In previous posts, I mentioned how important it is in the Expatriation Adaptation Process to plan and budget. These are success factors for a happier adaptation. Today, I’d like to discuss Strategy Plan and share with you some of my favorite tips for becoming a good Strategy Plan Mastermind.
1. Strategy plan top priority: make a list of your goals
Your mind is full of ideas and dreams. If you don’t browse them, sort them out, and decide which one of them you want to act upon, precise and goals will not be born. Getting clarity on what you want to achieve is an important step in any strategy plan. It’s the step where you transition an idea or dream into a goal. While it’s just an idea or vision, truth be told, you are living things to chance. When you decide to promote them to goals and work on them, they become closer to happening. And it is when your strategy plan starts to form. Promoting an idea or dream into a goal is on you. It’s your responsibility and your decision. You have the choice, and you have the power. The power of choice is something unbelievably strong because it assigns meaning to things, events, and people. When things have meaning, your level of engagement is much higher, and that mobilizes personal power to accomplish what you want.
2. Strategy plan basics: prioritize your goals
Once you know what you want to achieve, you might need to prioritize them. Some might be conflicting. Some might be necessary to happen first for the others to happen next – what in project management is called a critical path. By prioritizing your goal, you get a more significant understanding of what should come first, what is vital for you, and you get a stronger sense of urgency. A sense of urgency is crucial because it gives people the drive. You need the drive to make things happen so that you can become fully engaged in what you are working on. Want a full Prioritization & Time Management training? We have one for you for FREE. A reliable prioritization system is one of the foundations of a strong strategy plan.
3. Create a plan: with smaller steps and tasks
The most common thing I heard from clients when they gave up on a goal was because they became overwhelmed about what was needed to achieve it. Imagine you need to reach the top of a mountain. You see its steep peak. You panic. You have no idea how the hell you’ll get there. You start wondering if you have to fly there, hire a plane and jump with a parachute, or what. That peak seems so far away and so steep that it seems unattainable. Then, you notice steps around the mountain. And you take one step at a time. You stop along the way to catch your breath, enjoy the view, then move on to the next step. It becomes more manageable to progress little by little. If an action or task seems too big, the chances are that you will end up procrastinating and never doing it. It’s natural for human beings to procrastinate when they feel overwhelmed and overpowered by a task that looks big and scary. So make yourself a favor, and cut big and elaborated actions into small, digestible, achievable tasks. Your strategy plan must include tactics like this.
4. Strategy plan essentials: get a planner
You may be old school and get yourself a physical planner. Or you might want to adhere to technology and use a digital calendar that syncs with your mobile, and that sends notifications to your smartwatch. Whatever your preference is, it does not matter. What matters is that you have a place where you will actually use to store, notify, track your events, tasks, and action steps of your strategy plan. I have an astute client that says, “away from sight is away from the action.” So make sure to give yourself the chance to move your butt by having your actions in your line of sight, in a prominent place, that you will refer back often.
5. Strategy plan tactics: assign date and time for each step and task
Deadline matters. Because, without a deadline, you weaken your sense of urgency. And if you undermine your sense of urgency, you will jeopardize your level of engagement. Lower levels of engagement lead to less mobilized personal power. In other words, you’ll not use all your capacity, all your energy, and all your resources if you don’t have a sense of urgency and are not focused. That is one of the reasons why every strategy plan includes a timeline with tollgates and deadlines. So, in a nutshell, deadlines give you focus and a stronger sense of purpose and accountability.
6. Track your progress: measurable & practical
Tracking progress helps you gain confidence because it shows your momentum while moving forward. It’s a moment you take to understand where you were before, where you are at right now, and how much further there is to your goal. Tracking progress records what you have already done and accomplished, and this usually gives people a great sense of satisfaction. Greater satisfaction helps mobilize more personal power, which means you are engaging more energy towards your next steps. Tracking progress also creates accountability. If you know you will track or evaluate your progress, the chances are that you will commit more to make things happen.
7. Celebrate the conclusion: of both small tasks and bigger tollgates
Our society nowadays is so focus on getting things done, that we don’t commonly take the time to celebrate our minor accomplishments. The reason why it is important to celebrate is the same for tracking your progress: you grow confidence, sense of satisfaction, and this mobilizes higher personal power to keep you moving forward. One thing I’d like to remind you about is that you should celebrate both small steps and significant steps accomplished. Don’t dismiss small steps just because there were small or easy. Every effort you put towards a goal should be valued. Every little piece that contributes to you reaching closer to your goal must be celebrated.
8. Strategy plan power tip: don’t be afraid to change your plans
How many times did I see people sticking to a strategy plan that didn’t serve them anymore just because they didn’t want to look like a failure? Look, if things change and you have to change plans, that’s ok. It’s normal to feel anxious about changing plans, but this does not mean you are less, you are a failure, or that you are a looser. It actually means you are smart. You are adapting and adjusting to circumstances. Don’t be afraid of that.
9.No one tells you: don’t be scared to change your goals
The same thing here, don’t be afraid about changing your goals. Sometimes, life happens, things change, and your interests change too. One thing to note, though, is patterns. If you see yourself changing goals too often and too quickly, the chances are that you are not setting goals appropriately, or that they are not strong enough and aligned with your values. Investigate what’s going on before setting new goals. If you need professional help with this, hire someone to help you sort this out.
10. Core Strategy plan: make sure your goals are always aligned with core values
Piggy-backing on the last item, sometimes we set goals for the wrong motives. Sometimes we set goals to please others, or because we are afraid that something terrible might happen. This is what I call fear-based goals. And when we are setting goals with this mindset, these goals are not coming from your heart, from what you really want and value. Goals like these are less powerful because when you achieve them, you are obtaining pain-avoidance and not real pleasure. When you achieve a goal that is aligned with your values, though, achieving them is pleasurable, creates a sense of satisfaction, confidence, and rejoice.
Many certified professional coaches with IPEC’s school of training search client goal’s motives, so that they can understand if it’s fear-based or value-driven. And they help clients gain this awareness so that they can set goals and make a strategy plan that will really serve them.
11. Have an accountability partner or a certified professional coach to help with your strategy plan
An accountability partner is more than a nagger asking if you did it or not. You don’t need that. What you need is a person that understands you, understands where you want to get at, and is objectively rooting for your success, whatever success means for you. An accountability partner is someone that will ask you, “how can I best support you in getting this task done?” And they will stick to what they promised you.
I remember once, before becoming a professional coach, I was an accountability partner to someone that wanted to lose weight. What he asked of me was to be at his house, 6AM so that we could jog together. As a responsible accountability partner, I said no. First, because I am not a morning person, and second because I hate (capital H) to jog. So I would not do him any good by saying that I would do something like that – realistically speaking – I would probably not do.
So, you need an accountability partner who will not only ask you how can he or she help you, but also will respond to it responsibly, within their own limitations and values. In other words, your accountability partner is someone who will help you be held accountable, will root for you, will kick your butt when needed, will lend their strength when asked, will hear you out when needed, and will help you figure things out along the way. But if there is something they can’t do for you, they also must be honest.
Depending on what your goal is, and what you want to accomplish, it’s best to hire professional help to be your accountability partner, besides helping you in other matters like planning, tracking, and normalizing feelings, when needed. Consider that.
Of course, this is not an exhausted list, but it helps give you the initial pointers for planning your challenges and goals. If you want more information on how to become a good planner, apply for a Strategy Session with us. We can help you with the planning process and a walkthrough of the whole thing.
Happy planning!
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