Defining Your Dream

If you’re anything like me, you’ve spent enough time on this earth to know that working for someone else’s bottom line is a lot easier than taking the risk of being an entrepreneur and living your true passion.  The comfort of healthcare and bi-weekly paychecks is too difficult for most people to give up in order to pursue their dreams.  But what if you knew you couldn’t fail? Would you still be sitting behind that desk? I asked myself the same question several years ago and was blown away by the outcome.

The Importance of Vision

I started to create a vision of my success and began pursuing my career as a speaker. First by owning the title of being a speaker and then determining what steps I would need to take in order to get there.  It was then when I realized that my ability to influence others could have incredible potential.  I started to envision what this dream would look like and how I would achieve my goal.

“Vision is the art of seeing the invisible”

                                                           –  Jonathan Swift

As I studied the model of successful people and organizations,  I realized that many of the them operated by standards of behavior. They often had a mission and a vision of where they wanted to go, as well as a set of beliefs and values.  Some of these values included honesty, integrity and self-discipline. They are the guiding principles of what is important in life and should be included in your plan.

Goals & Strategies

It’s important to think about your mission statement when setting goals and strategies. Strategies are set in place to keep you accountable for your goal statements.  They are action driven and should be clear and concise.  You will want to think six to twelve months in terms of timeframe for completing strategies.  Keep track of your achievements and reward yourself as you reach milestones.

Establishing Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely goals will allow you to be clear in the visioning process. When creating your personal plan you will want to consider using statements to support each goal, defining exactly what it is you want to achieve.  Consider the timeframe of your goals and its relevancy to your plan.  Keeping your goals measurable will allow you to track your progress and keep you focused on the mission.

Performance Metrics and Accountability

Tracking progress with performance metrics will keep you accountable for your actions and is an important aspect of follow through on your strategies. Without performance metrics we have no way of gauging our success.  Understanding this… Its best to set strategies to be achieved within the timeframe of your plan whether it be a one year, three-year or five-year plan.  Your strategies should be measurable and performance driven in order to track progress.

Implementing The Plan

Now that you have a plan, it’s important to keep it front of you and stay focused on your strategies. Create a to do list and write down daily tasks to maintain your momentum. Understand that just like anything in life, it will take time and effort to successfully implement your plan so don’t give up and remember that failure is simply a building block to reach your success, not the end of a great plan.