Goal Action Ideas for Personal Growth Goals

An intentional life is cultivated through consistent actions that add up—little by little!—over time. Once you’ve uncovered what matters most to you and set your PowerSheets® goals, it’s time to decide how you’ll put them into action. As you do, you’ll find there are so many ways to do this well.

That’s encouraging—but it can also be overwhelming! If you’ve ever set a goal only to get stuck breaking it down, our Goal Action Ideas series is for you. Today's topic is personal growth goals, and it will supply you with a bank of ideas for the monthly, weekly, and daily sections of your Tending List.

Personal growth is a wide-ranging category! Your goals might cover developing a hobby, skill, or new activity for your leisure time. You might craft a goal around reading. Perhaps you want to develop rhythms of mindfulness or meditation. Maybe you’re focused on growing character traits you value in yourself or your family, or maybe you’re tackling an ambitious challenge for the sake of pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone.

You might set a goal to know yourself more deeply after a season of change or upheaval. You might need healing from an experience of emotional trauma. Or perhaps your concerns are more practical, and you’d like to set a goal around productivity or work/life balance.

Whatever focus you choose for your personal growth goals, remember to balance your effort with a healthy dose of gratitude. It’s easy to be discouraged, to get frustrated, or to wish you already had certain skills or traits when the object of the goal is yourself. But undertaking a goal out of self-loathing is never the right motivation. Instead, craft goals out of love for who you are, belief in what you’re capable of, and confidence in what you have to offer the world.

And remember: your goals and your PowerSheets® are for you and your unique life! Use these ideas as springboards toward what matters most to you: tweak them, add to them, and mix and match them to create a plan you can’t wait to get started on.

Monthly Personal Growth Action Step Ideas

• Complete a personality typing quiz (try the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®, the Enneagram, or StrengthsFinder)
• Establish new morning or evening routines
• Develop a reading plan or book list for the next few months
• Try an audiobook
• Choose a book tracker like Goodreads or the Cultivated Reading Journal
• Purge social media accounts: unfollow or mute accounts that contribute feelings of lack, envy, or bitterness
• Follow new, inspiring social media accounts
• Set limits and remove notifications on my phone
• Brainstorm screen-free activities I enjoy
• Look ahead and plan my month with intention
• Memorize a short poem or Scripture verse
• Research and interview therapists or counselors
• Serve someone else through my time or expertise
• Take a class or online course
• Meet with a mentor or mentee
• Brainstorm ideal weekly rhythms, routines, and schedules
• Take a hike
• Hang inspiring or motivating art in my home or spaces
• Do something that challenges me
• Complete a creative project
• Volunteer with an organization

Weekly Personal Growth Action Step Ideas

• Spend time in solitude and silence
• Make space for a deeper conversation with a friend
• Take a break from social media and be present
• Listen to a podcast that inspires or challenges me
• Take time for soul rest
• Spend time on a hobby
• Get outside
• Reflect on the past week
• Review the next week’s schedule and priorities
• Block my time
• Learn something new
• Celebrate a win
• Journal

Daily Personal Growth Action Ideas / Habit Ideas

• Do an accountability check-in 
• Write five things I’m grateful for
• Read
• Write in a journal
• Complete Pomodoros
• Take a walk with space and silence to reflect
• Be present
• Tuck my phone away
• Stick to phone boundaries
• Spend time outside
• Review the next day’s schedule and priorities
• Choose the next day’s top three priorities
• Express gratitude
• Meditate
• Practice mindful breathing
• Brain dump (get everything swirling in my head out on paper!)
• Do a crossword or other puzzle

We’d love to hear YOUR ideas, so please drop them in the comments!