Revisiting your purpose through strategic planning

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 Often times we have goals for our lives, but lack an efficient plan of attack to accomplish them. Being successful takes a three-fold part in life: (1) establishing goals, (2) have a strategic plan and (3) executing your plan. In this post, I am going to address strategic planning.

McNamara (2012) defines strategic planning in four components:  (1) corporate vision, (2) mission, (3) values and (4) strategy. Simply, strategic planning is “determining where an organization [person] is going over the next year or more and how it’s going to get there (McNamara, 2012).”

With regards to corporate [personal] vision, there needs to be a concise, large and detailed vision. One person usually develops a corporate vision. For personal development, it may be important to include spouses and individuals who have direction relationships in these goals. Next, consult or develop your mission for your goals. Daft (2008) describes a mission as the steps of the vision or preliminary strategic plan. Furthermore, the values of the organization [person] must be defined. Anyone can make million dollars illegally through selling drugs, but if one does not value illegal drugs, obtaining a million dollars in this fashion is void. Finally, strategies need to be discussed and set. There are multiple avenues to achieving goals, but there are a few methods that can provide the most impact.

Essentially, do not let your purpose fall to the waist side due to poor planning. Having a plan is great, but having a poor one is worthless. Employ strategically planning - (1) vision, (2) mission and (3) values and (4) strategies – in every aspect of your life: 

Daft, R. L. (2008). The leadership experience (4th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western.

McNamara, Carter (2012). Basic Strategic Planning. MN: Free Management Library.

~ Ronnie O'Brien Rice

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