PDPF (Personal Development Personal Favorites)

This summer my key project, besides finding a job, has been to take stock of my strengths and capabilities, map them out against my goals for the future and then identify the gaps and develop a plan to fill them. I felt this was an essential element to defining the way I would market myself. Three things came out of my self-assessment:

1. My self-actualization skills needed a good makeover. I had immersed myself in the day-to-day work of operations management that I neglected to consider where I am, and where I should be, on my personal development arc.
2. I have a lot of general knowledge, but few pieces of hard proof of my knowledge. In IT that translates to a paucity of certifications.
3. I have a dismal record of keeping in touch with friends and family and I hadn't exactly made any new friends in the last few years.

Searching job sites, researching local businesses, crafting and submitting resumes and talking to agents, HR reps and a variety of other kind and helpful folks was to take up most of my day, as it should. I decided to set aside a couple hours of each day or night to address the rest. I will detail my excursions into social meeting, reconnecting with old acquaintances and chasing certifications another day. Today is a day for lists.

I like lists. They convey a good overview of interest and intention without all the overhead of conjunctions, gerunds and other standards of polite grammar. At this time I offer you my top ten list of motivational, organizational and inspirational personal development books (paper and audio) that I perused this summer. Don't think this is all I covered. I also read one historical non-fiction and four technical books. More about those another day.

Gary's Top Ten Favorite Personal Development (don't call them self help-that's so 80s) Titles in No Particular Order:

• Your First Year in Network Marketing
• 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen Covey
• How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie
• The 8th Habit - Stephen Covey
• Psycho-Cybernetics - Maxwell Maltz
• Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life - Wayne Dyer
• A New Earth - Eckhart Tolle
• Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill
• First Things First - Stephen Covey
• Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway - Susan Jeffers

Fair Disclosure: I only got around to the first six, so far. The list fell into the convenient ten title length based on what I read plus what I have committed myself to read. Considering my average reading speed, I figure I should be done with the rest by mid October.

Tomorrow I'll post my thoughts on a few of these.