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"Your Personal
Strategic Plan"
Here is a brief synopsis of the following article
(636 words):
“Your Personal Strategic Plan” - by Gary Lockwood. The
world has become a complicated place in which to live. A personal strategic plan
can help you get clarity and focus on your own preferred future. This article
shows you how to create your Personal Strategic Plan.
“Your Personal
Strategic Plan”
Corporations do it. Entrepreneurs
do it (well, some of them). Many successful businesses develop a strategic plan
to help them get clarity and focus.
For years, I've been helping businesses develop their strategic plan. A few
years ago, it occurred to me that you could have a personal strategic plan that
would help you individually get clarity and focus on your own preferred future.
The world has become a complicated place in which to live. The past few decades
have seen enormous, accelerating changes in:
* technology and social
structure,
* geopolitics,
* the organizations in which we
work.
We are faced with all the uncertainties and fears that come with not knowing
what’s going to happen next; but knowing that, whatever it is, it will come
very quickly and without warning.
In the midst of all this, we all have our hopes, our dreams, our aspirations;
the things we want to do and the places we want to go. This is why it’s so
important to make wise decisions about how we invest our time and energy. Why do
you feel that there’s more to do than you can possibly do? Because there is
more to do than you can possibly do. You must make choices. Often difficult
choices.
It is imperative that we are doing the right things, every bit as much as doing
things right. You’ve heard of the 80/20 rule -- 20 percent of all activities
will produce 80 percent of the meaningful results. What’s your 20 percent?
What are the handful of activities that will produce the results that you want,
that will make a difference, that will take you in the direction you wish to go?
This is what strategic visioning is all about. The purpose of this strategy is
to identify those aspects of your business and personal life that require
special attention. After all, you can’t do everything, so let’s get focused
on those things where it is critical to produce results.
Set aside a couple of hours this month to contemplate your own Preferred Future
for the next 3 years. Don't get hung up on the small stuff. Look beyond today
and this week and this month.
Picture yourself thirty-six months from now reflecting on your significant
accomplishments of the period. What will have had to happen to make you happy
with your progress? This helps us to answer the question we must ask ourselves
each day -- why am I doing this, is it taking me where I want to go with my life
and is it helping me to become the person I want to be.
When you are establishing your personal strategic plan, it is very important
that you write it down. I know, you may not want to put this in writing, but
there are two compelling reasons to do it:
1. The very act of putting your vision of your preferred future
in writing
helps to clarify your thinking. Instead of floating around in your head, writing
the personal strategic plan helps you to articulate it better and helps you to
be more coherent.
2. Written vision statements help trigger the Reticular
Activating System (RAS). Your brain has an automatic filter (the RAS) that
screens out most of the sensory overload that is imposed on us every waking
minute of every day. The RAS allows sights, sounds, ideas, etc. to come through
to your conscious brain if the RAS determines they are relevant. Relevant to
what? Relevant to your currently dominate and clear thoughts. By writing your
vision, you help your RAS to pass through to your brain important ideas, people,
and other input.
For this breakthrough strategy, identify the six or seven aspects of your
personal life that are seriously important to you. Generally, we see categories
such as:
family
spiritual journey
health
social involvement
intellectual growth
financial health
In each of these areas, develop a
crystal clear vision of where you are going with this. What’s possible. What
does it look like when you’re living up to your best expectations in each of
these areas? Describe as best you can what it looks like and what it feels like
when you have reached the point in each of your key result areas where you are
happy with each. Write in the present tense, as if it is already in place. This
represents a picture of your future as you prefer it to be.
If you can articulate a clear vision of your preferred future, focusing on those
areas that are important to you, that vision becomes the picture on the lid of
your life's jigsaw puzzle. That clear vision allows you to set goals in the
direction of your preferred future. That vision provides motivation, energy,
purpose and direction. It certainly helps you to communicate with the people
around you.
Many people continuously work on personal tasks that are leading nowhere. I
believe Thoreau could have been referring to those people when he wrote:
“the mass of men lead lives of
quiet desperation”.
Many others have made financial objectives their sole concern and have paid a
heavy price for their success - poor health, failed marriages, neglected
friendships, no personal development in any area except business.
Financial success, no matter how great, can never compensate for poor quality of
life. In the scheme of things, a properly functioning business is supposed to be
the servant of a full and satisfying life that includes good health, close and
loving relationships, an exciting spiritual journey, recreation, culture, and a
powerful contribution to the community.
If you’re puzzled about how to thrive in the face of relentless, accelerating
change, remember this breakthrough strategy. Develop a clear vision of your
preferred future, then get laser focused on the key activities that will take
you in that direction. You will see performance gains, you will achieve your
goals faster and easier, you will have a happier, more satisfying life.
By developing and pursuing your own personal strategic plan, you will increase
your energy, motivation, and your sense of satisfaction. In other words, your
happiness. It’s your choice to make. Most people are as happy as they choose
to be.
Get busy developing that for yourself... Get a Life!!
© 1997 - 2005 BizSuccess All rights
reserved. No duplication
About the Author...(for online pubs)
Gary Lockwood is Increasing the Effectiveness and Enhancing the
Lives of CEOs, business owners and professionals. (951) 739-7444
Email: mailto:Gary@BizSuccess.com Web: http://www.BizSuccess.com
About the Author...(for print pubs)
Gary Lockwood is Your Business Coach. Contact Gary for a FREE report
on "Getting Breakthroughs in your business".
(951) 739-7444 * Fax: (509) 695-1017
Email: Gary@BizSuccess.com * Web: www.BizSuccess.com
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