As a great mentor of mine used to say, "Think with me for a moment." What is going to make the biggest difference in your business in 2009?  Have you considered a plan for your personal development in addition to your plan for your business?  I am not the first to say that the level that your business performs depends very heavily on your personal level of leadership. John Maxwell calls this principle, "The Law of the Lid." There is a lid to your business performance based on the level of your leadership. In reflecting back to 2008, how many times did you invest (that is in actual time and money) in your own personal development?  Unless you improved on the type of beliefs you hold and skills you developed, you probably did not see much change in your business in 2008. So, what are some ideas for your development in 2009?

Your Roles And Identity
In 2008, I played several roles in my life such as business owner, entrepreneur, investor, husband, father, friend, and volunteer. When we think about the roles we play in life, we connect with our core identity. Our identity shapes our lives in so many ways. In the new year, think about the roles you have and what identity you want to have in those roles.  Despite the world's perception, you have control over this identity. 

Simply write out your roles with the statement "I am...", such as "I am an assertive global business executive."  Include an adjective or description that provides you an identity that you aspire to have. Once you have written these statements out, repeat them to yourself each morning and evening with the belief and feeling that you will become that identity. Over time, your brain will be prepared and guide you toward this realization.

Your Ideal Self
Are you the type of person that views yourself from your past, present or future?  As an exercise, monitor your thoughts about yourself for a week and learn if they are past, present, or future and if they are positive or negative. As we age, we tend to allow our past to define who we are in the future. A teacher may have told us in the past that we were not good with numbers; we believed this into adulthood and this potentially has a lasting impact. Once you have monitored your thoughts, I will guarantee that you will be surprised at what your mind tries to tell you.

Your mind's power to do this is easy unless you have countered your thoughts with some of your own positive thoughts. Create for yourself a positive ideal self concept. Take a realistic analysis of where your current self concept is today and understand what gaps may exist with your future self.  If you think about it, your current self is just an accumulation of the thoughts you had in the past, so why not start on a new ideal self to bring the future to the present.

Your Activity Knowledge
There is a difference between activity knowledge and mind knowledge.  Activity knowledge is the knowledge that follows an experience where a type of knowledge has been put to action. Typically, human nature enjoys a feeling of predictability and security which does not encourage the development of activity knowledge.  We may refer to this feeling as "living in our comfort zone." Activity knowledge requires us to move out of our comfort zones and into new experiences.

Athletes are a very visible example of people with high activity knowledge. Have you seen the commercial when Tiger Woods taps a golf ball on his golf club and hits it out of thin air?  He has grown very comfortable with a golf club in his hand. Activity knowledge grows with repetition such as hitting a thousand golf balls a day. What 10 things can you think of that will provide you with better activity knowledge in the new year? Write them down and practice them over and over again until they become second nature.

Your Relationships
Someone wise once told me that your success in life will be determined by the books you read and the people you associate with. If you took a tally of the people you spend the most time with, where would you rate them on a scale of negative versus positive?  Hopefully most of your associations are positive because there is plenty of negative media that vies for your attention.

Do the people you associate with professionally challenge your thinking? Another paradigm shift I had in my thinking came a couple of years ago when a mentor of mine told me to change my language from "spending time with people" to "investing time with people".  What would you do this year if you were to invest in five key relationships?  In my eyes, investing time is a lot more exciting than spending time and requires a lot more thought and energy with a payoff that is much more rewarding. 

If you incorporate all four of the above areas into a personal development plan for the year, you will be well on your way to a fantastic 2009.  Over the course of history, leaders gained respect through their ability to influence through their charisma, relationships, knowledge, or accomplishments.  You probably have an idea where your strength lies in one of these four areas to develop it further.  I hope that your personal development this year will take you to new heights of success.