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Brian Tracys FOCAL POINT Personal Telecoaching Program
SESSION 5
PRACTICE PERSONAL STRATEGIC PLANNING
Overview
The largest and most successful companies in the world use the tool of strategic
planning to increase their return on equity. Now the same tool is made available to you in
the form of the FOCAL POINT Strategic Planning Process.
In this session, you will learn how to increase the return on all the mental,
emotional and physical energies you have to invest in your career. You will learn how to
achieve the very highest return possible on the investment of yourself in everything you
do.
Learning Objectives
After completing this session, you will be able to:
1. Regain the feeling of being in control of your life by identifying which phase
you are in on the Sigmoid Curve.
2. Begin to create your ideal future by answering the seven critical questions in
Strategic Planning.
3. Successfully implement your Strategic Plan by taking action.
4. Stay on track by examining a list of seven key questions on a regular basis.
5. Maintain balance by continually examining the seven key areas of your life.
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PRACTICE PERSONAL STRATEGIC PLANNING
Nothing can add more power to your life
than concentrating all your energies
on a limited set of targets.
(Nido Qubein)
Your ability to think, plan, decide and take action largely determines the course of
your life. The better you become in each area, the better will be each part of your life and
the faster you will achieve your goals.
Personal strategic planning is the tool you use to get from wherever you are to
wherever you want to go. The difference between a person who uses personal strategic
planning as a central part of his or her life and one who does not is the difference between
a person who rides a bicycle and a person who drives a car. Both will get you from point
A to point B, but the car, personal strategic planning, will get you there much faster and
easier.
Fortunately, personal strategic planning is a systematic way of thinking and acting.
It is therefore learnable, like learning to type or drive a car. There are many different
elements of this key skill but with practice, you can get into the rhythm of thinking and
acting strategically for the rest of your life. When you do, your life and career will take
off like a rocket. Your success will be assured.
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The Benefits of a Good Strategy
Some years ago, I was invited to take the executive group of a young, dynamic
New York Stock Exchange company through a two-day strategic planning exercise. This
company had grown rapidly, largely based on the ambition and drive of the top
management group. The company was experiencing a booming market and they were
intensely motivated by the potential for high personal incomes.
None of them, including the president of the company, had ever done any strategic
planning before. At that time, their annual sales were about $75 million. Their goal for
the next year, a stretch goal, was to grow their sales to $100 million.
Most of the key people were in their late 20s. They were skeptical of the whole
idea of strategic planning. They thought it was largely a waste of time. After all, they
reasoned, they knew what they needed to get done and they were doing a pretty good job,
werent they?
For two days, I helped them to ask and answer a series of questions about
themselves, their business, their market and their future. As they wrestled with these
questions and argued with each other, they came very quickly to the realization that they
had been succeeding largely on the basis of luck, energy and a good market. As a result
of this process, they did a complete reversal in their thinking. They got seriously into the
work of strategic planning and hammered out a clear set of goals and plans for the
coming year.
The result was amazing. Instead of increasing their sales from $75 million to $100
million dollars, which most of them had considered quite optimistic, they hit $125
million dollars in revenues within the next 12 months. They told me later that they
attributed their entire success to the two days we spent together in strategic planning.
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Strategic Planning Saves Time and Money
The reason that strategic planning and thinking is so helpful is that it saves you an
enormous amount of time and money. By thinking through the key questions and
concepts of strategy, you very quickly find yourself doing more and more of the most
important tasks that can move you toward your key goals. At the same time, you do fewer
and fewer of those things that are not particularly helpful. You do more things right and
fewer things wrong. You establish specific targets for the company and for everyone in it.
You greatly improve your ability to measure and track results. You move onto the fast
track in your work and in your life in general.
The purpose of corporate strategic planning is to increase return on equity. Equity
is defined as the actual amount of shareholder money invested and working in the
enterprise. The aim of strategic planning in business is to reorganize and restructure the
activities of the corporation so as to achieve a higher quality and quantity of outputs
relative to inputs. It is to improve and increase financial results. It is to achieve superior
profitability.
Overall, the goal of strategic planning is to enable the company to utilize its
people and resources more effectively. The company will then function better than
before. It will be in a superior position relative to its competition. This improvement can
be measured in terms of higher sales, greater market share, better profitability, higher
returns on invested assets and better positioning for the future.
Designing Your Life and Career
Personal strategic planning is very similar. However, instead of return on equity,
personal strategic planning is aimed at increasing your return on energy. Put another
way, it is to increase your return on life.
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The equity in a business is measured in terms of financial capital. Your personal
equity, on the other hand, is measured in terms of your own human capital.
Your personal equity is composed of the mental, emotional and physical energies
you have to invest in your career. Your goal should be to get the very highest return
possible on the investment of yourself in everything you do. How well you invest
yourself determines your income. This is the FOCAL POINT of personal strategic
planning.
You can tell that it is time to revisit your strategic plan when you are no longer
getting the kind of results you want from your work or from your life. Whenever you feel
frustrated or dissatisfied, for any reason, this is often an indication that you should sit
down and ask yourself some good, hard questions. Whenever you experience resistance
or stress, or you find yourself working harder and harder only to feel that you are getting
fewer and fewer rewards, you should stand back and consider revising your strategy.
The Sigmoid Curve
Life moves in regular cycles, like the seasons. Most human activities follow what
is called the "Sigmoid Curve." This curve is like the letter "S", lying on its side. Every
new endeavor begins at the high point of the "S" on the left, declines downward as it goes
through a learning phase, rises upward as it goes through the growth phase, levels off at
the top and then declines again. (See illustration on the following page.)
The Sigmoid Curve applies to product and service cycles, personal and
professional relationships, careers, corporation life cycles and even the histories of
nations and empires.
It is helpful for you to stand back and identify where each part of your life is today
on the Sigmoid Curve. Are you in Phase One, the Learning Phase? Are you in Phase
Two, the Growth Phase? Or are you in Phase Three, the Decline Phase?
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In Phase One, you will be extraordinarily busy, facing challenges and difficulties,
learning and trying new things as you scramble to get results, especially financial results.
In Phase Two, the Growth Phase, you will be in a state of high energy and exhilaration,
with business and sales growing and all kinds of new possibilities and ideas bubbling up
on all sides. In Phase Three, the excitement will start to go out of the business or your
career. You will be selling fewer of your products or services or achieving fewer results
or rewards. Profit margins will be smaller and harder to earn. There will be a vague sense
of, "Is this all there is?"
Seven Questions in Strategic Planning
There are seven key questions in strategic planning, both for yourself and for your
business. These are questions that you need to ask and answer over and over, throughout
your career. Sometimes a new answer to any one of these questions can dramatically
change the direction of your business and your life. An insight that you get from
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continually asking these questions of yourself can lead to your establishing new goals and
new FOCAL POINTS for your future.
1. Define Your Business/Career Clearly
The first and most important question is: What business am I in? What business
are you really in? Define your business in terms of what you do for your customer or for
your company. Keep expanding the definition of your business so that it is as broad as
possible. Never be satisfied with the first answer.
For example, many years ago, some railroads defined themselves as being in the
business of moving people and freight by rail. In reality, they were in the transportation
business. By ignoring the other avenues of transportation that were developing, such as
trucks, buses, ships and airplanes, many railroads went out of business.
Many Internet companies defined themselves as providers of free information
geared toward attracting as many eyeballs as possible. In reality, the Internet is a
communication and distribution channel that must be focused on selling products or
services and making a profit, like any other business. The failure to accurately define the
business has led to the loss of many billions of investment dollars and market
capitalization.
Define your business in terms of the effect your products or services have on the
life or work of other people or organizations. By the same token, define your own
personal work in terms of the effect or impact that you have on the people you work for
and with, both internally and externally.
Once you have decided clearly what business you are in, apply zero-based
thinking to your activities and ask, "Knowing what I now know, is there anything that I
am doing today that I wouldn't get into again if I had to do it over?"
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As Peter Drucker says, "Planning for tomorrow means sloughing off yesterday.
Before you can do something new, you have to stop doing something old."
Brian Tracys FOCAL POINT Personal Telecoaching Program
Creating the future means leaving the past behind. Keep asking yourself, What
are the activities that I should reduce, discontinue or get out of altogether, based on the
situation the way it really is today?
2. Think About the Future
The next question to ask is, "What business will I be in if things continue the way
they are today?
If you do not change, what will you be doing one year, two years, and five years
from today? Is it an intelligent strategy to continue in your current line of business or
should you be looking at changing in some way?
What business should you be in? To determine the business you should be in, the
work you should be doing sometime in the future, look at yourself, your talents, your
abilities, your ambitions, your energies and especially your heart's desire,.
What business could you be in? If you were to dramatically change your level of
knowledge or skills, your products or services, your industries or markets, what business
could you be in if you really wanted to be? What changes would you have to make today
to create the business of the future? What changes will you have to make personally to
become the kind of person who can live the life and do the work you would really like to
be doing sometime in the future?
3. Identify Your Customers
The third question is: Who is my customer? Whom do you have to satisfy in
order to survive and thrive in your career? Of course, your first customer is your boss, the
person who signs your paycheck. Your primary job at work is to make sure that you are
satisfying his or her essential requirements. Do you know what they are?
You can define a customer as anyone who depends on you for his or her success
and anyone who you depend upon for your success. Using this definition, your colleagues
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and your staff are also your customers. Everyone around you whom you help, or who
helps you, is a customer in some way.
Who is your external customer, the customer who uses what you produce? This is
the FOCAL POINT of business success. Your ability to accurately identify the external
customer whose satisfaction determines your success in your career is critical to every
element of strategic planning.
What does your customer consider value? What specific benefits does your
customer get from using your products or services? What does your customer really want
and need from you in order to be completely satisfied? How does your product change or
improve his or her life and work?
The twenty-first century is being referred to as the "Age of the Customer." The
customer is king or queen as never before. Your ability to identify and satisfy your key
customers is a critical determinant of your success and your rewards in life.
Who will your customer be in the future, if current trends continue? Who should
your customer be if you want to rise to the top of your field? Who could your customer
be if you were to change your product or service offerings? How could you upgrade your
knowledge, your skills and your ability to satisfy that customer?
Heres a good question for you. Are there any customers in your business, who,
knowing what you now know, you wouldn't start working with again today? Answering
this question honestly is an essential part of liberating yourself and your company from
some of the decisions of the past.
Many companies today are analyzing and identifying the qualities and
characteristics of their very best customers. They are then sorting their customers into
high-value and low-value customer segments. By doing this, they can focus more and
more of their time and attention on their highest-value customers, and on acquiring more
customers like them. Simultaneously, they spend less and less time on their lower-value
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customers and, in many cases, encourage their lower-value customers to do business with
other companies.
Not long ago, a friend of mine, a successful entrepreneur, applied the 80/20 Rule
to his customer base. He determined that 20 percent of his customers contributed 80
percent of his sales volume and 80 percent of his profits. He decided to "fire" the 80
percent of his customers that contributed 20 percent or less of his revenues. One by one,
he handed them off to other companies in his industry that he felt could service them
better. He then focused all of his attention on his higher-value customers. Within one
year, his business and his personal income doubled. Would this strategy work for you?
4. Identify Your Area of Excellence
The fourth question is this: What is it that I do especially well? What is your
area of excellence, your area of superiority? What is your personal competitive advantage
over the other people in your field?
This is a vital FOCAL POINT question in personal strategic planning. You will be
truly successful only to the degree to which you become excellent at the most important
part of your work. One of your chief responsibilities in life is to select the area of
excellence that can have the greatest positive impact on your career and your income, and
then throw your whole heart into becoming very, very good in that one area.
In his book, Competing for the Future, Gary Hamel points out that the top
companies are those that project forward five years and then identify the core
competencies that they will require at that time to dominate their industries. They then
implement a development plan today to assure that they have those core competencies in
place when the future arrives.
You should follow this strategy as well. What are the core competencies that you
will need to be in the top 10 percent of your field three to five years from now? How do
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they differ from your key skills today? What can you do today to begin developing those
additional skills and abilities? Whatever competencies you will require to be the best, set
them as a goal, make a plan and begin working on developing them every day.
5. Focus On Your Highest-Value Activities
The fifth question in personal strategic planning is this: What are the 10-to-20
percent of my activities that could account for 80-to-90 percent of my results? What are
the tasks that you do today that yield the very highest returns and rewards relative to the
cost and effort of performing those activities? How could you organize your work life so
that you are doing more and more of these tasks of higher value?
6. Remove Your Key Constraints
The sixth question in personal strategic planning is this: What are the critical
constraints on my ability to achieve my goals?
In every work or production process, there are a series of steps between where you
are today and the result that you want to achieve tomorrow. Invariably, one of these steps
is the constraint or chokepoint that determines the speed at which you complete the entire
process and achieve your goal.
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For example, in getting from home to work, there is often a stretch of road or
freeway that can be extremely crowded. Before that stretch and after that stretch, the
traffic is light. But if that stretch is jammed, this can be the major constraint or bottleneck
that determines how fast you cover the entire distance.
If your goal is to double your income, the first thing to do is identify the different
steps you will have to take to get from where you are today to an income of twice as
much. You then examine each of these steps and determine which step is the limiting
factor that determines how fast you achieve your income goal.
Ask yourself this question, "Why aren't I at my goal already?"
If you want to double your income, why aren't you earning twice as much already?
If you want to spend more time with your family, why aren't you doing it already? Often,
forcing yourself to develop the answers to these questions will enable you to see the
critical constraint that is holding you back.
Here is an important point. Fully 80 percent of all the constraints that are holding
you back from achieving your most desired goals are inside yourself. Only 20 percent are
on the outside. Fully 80 percent of the reasons that your company is not achieving its
goals are inside the company, in some way. Fully 80 percent of the reasons that you are
not making more money or increasing your free time are within yourself. Your major
constraints lie within your own habits, beliefs, attitudes, opinions and your own skills and
abilities, or lack thereof.
The successful person asks the question, "What is it in me that is holding me
back?" When you want to accomplish great things, always start with yourself and work
out from there. You are in control of yourself. You can have an enormous effect on what
you do personally, or fail to do. But you have only a minor influence on external factors
and other people. Always start with yourself by asking the question, "What is it in me that
is holding me back?"
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7. Choose to Take Action
The seventh question in personal strategic planning is this. What specific action
or actions am I going to take immediately based on my answers to these questions? The
purpose of strategic thinking and planning is to decide upon the actions you are going to
take to bring about different results from what you are achieving today. What are they?
Sharpening Your Focus
Here are several additional questions that you can ask and answer on a regular
basis to implement the process of personal strategic planning in your life:
If you could wave a magic wand and have whatever you wished for, in any part of your
life, what would it be?
1. If you could design your perfect lifestyle, day in and day out, what would it look
like?
2. If you could create your perfect calendar, how would you spend each day, each
week, each month and each year?
3. How would you change your life if you received one million dollars cash, tax free,
today? What would be the first thing that you would do?
4. What parts of your work do you enjoy the most and do the best? Where do you
excel? What sorts of activities make you the happiest?
5. What would you do, how would you spend your time, if you learned today that you
only had six months left to live?
6. What one great thing would you dare to dream if you knew you could not fail? If
you were absolutely guaranteed of success in any one goal, small or large, short term
or long-term, what would it be?
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When you ask and answer these questions honestly, you dramatically increase
your awareness of who you really are and what you really want. Invariably, you will find
there are things you are doing today that you should stop doing as soon as possible. In
addition, you will realize there are things that you should be doing more of and new
activities that you should be starting.
The personal strategic planning process for FOCAL POINT divides your life into
seven areas. This enables you to clarify what you really want in each area. This process
enables you to crystallize what you have to do to get the things you want faster and easier
than ever before. The seven areas of life are the following:
1. Business and Career: How do you become extremely successful and satisfied
and move to the top of your field?
2. Family and Personal Life: How do you achieve balance between external
success and your personal relationships?
3. Money and Investments: How do you get your financial life completely under
control and achieve financial independence?
4. Health and Fitness: How do you achieve and maintain high levels of fitness,
energy and overall well-being?
5. Personal Growth and Development: How do you identify and acquire the key
knowledge and skills that you need to live an extraordinary life?
6. Social and Community Activities: How do you structure your life so that you
make a real difference in the world and leave a lasting legacy?
7. Spiritual Development and Inner Peace: How do you organize your inner life
and thinking so that you realize your full potential as a human being?
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Give yourself a grade in each area, on a scale of one to ten, with one being the
lowest and ten being the highest. You will find that most of your stress and unhappiness
will come in the area where you are currently giving yourself the lowest grade. Your first
goal is to identify that area. Your second goal is to determine the specific steps you need
to take to get that area under control.
The FOCAL POINT Process
The FOCAL POINT Process consists of seven steps in each area. These seven
steps comprise a system of personal strategic planning that enables you to determine
where to the put the "X" in each part of your life. They are the following:
1. Values: What are the values, virtues, qualities and traits that are most
important to you in each area of your life?
2. Vision: If your life were perfect in this area five years from today, what would
it look like?
3. Goals: What specific goals must you achieve in order to fulfill your ideal
future vision in that area?
4. Knowledge and Skills: In what areas will you have to excel in the future in
order to achieve your goals and fulfill your vision?
5. Habits: What specific habits of thought and action will you need to become
the person who is capable of achieving the goals that you have set for yourself?
6. Daily Activities: What specific activities will you have to engage in each day
to assure that you become the person you want to become and achieve the goals you want
to achieve?
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7. Actions: What specific action or actions are you going to take immediately to
begin to realize your ideal future vision?
In subsequent sessions, we will deal with each of these questions and each of the
seven areas in detail. Step by step, you will develop absolute clarity concerning exactly
what it is you really want in every part of your life. You will learn how to set clear
priorities in each category. You will identify specific actions you can take immediately to
bring about powerful and positive change in your life.
The quality of your thinking determines the quality of your life. The better
questions you ask of yourself, the better answers you will elicit. As you improve the
quality of your thinking, the quality of everything that you do improves at the same time.
Since there is really no limit to how much you can improve the quality of your thinking,
there is no real limit to how much you can improve your life.
The Law of Correspondence says that your outer world will always be a reflection
of your inner world. To change anything in your outer world, you must begin by
changing what is going on in your inner world.
The greater clarity you have with regard to who you are, what you want and what
you have to do to get from where you are to where you want to go, the faster you will
move ahead.
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REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. What is the FOCAL POINT of personal strategic planning? (P. 186)
The FOCAL POINT of personal strategic planning is getting the very highest return
possible on the investment of my _________, ____________ and ___________
energies in everything I do.
2. How can you tell when it time to revisit your personal strategic plan? (P. 186)
I can tell that it is time to revisit my personal strategic plan when I feel ___________
or _____________, when I experience resistance or _______, or when I find myself
working harder and harder only to feel that I am getting fewer and fewer _________.
3. What is the Sigmoid Curve? (P. 186)
Most human activities move in regular ________, following what is called the
Sigmoid Curve. This curve is like the letter ___ lying on its side.
4. What are the phases of the Sigmoid Curve? (P. 187)
a. Phase 1: Begins at the ______ point of the S on the left and declines
downward to the bottom. This is known as the __________ Phase and is
characterized by ____________ and _____________.
b. Phase 2: Begins at the _________ of the curve at the end of Phase 1 and rises
upward to the top. This is known as the ________ Phase and is characterized
by ______ _________ and _______________.
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c. Phase 3: Begins at the _____ of the curve at the end of Phase 2, levels off and
then goes into decline. This is known as the __________ Phase and is
characterized by lack of _____________, diminished _________ and a vague
sense of Is this _____ there is?
5. What are seven critical questions in Strategic Planning? (P. 188 194)
a. What ___________ am I in? (P. 188)
It is essential to define my business in terms of what I do for my __________or my _________. I then apply ______-________ thinking to
my activities and ask: Knowing what I ____ know, is there anything that
I am doing today that I would _____ get into again if I had to do it over?
b. What business ______ I be in if things continue the way they are today? (P. 189)
If I were to dramatically change my level of knowledge or skills, what business ________ I be in if I really wanted to be?
Given my talents, skills, knowledge, energies and hearts desire, what business _________ I be in?
c. Who is my ___________? (P. 189 191)
Whom do I have to ________ in order to survive and thrive in my career?
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If I work for a company my first customer is my _____. My primary job at work is to _________ and then ________ his or her essential
requirements.
Brian Tracys FOCAL POINT Personal Telecoaching Program
My customer can also be defined as anyone who depends on me for his or
her _________, and anyone upon whom I depend for my _________.
Therefore, my other internal customers are my ____________ and my
_______.
My external customer is the purchaser of my goods or my services i.e. what I __________.
I must continually examine who ________ be my customer(s) and who _________ be my customer(s). Applying the 80-20 Rule, I can improve
my effectiveness and my efficiency by _________ some or all of the 80%
of my customers who account for 20% of my business.
d. What is my area of _____________? (P. 191 192)
What is it that I do especially _______? What is my personal _____________ ___________ over the other people
in my field?
I will be truly successful only to the degree that I become truly ____________ at the most important part of my work.
In order to succeed in the future, I ask myself the question: What are the core ______________ that I will need in order to be in the top 10% of my
field three to five years from now? How do they _________ from my key
skills today? I then set a specific _______ and create a ______ to
develop these critical competencies.
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e. What are my __________-________ Activities? (P. 192)
What are the 10% to 20% of my ____________ that might account for 80% to 90% of my __________?
How can I rearrange my work life so that I am doing more and more of these tasks of _________ value?
f. What are the ___________ ______________ on my ability to achieve my
goals? (P. 192 - 193)
In every work process or endeavor, there are a series of steps that must be taken to achieve the __________ __________. Invariably, one of these
steps becomes a constraint or _____________ limiting the speed in which
the process can be completed. I can discover what it is by asking: Why
arent I at my _______ already?
Fully ____ % of all the constraints that are holding me back from achieving my most desired goals are within myself. This is good news
because, although I have only a minor influence on external factors and
other people, I have complete control of _________.
g. What specific ________ or __________ am I going to take _______________
based on my answers to these questions? (P. 194)
The purpose of the entire strategic planning process is to enable me to decide the __________ I am going to take in order to bring about
different __________ from what I am achieving today.
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6. What are some additional questions your might ask on a regular basis to help
you implement the strategic planning process into your life? (P. 194)
a. If I could wave a magic wand and have whatever I _________ for, in any part
of I life, what would it be?
b. If I could design my perfect ____________, day in and day out, what would it
look like?
c. If I could create my perfect ___________, how would I spend each day, each
week, each month and each year?
d. How would I _________ your life if I received one million dollars cash, tax
free, today? What would be the ________ thing that I would do?
e. What parts of my work do I enjoy the most and do the best? Where do I
________? What sorts of activities make me the ___________?
f. What would I ____, how would I spend my ______, if I learned today that I
only had six months left to live?
g. What one great thing would I dare to dream if I knew I could not _______? If I
were absolutely _____________ of success in any one goal, small or large,
short-term or long-term, what would it be?
7. How does the FOCAL POINT Personal Strategic Planning Process help you
gain success and balance in all areas of your life? (P. 195)
The FOCAL POINT Personal Strategic Planning Process helps me achieve success
and balance in all areas of my life by focusing on seven distinct areas:
a. ___________ and _________
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b. _________ and ___________ _______
c. ________ and ______________
d. _________ and __________
e. Personal _________ and ______________
f. Social and Community __________
g. ____________ Development and Inner ________
8. What are the seven steps that comprise the FOCAL POINT Personal Strategic
Planning Process? (P. 196 197)
a. _________: What are the ________, virtues, qualities and traits that are most
important to me in each area of my life?
b. _________: If my life were _________ in this area five years from today, what
would it look like?
c. ________: What specific ________ must I achieve in order to fulfill my ideal
future vision in this area?
d. ____________ and _________: In what areas will I have to _______ in the
future in order to achieve my goals and fulfill my vision?
e. _________: What specific ________ of thought and action will I need to
become the person who is capable of achieving the goals that I have set for
myself?
f. ________ _____________: What specific ____________ will I have to
engage in each day to assure that I become the person I want to become and
achieve the goals I want to achieve?
g. __________: What specific _________ or __________ am I going to take
immediately to begin to realize my ideal future vision?
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APPLICATION EXERCISES
1. Examine your career. Where do you believe you are on the Sigmoid Curve?
Phase 1 Learning Phase? _______________
Phase 2 Growth Phase? _______________
Phase 3 Decline Phase? _______________
2. What business are you in?
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
3. What business could you be in?
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
4. What business should you be in?
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
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____________________________________________________________________
5. Who are your internal customers?
Boss: ______________________________________________________________
Colleague 1: ________________________________________________________
Colleague 2: ________________________________________________________
Colleague 2: ________________________________________________________
Colleague 3: ________________________________________________________
Colleague 4: ________________________________________________________
Colleague 5: ________________________________________________________
Staff Member 1: _____________________________________________________
Staff Member 2: _____________________________________________________
Staff Member 3: _____________________________________________________
Staff Member 4: _____________________________________________________
Staff Member 5: _____________________________________________________
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6. What are the special requirements of your internal customers?
Boss: ______________________________________________________________
Colleague 1: ________________________________________________________
Colleague 2: ________________________________________________________
Colleague 3: ________________________________________________________
Colleague 4: ________________________________________________________
Colleague 5: ________________________________________________________
Staff Member 1: _____________________________________________________
Staff Member 2: _____________________________________________________
Staff Member 3: _____________________________________________________
Staff Member 4: _____________________________________________________
Staff Member 5: _____________________________________________________
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7. Who are your external customers?
Customer 1: ________________________________________________________
Customer 2: ________________________________________________________
Customer 3: ________________________________________________________
Customer 4: ________________________________________________________
Customer 5: ________________________________________________________
Customer 6: ________________________________________________________
Customer 7: ________________________________________________________
8. Who could be your external customers?
Customer 1: ________________________________________________________
Customer 2: ________________________________________________________
Customer 3: ________________________________________________________
Customer 4: ________________________________________________________
Customer 5: ________________________________________________________
Customer 6: ________________________________________________________
Customer 7: ________________________________________________________
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9. Using the 80-20 Rule to determine your highest value customers, what
customers will you fire?
Customer 1: ________________________________________________________
Customer 2: ________________________________________________________
Customer 3: ________________________________________________________
Customer 4: ________________________________________________________
Customer 5: ________________________________________________________
Customer 6: ________________________________________________________
Customer 7: ________________________________________________________
10. What is your Area of Excellence your Personal Competitive Advantage?
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
11. What Core Competencies will you need in order to be in the top 10% of your
field three to five years from now?
a. _______________________________________________________________
b. _______________________________________________________________
c. _______________________________________________________________
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12. How will you develop these Core Competencies:
a. In order to develop the Core Competency of ______________________ I will:
___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________
b. In order to develop the Core Competency of ______________________ I will:
___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________
c. In order to develop the Core Competency of ______________________ I will:
___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________
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13. What is your major career Goal?
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
14. What are the Critical Constraints to your achieving your major career goal?
(Remember that 80% of Critical Constraints are internal.)
a. _______________________________________________________________
b. _______________________________________________________________
c. _______________________________________________________________
d. _______________________________________________________________
e. _______________________________________________________________
15. How will you overcome these Critical Constraints?
a. In order to overcome the Critical Constraint of ____________________ I will:
___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________
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b. In order to overcome the Critical Constraint of ____________________ I will:
___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________
c. In order to overcome the Critical Constraint of ____________________ I will:
___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________
d. In order to overcome the Critical Constraint of ____________________ I will:
___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________
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e. In order to overcome the Critical Constraint of ____________________ I will:
___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________
16. If you could wave a magic wand and have whatever you wished for in any part
of your life, what would it be?
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
17. If you could design your perfect lifestyle, day in and day out, what would it look
like?
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
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____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
18. How would you change your life if your received $1 million, tax free?
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
What would be the first thing you would do?
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
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19. What parts of your work do your enjoy the most?
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
20. What parts of your work do you do the best i.e. where do you excel?
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
21. What would you do how would you spend your time if you learned today
that you had only six months left to live?
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
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22. What one thing would you dare to dream what great goal would you dare to
set if you knew you could not fail?
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
23. On a scale on 1 to 10, 1 being lowest and 10 being highest, rank the quality of
your life in the following areas:
Business/Career: _______
Family & Personal Life: _______
Money & Investments: _______
Health & Fitness: _______
Personal Growth & Development: _______
Social & Community Service: _______
Spiritual Development & Inner Peace: _______
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24. Prioritize the seven areas of your life (Business/Career, Family & Personal Life,
Money & Investments, Health & Fitness, Personal Growth & Development,
Social & Community Service, Spiritual Development & Inner Peaces.)
1st Priority: ______________________________________
2nd Priority: ______________________________________
3rd Priority: ______________________________________
4th Priority: ______________________________________
5th Priority: ______________________________________
6th Priority: ______________________________________
7th Priority: ______________________________________
25. As a result of what I have learned in Session 5, the one thing I commit to do
immediately is:
Action Commitment: I will immediately__________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
________________________________ ______________
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Signature Date
SESSION 5PRACTICE PERSONAL STRATEGIC PLANNINGOverviewPRACTICE PERSONAL STRATEGIC PLANNINGThe Benefits of a Good StrategyStrategic Planning Saves Time and MoneyDesigning Your Life and CareerThe Sigmoid CurveSeven Questions in Strategic Planning2. Think About the Future3. Identify Your Customers4. Identify Your Area of Excellence5. Focus On Your Highest-Value Activities6. Remove Your Key Constraints7. Choose to Take ActionSharpening Your Focus
The FOCAL POINT Process
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