Making ISDP — Individual Self Development Plan
It’s the second week in Quantic and we have to define our individual goals so that it helps our journey in learning MBA more effectively. First, we have to identify our strengths and weaknesses using SWOT analysis, then creating our goals and roadmap using the SMART framework. But before going further, we have to make sure the essence of setting the goal. We have to have the right way of thinking before identify what we want to pursue.
P.S: This is my learning notes. Nothing’s perfect but guess helps me to keep on track learning.
What I learned about The Growth Mindset
When I started to study about ISDP (Individual Self Development Plan), I read Carol Dweck’s interview on HBR about growth mindset. A growth mindset is a faith that your ability can be developed. People with a growth mindset can always find a way to develop their skills.
There are 2 types of mindsets, defined by Carol Dweck, Fixed and Growth mindset. A fixed mindset tend to think that intelligence is static, you were born with it and you cannot do anything to improve it. People with fixed mindsets also think to avoid challenges rather than embracing them. They ignore useful negative feedback and feel threatened by the success of others. Imagining that, feels exhausting. Come to think of it. In reality, nobody can escape from failure forever. Nobody was born with no failure.
I think my society grows fixed mindset. Look when your relatives compare you with the success of others. You feel insecure and threatened because people discover your weakness against others. And that makes you focus on your weakness rather than your strength. Some people might mourn their weaknesses and end up try nothing to improve their life.
That’s why I feel so different compared to others fellows from the class. They were raised with a growth mindset environment where making mistakes and failures are acceptable. They live in a society that always praises you based on process and effort. They always welcome any challenges and uncertainty in life and be ready to face and fight against them.
Define Your Values and Goals
For you who have no idea what are your values, you can try this.
But if you already know your values, you can just pick some of them here:
There are 230 core values that you can identify inside you. When I learn this, Quantic gave the example of a case with some questions that you can ask yourself what you are meant to be. From this, I would take my values of growth, competence, and contribution.
For me, I am passionate about helping my community to achieve prosperity in their life. Many of them are teachers who are underpaid. I want to help them to elevate their life with a better income. Hence, my mission statement is:
I will serve as a leader for my community to discover their competencies for a better living.
So my goals would be:
- Taking MBA to learn about community empowerment and more about business
- Broaden my network around the globe
- Start my own business to empower my community
Keeping Myself Accountable
Sometimes when I set my own goal, I never focus on how I might pursue it. I usually feel uncomfortable and afraid of cannot achieve it. When I read the lecture above, that makes sense because when we think about the pleasure to pursue the goal, I could be more motivated and keep myself on track. For example, when I set my goal to work out 30 minutes every day, I should think of rewarding myself for accomplishing it. Maybe I can treat myself or a jelly drink.
SMART framework
When you set your goal or micro-goals, make sure you meet all of these criteria: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound.
For example:
My goal is to get 10 new connections of tech enthusiast professionals on Linkedin by Wednesday next week.
I define it as a very specific target, measured by number, achievable to accomplish by next week, relevant to my values, and with a specific deadline.
This actually helps if we want to define our OKR at work. Sometimes I found it difficult to set my goal but using this template and framework, I feel it a lot easier now.
