05 (Client) Practice Personal Strategic Planning

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.

SESSION 5: Practice Personal Strategic Planning Page 182


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.



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.



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.



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?



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



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?"


As Peter Drucker says, "Planning for tomorrow means sloughing off yesterday.

Before you can do something new, you have to stop doing something old."


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



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



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



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.



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?"



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?



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?



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?



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.



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 _______________.



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?


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.


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.



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.



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 _________



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?



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?

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________



____________________________________________________________________

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: _____________________________________________________



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: _____________________________________________________



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: ________________________________________________________



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. _______________________________________________________________



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:

___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________



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:

___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________



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:

___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________



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?

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________



____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

18. How would you change your life if your received $1 million, tax free?

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

What would be the first thing you would do?

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________



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?

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________



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: _______



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__________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

________________________________ ______________


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

Documents

05 (Client) Practice Personal Strategic Planning