Personal Strategic Planning

By: Brian Tracy
Date: 11/1/2005

Benjamin Franklin wrote, "Do you value life? Then waste not time, for that is the stuff of which life is made." The value of anything that you obtain or accomplish can be determined by how much of your time, or your life, that you spent to acquire it. Deciding what you want to do, what you can do well, and what can give you the highest rewards for your efforts is the starting point in getting the best out of yourself. In doing personal strategic planning, the first thing to think about is increasing your personal "return on energy," rather than return on equity. You need to realize that the most essential and valuable thing that you have to bring to your life, and to your work, is your ability to think, to act and to get results. Your earning ability - which is a function of your education, knowledge, experience and talents - is your human capital, or your equity. And, the way you use it will largely determine the quality and quantity of your rewards, both material and psychological, both tangible and intangible.

Values Clarification
This first part of personal strategic planning is called "values clarification." Ask yourself, "What values and virtues do I most admire and wish to practice in my life?" If you want to discover your strengths in the work world, first you would define your values as they apply to employment. Often, both companies and individuals choose values such as integrity, quality, respect for others, service, profitability, innovation, entrepreneurship, market leadership, and so on. The values you choose and the order of priority you place on your choices will determine your approach to your work and your life.

Personal Mission Statement
Your next step is to create your personal mission statement. This is a clear, written description of the person you intend to be in your work life. This is even more important than setting specific financial, business or sales goals. Once you've decided how much you want to earn, you need a mission statement that describes the kind of person you intend to become in order to earn that amount of money. With your mission statement, you will have a series of organizing principles that you can use to guide your career choices, your personal- and professionaldevelopment activities, and your work schedule for each day. This mission statement also defines areas in which you intend to become stronger in order to achieve your goals.

Remember: You must identify your strengths so that you can deploy yourself in such a way as to increase your personal return on energy. You are a "bundle of resources" that can be applied in a variety of directions to achieve a variety of objectives. As a bundle of resources, the amount of time and energy that you have is limited; therefore, your time and energy must be put to their highest and best use.

Situational Analysis
Once you have defined your values and written out your mission statement, the next step is a "situational analysis." Sometimes we call it a "performance audit." This is the process of analyzing yourself thoroughly before you begin setting specific goals and planning certain activities.

Abraham Lincoln said that the only security a person can have is the ability to do a job uncommonly well. Think about it. What are your marketable skills? What can you do for which someone else will pay you? What can you do better than others? What are your unique talents and abilities? What do you enjoy doing? Look at your current job and current abilities, and ask yourself, "Where do I want to be in three to five years if all options are open to me?"

In reality, you're the president of your own personal-services corporation. You're completely in charge of production, quality control, training and development, marketing, finance, and promotion. It's up to you to decide how to utilize your talents and abilities in such a way as to bring you the very highest return on investment of your time and energy. Others can help you, guide you and even give you opportunities, but in the final analysis, you determine your future and your fortune.

Harold Geneen, the former CEO of ITT and a powerful business executive in American history, always used to say, "Start with the goal and work back." Decide where you want to end up, and then plan back to the present day to determine what you're going to have to do to get there.

Achieve Leadership
Finally, in personal strategic planning, the aim is to achieve leadership in your chosen market niche. So, in what areas are you going to work to achieve results that are far beyond what the average person could be expected to accomplish? What can you - and only you - do that, if done well, will make an extraordinary difference in your life? What can you do now, or can you learn to do in the future, that will give you the biggest payoff for the amount of time that you invest in it?

Brian Tracy is the author of "The Psychology of Selling." Special offer: To receive your free copy of "Crunch Time!" visit www.briantracy.com and click on the Crunch Time! icon. He can be contacted at 858.481.2977.