The world in which we live today offers innumerable choices and opportunities that can easily pull us in multiple directions.
In a world where too many things are clamoring for attention, knowing exactly who and what you are called to be and do, and focusing all your potential towards becoming that person and doing the things you are meant to do, is of paramount importance if you are to be really successful in life.
Truly, success in life requires focus – the concentration and direction of all your abilities toward your life purpose; and this implies the following:
- Constantly having your eyes on the big picture
- Discriminating between what matter most and what is of less importance
- Setting goals whose achievement will bring you closer to hitting your target
- mapping your journey toward your desired future
- strategizing action steps in order to attain the intended destination
- Backcasting which starts with the desired end and then works backward to define the steps that will connect the future to the present.
- Forecasting on the other hand begins by assessing the present and by predicting what the future would be, then determines the action steps that would need to be taken in order to attain the desired future.
- Assessing your potential – all the qualities that have been bestowed upon you – in order to maximize it and increase your odds for success
- Identifying your weaknesses and finding ways to minimize their negative influences
- Considering events that are likely to occur in your life and discriminating between opportunities and threats. Opportunities need to be given priority as they should be optimized whereas threats need to be countered
- Organizing your life around your goals and living your plan
The big picture represents the end-result that you would like your life to produce, the target – the only one target – that your life should be directed to so as to hit it “before the bell rings”. It is a mental representation of yourself living the realities that you are to bring forth in this world, the framework around and in which you have to organize your life. The big picture is the image of your life compelling major goal – your life purpose, your dream – which creates the needed drive to go after it.
Keeping the big picture in mind will help you avoid distractions, remain focused on your target and, hit it with precision like Tiger Wood would apply the most delicate and precise touch to sink a long putt while surrounded by thousands of staring eyes.
Focus is not possible without clarity of vision.
Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz are very clear on this: Managing energy, not time, is the key to high performance. In their book, The Power of Full Engagement, they describe four key energy management principles; the first one being, “Full engagement requires drawing on four separate but related sources of energy: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.“
The most powerful of these sources of energy is spiritual. If the quantity of energy we have to spend at any given moment is a reflection of our physical capacity, the authors argue, our motivation to spend what we have is largely related to our capacity to connect to a deeply held set of values and to a purpose beyond our self interest. “Spiritual energy is a unique force for action in all dimensions of our lives.”
This is the reason why values and purpose, which go hand in hand, should be placed at the core of the strategic foundation upon which you need to build your life. They determine what is important to you and give you guidance in your everyday choices. You must build on what you value to create the kind of life you want to live.
Your potential is undoubtedly tremendous but it needs to be directed toward what matters most to you and to be released in a manner that is congruent with your values.
Staying connected to your values and getting in touch with what is important to you, what gives meaning to your life, is the most powerful way of availing your potential for its effective and efficient release.
Your major goal in life is to fulfill your life purpose, to carry out your mission on earth which is a lifelong process that you need to fully engage to if you are to be really successful.
Success is a journey as would say John Maxwell – a journey that will take you from where you are right now to the destination that you have to reach at the end of your days on this planet. You won’t get there overnight.
Therefore you need a plan, a blueprint that defines all the steps which will get you there. This requires to break down your major goal in to smaller goals and to determine as much as possible all the means that will make achieve them effectively and efficiently.
To come up with such a plan, Brian Tracy, in his book, Focal Point: A Proven System to Simplify Your Life, Double Your Productivity, and Achieve all Your Goal, suggests “Personal Strategic Planning” – the process of plotting or mapping your direction to your envisioned desired future by translating your vision into defined goals or objectives and by determining a sequence of steps to achieve them.
Personal strategic planning consists in:
Let’s drill down this concept and see what it is about.
Mapping your journey (setting goals)
This is the step of strategic planning which is about determining all the steps which, when reached, will get you closer to your desired destination. Two approaches might be used to determine these steps:
The aim of mapping your journey is to come up with goals that are smaller than your life major goal by answering the question “what must be done for me to get there?” in a way that the achievement of the first one forces you to deal with the following one, each goal representing a step ahead toward the desired end
Whichever approach you choose to map your journey, the result should be a sequence of actions to be translated into goals.
Strategizing action steps for achieving your goals
This stage of personal strategic planning tries to answer the question “how am going to achieve these goals (to reach these steps)?”
The aim here is to devise strategies that will help you reach the different steps leading to the destination that you’re yearning for by:
You are undoubtedly surrounded by a lot of things that are potentially distracting, things that can easily take you off the course of your journey toward fulfilling your purpose on earth; and the fact that life is too short and unpredictable does not make things any easier.
This is why you have to commit yourself to your life purpose and to flexibly stick your plan. Bishop T.D. Jakes would advise you to maximize each and every moment of your life and not to let anyone or anything deter you from your purpose.
Focus on the things that are most important to you.
About Olivier BETU K.