In a previous blog, I was talking about all the journaling books I use, and my newest addition happens to be something called a "Thinking Book". I first learned about it in a YouTube video that I'll link here. 

       I had heard the term "Personal Curriculum" awhile back from a group that I follow on Facebook. I liken the term to a curriculum a teacher would set up for their class. I don't think there has to be a particular length or depth - I think it can be whatever you want or need it to be, but I thought, "What an interesting idea". It's similar to creating your own course, except it's for yourself - your own personal development course. 

       I've been thinking about it for awhile now and just the other day, I wrote down some ideas in my thinking book. I haven't yet had time to research online about it. (I don't think of it as taking ideas from others, as much as seeing what other possibilities are out there). It's the same as getting any idea really - what do people do for personal development? Just read a lot of self-help books? 

      To explore this idea further, here's the definition of personal development:

              " a lifelong process of assessing your skills , setting goals, and developing habits to maximize your potential". 

Goal: to improve quality of life, boost self-confidence and help you live authentically". 

         Weirdly enough, I don't think this definition applies to my project that I want to work on. I think this definition is something that I have always worked on - creating goals for myself rather than just flying by the seat of my pants, and trying to develop habits that improve my own care, happiness and self-fulfillment. That in itself is a life-long, on-going process. 

       Another search revealed that personal development refers to mental, emotional, physical, social and spiritual growth. Still a vague definition or example, but the growth aspect in this example is what I'm after. 

Mental: expanding knowledge, increasing critical thinking and problem solving skills

Emotional: regulate feelings and becoming more self aware through journaling (I already do tons of that!) 

Physical: healthy eating, exercise, sleep

Social: communicate, building healthy relationships 

Spiritual: finding purpose and alignment though meditation, prayer, or spending time in nature. 

      I found additional material that covers many of the same topics as above, but also include time management and resilience. I think those are both skills that can be worked on, but resilience is more like tackling life challenges. Like if something challenges you, resilience would be how you react to the challenge - how fast you overcome it and figure out solutions. 

       Now I would like to brainstorm some personal development/ self-care ideas:

• reading (non-fiction or spiritual - something that isn't straight fiction).
• learning a new language
• brain dumping
• brain mapping
• brainstorming with random word association
• mindfulness routines
• breathing exercises
• journaling - night time routine/habit 
• limiting screen time
• getting a good sleep
  
• walking/exercise
• artist date (i.e. painting, drawing, some kind of artistic creation)
• water colour
• guash painting
• singing/singing practice
• meditation
• spiritual practices
• commonplace book writing
• meditating/ listen to birds
• doodle-a-day
• hand lettering practice
• relaxing bath
• reading in sun 
• colouring

       These are just a bunch of ideas I compiled, and I don't know which ones will make it to my personal curriculum. But I think it's always good to brainstorm a bunch, and then narrow down to what I really want my focus to be. Do you have any ideas that aren't on this list? 

       So similar to how I set up my Janes Agenda Masterplan 365 "course" and similar to how I designed my "The Artist's Way " Course, I would like to do the same thing for this project. 

       In those previous projects, the books I read, I broke up into pages per day depending on the time line I had to read them. The MasterPlan 265 course was easy because we had one book every month. I believe The Artist's Way was a 12 week course (set up that way automatically), and the chapters were short - you only read one chapter per week. But you also had to do morning pages every day which for me was a hard task at the beginning. (Yes, it's something I still do every single day!) You were also required to do an "Artist Date" which is letting yourself have non-negotiable time to create something. I wasn't very good at that one, and I want to try to rectify it over this summer. 

      My Goals going Forward: 

1. I need to pick a timeline. Is this just for the summer, or will I try to continue a modified version into the start of the fall/school season? 
2. I need to determine the tasks I want to include in my personal curriculum from the list above
3. I need to determine the frequency that I will compete said tasks. (I.e. morning pages are daily, artist date weekly, nightly journaling every night before bed)
4. If I pick reading, how many books can I realistically read in the period I chose? 
5. I need to break up the pages of reading per day to accomplish #4. 
6. I would like a solid time line and solid framework of the task(s) I would be completing. That might look like a page of notes in my planner or a typed page that I follow daily of the tasks I need/want to do. Will my artist dates be structured, or will I have some room to decide what I feel like doing at that moment? 
7. How many tasks are a must, or I can do if I want to. (Yes, Im aware that this is all created by me and I don't have to do anything, but the whole point is to feel like I have to so I actually do it!) 
8. Actually pick the book titles and buy them ahead of time or as I go? 
9. Buy the artists tools I need to complete my projects
10. Make a projects list so I can be sporadic and open with what I want to create. 

          Well, there we go - I brainstormed my way through the project with you and now I have a solid plan of where to start on my personal curriculum/personal development plan for the summer (and/or) going forward. 

       Thanks for reading and if you have any other ideas for me, please feel free to leave comments! I would love to hear from you! 

Sandra ❤️