Personal development in the context of "Career break"

Dating is an activity of spending time together ("going on dates") usually through planned social encounters, with the intention of getting to know each other, often with a romantic or intimate purpose. While the result of dating may at any time lead to friendship, any level of intimate relationship, marriage, or no relation, its significance extends beyond relationship status. Psychological research suggests that dating can also function as a form of personal growth, as individuals expand their understanding of themselves and others through shared experiences and emotional exchange.

Goal setting involves the development of an action plan designed in order to motivate and guide a person or group toward a goal. Goals are more deliberate than desires and momentary intentions. Therefore, setting goals means that a person has committed thought, emotion, and behavior towards attaining the goal. In doing so, the goal setter has established a desired future state which differs from their current state thus creating a mismatch which in turn spurs future actions. Goal setting can be guided by goal-setting criteria (or rules) such as SMART criteria. Goal setting is a major component of personal-development and management literature. Studies by Edwin A. Locke and his colleagues, most notably, Gary Latham have shown that more specific and ambitious goals lead to more performance improvement than easy or general goals. Difficult goals should be set ideally at the 90th percentile of performance, assuming that motivation and not ability is limiting attainment of that level of performance. As long as the person accepts the goal, has the ability to attain it, and does not have conflicting goals, there is a positive linear relationship between goal difficulty and task performance.

The theory of Locke and colleagues states that the simplest, most direct motivational explanation of why some people perform better than others is because they have different performance goals. The essence of the theory is: