We Have to Plan to Be Successful

Alexander Graham Bell said that “Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.” & Benjamin Franklin shared “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail”. These quotes both share that a plan has to be in place in order to be successful. Success doesn’t just happen by chance but instead by intentional thought, energy, and action. This is true in all aspects of our lives, but especially professionally.

Have any of you ever had something successful or good happen for you that just happened accidentally? Most of the time it doesn’t because you made intentional choices or connections that got you there.

Strategic thinking and/or planning (even in an informal sense) is something really important to me. Strategic happens to be my number one strength for the Clifton Strengthsfinder so creating a plan and thinking of lots of different scenarios comes naturally to me. Now I know this may not be the topic that everyone nerds out about but I want to bring some hope to those of you who may not think you are naturally strategic. Start small and start practicing planning. This time of year is a ripe and ready time to start planning, goal setting, and thinking about what we want since we are in the first month of a new year. If you don’t have a destination that you're shooting for, how will you know if you get there? It is better to plan high and fall short because you will still be much further along then if you never shot for anything.

Questions to ponder:

• What would be meaningful for me and make me feel accomplished? (think across the different areas of your life)

• How can I break down what I want into bite-sized and more attainable steps? (think week, month, quarter, and year)

• How will I know if I am successful?

• What will that success do for me?

• What support may I need along the way to keep my priorities, energy, intentions, and actions aligned with where I need to go?

• During this season are there any choices or habits that need to change?

These 6 questions are a good place to start asking questions and breaking down each piece of your life that you want to plan for. If you feel that you need support in planning, strategizing, or even evaluating current strategy grab one of these two offers. The 45 minute session for $100 is a quick high level audit on what you are doing and the 60 minute $175 session is more in depth, you get a questionnaire that helps me with some high level questions, you get the notes from our session, and a high level takeaway plan, plus some recommendations of potential connections or supports I can be. Grab one today!

Its also my birthday tomorrow so happy birthday to me!! What are your favorite birthday celebrations?

As a reminder we have our grants masterclass coming up in February if anyone would like to get registered for that!