Question-Week ending Sunday 06/01/03:
Regardless of your current age, take a moment "if you can" to reflect back when you were between the ages of 20 to 29 years old. How well would you say you took advantage of the Personal Development Opportunities (PDO's) that were within your reach during those years? Please read our Poll Commentary before taking this poll.
Pre-Poll Commentary:
Progressing through life, we will now look back at some of the Personal Development Opportunities during this next decade of our lives.
If in fact these opportunities were available to you when you were 20 to 29 years old, how well did you take advantage of them? Keep in mind this is only a sampling. If you engaged in other similar activities, use them in place of this list when voting.
- Educational Opportunities
- Did you complete your studies or earn the degrees you set goals for earlier?
- Associate Degree?
- Bachelor's Degree?
- Graduate Degree?
- Completed Technical or other Studies Program?
- Did you take advantage of what you learned in your formal studies in your career?
- Did you continue attending classes, courses or seminars after your formal studies?
Career Opportunities
- Did you focus on the fundamentals of finding the best job possible?
- Did you research thoroughly, the companies or organizations you applied to for a job?
- Did you methodically prepare for your interviews?
- Did you look and act your very best on interviews?
- Did you follow up immediately to all requests?
- Did you get the jobs you really wanted?
- One you landed your jobs, did you do your very best to move ahead in the company or organization?
- Did you have a positive attitude when you went to work each day?
- Did you work toward being an extremely valuable asset to the company or organization?
- Did you progress as planned and hit your goals?
- Did you move up or move on, always capitalizing on your prior knowledge or experiences?
Financial Opportunities
- Did you establish excellent credit by paying your obligations promptly?
- Did you learn how to manage and budget your money during these years?
- Did you start saving a portion of your income as soon as possible?
- Did you invest time learning about investments?
- Did you set goals as soon as possible to own rather than rent your dwelling?
- Personal Relationship Opportunities
- Did you work at having a good relationship with your parents?
- Did you seek out friends who were intelligent and responsible
- Did you seek a long lasting loving relationship?
- Did you network, learn and grow with other people in your trade and profession?
Health and Well Being
- Did you take your health habits seriously?
- Eat nutritious food?
- Avoid alcohol or drink very moderately?
- Exercise?
- Get medical and dental checkups?
This list can be extended indefinitely. The years between 20 and 29 are very formative years in anyone's adult life. Like all stages in life, individuals make good decisions, bad decisions or no decisions toward opportunities they have. How did you fare during these years?
Let us know in this week's poll, how well you took advantage of those Personal Development Opportunities (PDO's) presented to you when you were between the ages of 20 to 29 years old.
This poll will end on Sunday 06/01/03, when the results will be displayed.
Our polls and commentaries are enjoyed by hundreds of individuals weekly, with previous polls featured in the top ten of search engines like Google and Yahoo.
Results:
- 32% voted taking advantage of 20-29 PDO's Good=85%
- 25% voted taking advantage of 20-29 PDO's Very Good=90%
- 20% voted taking advantage of 20-29 PDO's Excellent=95%
- 17% voted taking advantage of 20-29 PDO's Fair=75%
- 06% voted taking advantage of 20-29 PDO's Poor=65%
Post-Poll Commentary:
This past week, 20% of our respondents believed they took Excellent advantage of PDO's when they were 21 to 29 years old. This is up substantially from previous weeks and earlier age levels, when we found only 9% who felt they took Excellent advantage of PDO's when they were 7 to 12 years old. When polled about the 13 to 19 age levels the following week, only 4% felt they took Excellent advantage of PDO's. Thus, we have found a marked improvement this week.
Keeping in mind that many of our respondents were 21 to 29 during the 1960's and 1970's and 1980's, this is not really a surprise. Times have sure changed a great deal for individuals in the 21 to 29 age group today.
I believe it is much more difficult for this age group today. Earlier this year I had a chapter published in a very inspiring e-book, involving 15 high powered authors. One section of my chapter included a brief essay about the age group we are discussing this week. I have not made this essay available to the public prior to this poll, but I believe you may enjoy reading it as part of this poll summary.
If you just joined this poll section on Personal Development Opportunities, please take the time to read the previous three polls to enjoy the full value of this series. You can find the links at the bottom of this page.
This series is for people who are serious about improving their lives by learning from their past experiences. If you are rushed and cannot see the immediate gratification from delving into these issues, you will pass by another Personal Development Opportunity today, to learn from these polls.
I have experienced my greatest successes and personal achievements in life by being an astute learner, experienced planner and action driven individual who carries out the plans I set. I hope to inspire some of my viewers, via this website to new levels of achievement, satisfaction and happiness.