The Beginning of the new year is often the time that people set up personal goals. But how many of us use this time to think about our own professional development? I for one is guilty as charged. It seems that I spend so much of my own time preparing for trainings and managing a training department that I spend little time in venturing out to read new developments in the field and attend conferences as I had in the past. Although time-consuming, taking the time to learn and network with other training and development professionals, allows us to grow and stretch our ways of thinking. I decided this year, I will set the goal of reading 52 professionals books for the year which breaks down to reading a book a week and 40 pages a day. I . The areas that I have chosen include instructional design, training and performance, social research, inspirational, management and leadership. Some of the books on my list will be included in this year’s book of the month.

My second goal for the year is to apply for the Certified Performance Technologist Certification (CPT) through the International Society for Performance Improvement. There, I said It! so I really have to make the commitment!

There are a number of different ways to improve, develop and grow in our industry including, attending conferences, seminars, joining professional organizations, reading professional books, journals or articles, etc. So what are you plans for 2015?

To help get you started, I created a professional goal worksheet which you can download goal planning worksheet

What goals will you be working on this year? I love to hear from you.