NOW WHAT?

Once you have a vision and mission. What comes next? 

I think that depends.

To figure that out, I had to remind myself why I even started this personal strategic planning process in the first place.  I had multiple motivations, but I mainly wanted to determine how to spend my time (given my newfound flexibility being self-employed). I wanted to find a way from point A to point B.

A Word of Caution

Before I get into next steps, I want to start by being transparent. I know some of you will be skeptical about how useful this whole process is. This is a lot of planning for a “personal” matter. And in an uncertain world, planning can seem pointless at times.

I should admit from the onset that a strategic process like this is going to get harder as it goes on — whether it's for one person, as it is in this case, or for a whole organization. While getting to an overarching mission and vision can be challenging, implementing that mission is always hard. I’m trying not to kid myself by thinking this will make achieving the life I want easy.  

A Message of Hope

But I truly believe that a not-so-easy life can be made more impactful if you plan for it (while also allowing yourself flexibility). The alternative is leaving it to chance. And I’m just not going to do that. I know finding a balance between flexibility and intentionality will be tricky for me. But it's worth it to me to look for that right balance– after starting with a deep dive into intentionality. 

Moving Forward Intentionally

I looked for a way from point A to point B. 

To turn my mission and strategic road map into a list of actions with time commitments attached to them, I had to identify specific actions. I had to ask myself how I was going to achieve my mission. So I started asking “how” and attempted to map the answers out visually.  But I noticed quickly that my first map’s format was not working for me.

This format,

from my last post,

literally boxed

me in.

.

So I recreated my map using a more flexible format, placing my mission at the middle of a blank page and branching out in all directions from there.

Then I looked at each bubble on the map and asked “how”? I branched off into as many bubbles as I felt were needed to achieve the goal in the bubble.

But some of my bubbles ended up being filled with vague, useless language. In these cases, I had to push myself to ask “how” again until I got to a measurable action step (Think SMART goals, if you are familiar).

Here is what my map looks like from a high level (I omitted details for focus areas #2 and #3):

The bubbles outlined in black on the outer edges of the graphic above are the 23 action steps/activities that I’ve decided I want to spend time on. I’m currently in the process of refining my plan so that I can find a good balance amongst these 23 activity types. In order to do that, I put all 23 in a table (one on each row) and allocated an amount of time for each.

Here’s what focus area #1 looks like in map and table form:

Finding Balance

I think some of you will be relieved to hear that I decided not to fill up all of my waking hours with planned activities (even though I consider this plan 100% comprehensive). For now, I’m leaving 30% of my time open so that there is room for flexibility built in. 

Moving forward, I’ll test my map’s comprehensiveness and inevitably add things that are currently missing. Ideally, everything I'm doing regularly will have its place and time.

I’ll report back soon to let you all know how this goes. I’m intentionally leaving the timing of that flexible. In the meantime, if you have ideas for me or want my help as you build your own map, just let me know.

Until next time, whenever that is…