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Building a Strategic Plan for Your Life and Business

DISCOVER THE SECRET OF THE GREATSBy John M. Hawkins

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2012 John M. Hawkins
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4697-4624-1

Contents

Preface..........................................ixIntroduction.....................................xiiiSuccess All Around You...........................1Strategic Plans..................................11Self-Assessment..................................30Building Your Life Plan..........................41Creating the Plan................................62Strategic Plan by Example........................84Vision...........................................100Goal.............................................118Strategies.......................................124Objectives.......................................135Initiatives......................................142Road Maps........................................146Projects.........................................150Building Your Strategic Plan.....................153Living the Strategic Plan........................161Practice the Strategic Plan......................172Conclusion.......................................185Works Cited......................................193

Chapter One

Success All Around You

ACHIEVING YOUR GOALS CAN be as simple as being lucky and being in the right place at the right time. Sounds easy to do, right? Get born into the right family, have parents who work hard to get you a job as a child actor, have grandparents who worked hard and built a multimillion dollar company. It sounds like a simple way to realize your vision and goals, right? Well, that may work for a small portion of the population, but what about the rest of us, who are not able to be reborn into the right family? To reach your goals, you have to be smarter and make the right strategic decisions in life.

We all have visions of who we want to be and how we want our life to play out. At a young age, we are bold and feel that we can do anything we set our minds to. Turn on a TV or drive down the right streets, and you can see success. You see the big houses in the neighborhood and the nice cars; you hear stories about how celebrities and others have unlimited access to resources. Many of these superstars started life as humbly as you did. For reasons known only to them, they found a way to become successful. If you sat down with them and asked them how they did it I am sure they would not say it was handed to them or that they inherited their lot in life, right?

Many of us live our lives reacting to life and all the hurdles and obstacles that come our way. You become so good at dodging the little challenges in life and are careful not to make too many waves when things are going well. When you take the approach of only reacting to life's hurdles, this isn't necessarily going to help you achieve your vision. By reacting to life, you are not in control of the vision; you are not defining the vision and defining your strategic plan. You are letting your environment, your peers, and the challenges that life throws at you set your vision. By doing this, your chances of achieving the vision you set for yourself dwindle significantly.

At one point in your life, you, like many people, had an idea or plan of what you wanted to do, and maybe some unforeseen event came up and messed up all your plans. Think about what you do for a living. Is the vision you had in college or as a young person the same vision you have today? You planned on going to grad school but just couldn't afford it; you wanted to become an MD but didn't get into medical school. So you settled for something else. Now evaluate where you are today and fast forward your life ten years.

• Would you be satisfied with your life as it is today?

• Are you making the money that you need to meet your vision and goals?

You might have accomplished a number of goals but still feel the sense of emptiness, that there is more you can do. Even when you accomplish goals, the odds are that soon after the accomplishment you will feel unsatisfied. This goes back to your childhood. Think back to your dreams as a young person; you might have envisioned a romantic and idyllic life. You had plans of doing great and wonderful things that seem out of reach to you now. The news flash is that they are still in reach if you want them. You can still accomplish what you want; you have just become overwhelmed by the harsh realities of life that have hacked your thinking. When you were young, you thought that life should be enjoyed, and you dreamed of early retirement and a life of success and perhaps fame.

So what changed? Did you forget about the road you wanted to take? Were the challenges of life too difficult? Or did you just not know the right steps to take during your journey? The reason you are not accomplishing your vision is because you are on a strategic plan that is not in alignment with the vision you want. You are on an ad hoc strategic plan that may or may not get you to where you want to go.

Consider the vision you had as a child versus what you have become.

• Is what you are today in alignment with the childhood vision?

• Are you getting what you want out of life?

• If you are not, then what is different? Did you have a happier outcome in mind?

• Did you have a vision with more money or more fame or picture yourself as a better person?

• What did you envision versus what you are getting out of life?

You most likely had the happier scenario. You were full of hope and optimism. As a child, there was no limit to what you could accomplish. In school you had a choice, which could have limited your success. You were told in school that you could achieve anything you wanted. And if you did not do well in school, you sealed your fate to earn less money, live a less happy life, and limit your potential. What the education factory did not take into account was that education is not the only strategic plan you can follow. There are other strategic plans that can get you to your goals. Those around you may set the ceiling and helped to limit your thinking, but you don't have to let that stand in your way. Your fate is not sealed; you still have the same opportunities to make the right decision, which you didn't the first time. At the time, you could not know any better; at that age you were not a strategic thinker—and all the greats are strategic thinkers.

You were not a strategic thinker because at that age you did not know how to think strategically. You got your information from your parents and from friends, teachers, and others in your circle of influence. The problem with listening to those around you is that if they are not strategic thinkers, then you are not learning how to think strategically. You are making the decisions not based on your vision but on the vision of others, which differs from yours. Always consider the source and filter the information that is being given to you. There could be an ulterior motive behind the information you are getting. A parent or friend could influence your decision to study abroad because they want to be close to you, but studying abroad was something that was in alignment with your vision.

Life Stages

The person you are today is not the same person you will be in six months, twelve months, or ten years. The biggest difference is your age, but there are many other differences. The state you are in today is...