skills. You’ll have to make lots of choices for yourself without relying on authority figures to tell you what to do. Thirdly, you’ll develop a much clearer knowledge of who you are, what you want, what you believe, and what you’re truly capable of. Fourthly, you’ll have to exercise lots of creativity and critical thinking to get through many of these exercises. Finally, you’ll have to communicate with people and get them to cooperate with you.

As you perform the tasks for each day, refer to the personal blog you created during Module 3. Use your blog as a tracking mechanism for your learning process. Whenever you complete a task, write a blog post that documents your accomplishments. In each blog post, identify the task you performed, detail your personal results, and share any lessons or insights you learned from your experience. By the time you’re done, you’ll have published 30 blog posts documenting your personal growth and practical achievements that you can share with family, friends, teachers, or prospective employers.

Be sure to briefly review each activity ahead of time. The exercises for some days are more difficult than the exercises for other days. So you’ll want to make sure you’re planning your day in a way that sets you up for success.

Before beginning, read the three articles and watch the video below:

Read The Overthinker’s Guide for Taking Action: A Complete Guide

Read The Inability to Make Choices

Read Tiny, Ridiculous Daily Challenges Work Better for Me Than Big Goals

Watch The Discipline of Finishing

Overview

Your PDP

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