Strategic Planning – Not Just for Business Anymore

Over the past few weeks, as I’ve wandered around desperately trying to find my way through all of the mush that was comprised of ideas and goals and priorities, I’ve had a few very big “DUH” moments, where I realized that applying what works in one aspect of life to the other aspects of life is a pretty obvious thing to do. 

One of those involves actively and purposefully communicating with the universe.  I’m sure a good 50% of you think that means I’ve lost my mind, and I’m fine with that because I’ve told the universe to punch you in the nads. 

Seriously, though, I was blessed a couple of years ago by the influence of one man who single-handedly changed the way I see the world.  He led me to The Alchemist and The Secret and Blink and we had long, epic philosophical discussions about an infinite number of things . . . and that one man made me see the whole world in an entirely different way.  This new way of thinking has changed my life for the better in more ways than I can even begin to describe.

Sitting at brunch last weekend with another brilliant philosopher, trying to sort out my professional path. . . it dawned on me that applying those same principles to my career was a complete no brainer.  I was embarrased that I hadn’t seen it sooner.  But, sometimes, we all need a little push.

The concept is simple, really.  When you want something – when you truly want something – with all your heart and soul, and when you sincerely seek to acheive that destiny, the universe responds and works to help you do just that.   But, you have to communicate that information to the universe, and you have to pay attention to what the universe says back. . . and once you are awake to that conversation, you’ll be amazed at how things seem to fall into place (this phenomenon is often coined “coincidence”).

I love it.  I love the whole bit of it.  At the same time, I’m a little too logical to believe I can just tell the universe I want to be a successful millionaire with flat abs and expect it to magically happen while I sit on my ass waiting.  I know that a great majority of the effort has to be made by ME in order for anything to happen (a lot of people miss that piece, and wind up very disappointed in how little the universe does for them).

I guess I see it as more of an 80/20 split.  You have to put in a whole hell of a lot of work up front (the 80), and when you do, if it’s the path you’re meant to be on, the universe will surprise you with little bits of help to make up the other 20.  It doesn’t seem like much, the 20, but when you’re neck deep in a project and you’re not getting any sleep at night because there’s just too much work to be done, that tiny little 20 percent feels like a miracle when it hits.

As I began reconciling all of this and applying it to my career, I realized there were equally successful tools at play in my professional life that I’d never considered transfering to my personal life.  My big “DUH” moment on this came when two different friends approached me with major life crisis and pleas for help in sorting through them.  The only way I could find to approach their personal crisis in any organized fashion was to attack it the same way I’ve attacked consulting projects with failing businesses. 

Strategic Planning.

It is so entirely unromantic.  It’s not even close to poetic.  You don’t typically use an outline to guide your path in life.  But, holy shit, it works.

I encourage you to give it a try.  I use a pretty standard strategic planning outline that looks like so:

I.  Define your mission
II.  Set Expectations  (especially important if you’re planning for a family as everyone needs to be clear on expectations)
III.  Define Goals
         A.  Daily
         B.  Weekly
         C.  Monthly
         D.  By year-end
         E.  Annually
         F.  3-5 years
         G.  12 years
         H.  Before you die
IV.  Identify strategies to meet each goal
V.    Define action items, next steps, and deadlines
VI.  Set a date(s) to review progress

See?  I told you it was completely unromantic.  But, imagine the sense of purpose provided by having all of this laid out.  Life just FEELS easier when you have a plan.  Trust me.  This is how I manage working full-time, being a single mom of 2, running various other organizations, maintaining a healthy social life, staying in shape, and remaining relatively sane all at once. 

I’ve excitedly cross-implemented both concepts in my personal and professional lives over the past several weeks, and with all of this happening at the start of a new year, I have a feeling this year is going to pretty badass.  It’s not too late for you to lay the groundwork to make yours rock, too.  1, 2, 3, GO!

2008 Gratitude

Ok, so I do these letters.  Every New Year’s, I write gratitude letters to the people who impacted my life over the course of the year.  Last year, I didn’t exactly get around to it because I had just adopted kids and life was. . . let’s say “hectic”.

This year, I made my list of people to whom letters needed to be written and I was a little overwhelmed.  It was approximately 4 times the number of people I wrote last time.  Given that I put a lot of thought into these letters and they’re not exactly short, that’s a lot of writing!

But. . . in the spirit of the whole concept – gratitude – I have to admit, it’s pretty awesome to be able to look at one year and come away with so many people to thank for having a significant impact on one’s life.

One of my favorite things about the way my mind works is that I can have some of the most amazingly shitty times of my life (hi, Fucking Douchebag & Stupid Whore!) and walk away thankful for the lessons learned and able to recognize the good that resulted from the chain of events that followed the shittiness.

My gratitude letters won’t all get out today, which kinda takes some of the impact out of it.  But, that’s OK because tomorrow, when I wake up and start the new batch of letters, it will be the first time I’ve had so many that it took two days. . . and that’s pretty freaking awesome.

Happy New Year, Internet!