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Every carpenter know you cut once but measure twice. There are some actions you just can’t undo, not to mention your time is limited. We can spend months or years doing things that don’t really matter or worse yet working towards destinations that are counter to where we actually want to go. You may decide you want to write a book to help others understand what you have learned. Or that you’d like to start a small business. That’s a great ambition, but you aren’t going to get there if you don’t consistently work towards it. Instead of working towards these ambitions you spend evenings on the couch watching TV or hours surfing the web, dreaming about what you’d like to do instead of working towards it. Momentum of getting started is half the battle. The rest of the battle is consistency of execution. Plans help you define and create obtainable goals along the way and provide a process or routine to ensure higher performance Without planning you may be stuck on starting. Planning is the effort that ensures you are using your time and energy working on what matters to you.
“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” – Yogi Berra
Vision (purpose, passion) > Objectives (aspirational goals) > Goals (near-term achievements) > Actions (day-to-day activity)
Part of discipline is to have both purpose and routines to carry them out. The link between your purpose, your passion and what you do day to day is your game plan to carry it out. When we talk about purpose, we mean what is it that matters to you. What is your why, where do you want to make an impact. Once you have figured that out, now you need to figure out how you execute against it and how you incorporate it into your daily life when you have so much else to do. Planning provides the thought and structure to make sure you are working on things that matter.
“Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.” – Pablo Picasso
Your plan can be thought of in a few components. The first is your big aspirational objective. This is an ambitious goal that should scare you a little like completing an Iron Man or becoming a published author. It’s not something you can step out and do tomorrow or a month from now but something you have have been dreaming of doing. It’s that bucket list item you know will take a few years to work towards and do. Some call these Big Hairy Audacious Goals. For those that don’t love the acronym, we’ll call these Objectives.
The next component of a plan are your tactical goals. These are near-term items that you can do that works toward your objective. Say you want to run a marathon and you are just getting started running. A near term goal to get you there could be running a 5k. With consistent training that’s something you could accomplish in 3-4 months. Tactical goals provide a great stepping stone that get you towards your long-term objective. These goals are also measurable achievements in their own right.
The final component of a plan is defining your day-to-day and week-to-week actions you will take to work towards your goals. It’s the routine and structure that provides the consistency to keep working towards what matters most to you.
We’ll assume you have defined your vision, that you know who you want to be and the impact you want to make. From that vision, you start defining your aspirational objectives. These are big things you don't do in small chunks. They should be ambitious. You also shouldn’t have a bunch of these. Limit to 2-3 maximum. If you try to do everything, then you accomplish nothing. These objectives should be so important that the other things you have thought about doing some day will seem secondary or even frivolous.
Here are a few activities to help you identify and prioritize your objectives.
Now that you have at least one ambitious objective you would like to work towards, break into bite size goals. Think of these as something you can see a clear path towards. It helps when defining these goals to think of it in a time horizon of 3 to 4 months. This is a time frame that does’t seem daunting but also could provide meaningful progress towards your ambitions.
In the example we had earlier of running a marathon, completing a 5k could be that near-term goal. If one of your objectives is to start a business, you near-term goal could be creating a business plan. If your dream is to be a published author, a near-term goal could be finishing a short-story or competing the outline for your novel or enrolling in a writing course.
To make sure you are creating goals that do work towards your aspirations, think about what would happen after this goal is achieved. You will likely not have a clear picture as what’s next but at least a high-level understanding is helpful in knowing you are creating a plan that will lead to the outcomes you want. In the running example, after a 5k you may consider a 10k and half-marathon as a goal. However, until you run the 5k, you may not know a realistic timeframe or game plan for the half-marathon, but you do know the 5k will lead towards the next milestone and once you’ve completed it, you will have enough information to clearly map out the next goal with more precision.
The action plan is both the day-to-day activities you will need to do to accomplish your goal as well as the defined cadence and routine that provides structure to keep you on track. When we think of the cadence to keep you going, consider what you should do everyday and every week. Everyday will be the routine that eventually builds the muscle or foundation. Every week is an opportunity to revisit progress and adjust your day-to-day.
For your action plan, further break down your goals into actions that can be accomplished in the next week or two weeks. Think of these as baby steps. Ask yourself: What can you do everyday that leads to a strong foundation? And what can you accomplish in the next week or two weeks you want to focus on?
Let’s look at the running example again. Your action plan should consist of defining your daily and weekly routine and set milestones along the way that could be measured and revisited weekly.
The glory of having an action plan and focusing most your time and attention on what you can do right now, is that you don’t get overwhelmed or paralyzed by the big, scary, ambitious objectives you’ve set out for yourself. But it does work you towards it. It’s the consistent routine that keeps building up your foundation to get you there. It’s your baby steps to crawl, walk, run, and then fly. Rome wasn’t built in a day, people don’t gain or lose a hundred pounds over night, and businesses aren’t successes overnight. It’s the day-to-day consistency that gets you there. And planning is the way to make sure your daily routines are aligned with your long-term ambitions.
“Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” – Warren Buffett
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