Self Strategic Planning for 2024

This time of year is great for reflection and planning. We take a break to spend time with family or by ourselves, recharging and relaxing after a long year of accomplishments, challenges, and everything in between. 

I am especially reflective this year, as just one year ago today I was re-admitted to the hospital for the 5th time since August for complications due to Leukemia and chemotherapy. 

A year ago today I had a 106 fever and was on the border of septic shock. The latest round of chemo was doing its job and I had no immunity, so whatever bug I had went totally rampant. I was hospitalized for 9 days including Christmas Day. They threw military-grade antibiotics at me and eventually my immunity started to return, and I was VERY lucky to survive that ordeal. 

When I got out of the hospital, I spent the last few days of 2022 thinking about what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I normally go through an annual self-planning process this time of year, but it was especially poignant for me while I was fighting cancer. 

I thought I would share my process that I go through every year as I build a strategic plan for myself over the next 12 months. 

I. Personal Strategic Planning Framework

Strategic planning is not just for corporations. It can be used by individuals as well. I'm someone who likes to have an idea of where I want to go in life, and then set goals or create clear images in my mind of what moving in that direction looks like. 

For my Personal Strategic Plan, I segment my life into five key areas: 

(Note: You may want to create other areas of focus depending on what's important to you)

In 1 Year, I will accomplish the following:

1. Career / Business Goals - Depending on whether I'm in a W2 job or running a business, this is the area of focus around my vocation and income.
2. Health Goals - These tend to be physical health goals such as weight, race or event goals (like an Ironman or half-marathon), and, most recently, staying as healthy as possible to avoid a cancer relapse. 
3. Wealth Goals - While I make money from my career / business, here is where I decide what to do with that money.
4. Mindset Goals - Keeping the right frame of mind and perspective is critically important to me.
5. Relationship Goals - It's important for all of us to remember that our time together in the future is not promised, and we should invest in the fulfilling, rewarding relationships we have. 

Once I set goals for each of these areas of my life, I then create Action Plans around them to help me move towards these goals over the next 12 months:

2024 Action Plan:

1. Career / Business Plan
2. Health Plan
3. Wealth Plan
4. Mindset Focus
5. Relationships Focus

II. Personal Strategic Planning Process

So how do you go about creating these goals and action plans? Here is the process I use to do this. 

Zoom Way Out

There are some basic things we need to remember now and again. We live on a rock hurtling through the vastness of space/time and a thin layer of gas and a magnetic field from our planet's core are all that keep us from suffocating or melting from cosmic radiation. Everyone who was alive 200 years ago has been forgotten about except for historical figures, and in 200 years nobody will remember us either except through video/audio recordings. And that's not a very long time relative to the age of our species, our planet, and our universe. 

I say all this to remind myself that I don't understand our world well enough to take it for granted. Whether it's gorgeous poetry of physics, chemistry and biology, or divine design, or something else (a simulation?), it doesn't matter. Having existential thoughts is what does. Remembering that I exist and I have a limited amount of time to do the things I want or need to do with my life puts a much-need perspective into my thinking. 

With existential thoughts in mind, an argument I had last week with some guy I'll never see again just kinda fades into the background. And that's what I'm aiming for here. Big picture perspective.

Conduct a SWOT on Yourself

Just like we do in the corporate world, you should be doing a SWOT on yourself every year. A SWOT is a measure of your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This exercise is a mandatory and critical part of the Executive Career Accelerator program that helps mid-career professionals move to the executive level. Doing this helps you see what new strengths or weaknesses have appeared over the past year, and what new opportunities or threats have emerged in your life. 

Set Your Vision

Ask yourself what kind of person do you want to become? Which version of you makes you the most proud to wake up? What would your life be like if you were that version of yourself?

Recommit To Your Values

Remind yourself what is important to you in life - not just work, or at home, or in your career, but in general. We are all on a shared journey. What big picture concepts light you up? What feels right and wrong to you? What will you fight for and what will you let be?

Set Your Goals

When you know who you want to become and what's truly important to you, you can now go about establishing some goals for yourself. I use SMART goals - you should know what those are by now, but if you need a quick primer, SMART goals include 5 elements:

• Specific - well-defined and clear goals
• Measurable - there should be criteria for measuring success objectively
• Attainable - something you can actually achieve in the timeframe available
• Relevant - make sure it aligns to your overall goals and objectives
• Time-bound - There has to be a deadline by which you complete this goal

Goals Example

So when I set my goals for 2024, they will probably look something like this:

1. Our business Vertical Motion will generate $X in Net Income for our family in 2024
2. I will hit my (goal weight) and (running distance goal) by (date)
3. We will set aside enough money to pay for our son's college tuition by (date)
4. I will maintain the mindset of a leader who can speak to thousands of people with confidence about executive management and leadership
5. I will lean even farther into my amazing marriage and enjoy the time left with my teenage children before they grow up and move out

You'll notice that the top 3 goals are SMART goals, while the bottom two goals aren't. I've chosen to think of Mindset and Relationships not so much as 'goals' per se, but more as areas of focus and a reminder of what's important to me. In the past I've written things like "Take 3 vacations with the family" but I found those kinds of goals around something that's more of a connection or feeling to be a little empty. 

Build Your Action Plan

Once you know where you are and then define your goals in each category, you can then build a plan to go from A to B. And it is really that simple - what is the straightest, fastest, highest probability of success path or action you can take to get where you want to go?

Part of this is understand what has and has not worked in the past. If you want to lose 30 pounds in 6 months but you've been trying to lose 30 pounds for almost a decade by doing the same things, you probably need to change what you're doing or alter your expectations. 

For example, let's say you want to become a Vice President and make a $200K+ base salary in the next 12 months. What are the highest leverage things you can do to make that happen?

• Learn how to act like and operate as an Executive (Vice President)
• Learn how to find executive-level jobs (access the 'hidden executive job market')
• Learn how to prepare for and nail an executive-level interview

In this case, hiring an executive career coach who teaches you what you need to know and helps you through the process is an extremely effective use of your resources (time, money) to accomplish that goal with the highest degree of certainty and the least amount of time invested. 

If you try to learn everything you need on your own, you'll take longer, costing you both time and money (the amount you could have made earlier with help from a coaching program). 

Action Plan Example

Your Career Goal: I will become a Vice President and make $200K+ by the end of 2024.

Action Plan - Career

1. Find and hire the best executive career coach for me Someone who can help me build a career roadmap Help me build my executive presence & other skills Teach me how to build an Executive Network the right way (and fast) Help me find VP-level roles that fit me Show me how to interview at the executive level Walk me through interview, negotiation and first 90 days
2. Dedicate 4-8 hours every week towards my career growth plan Lean in to the process the coach outlines for me Spend time with other like-minded people trying to move up as well
3. Invest in coaching, headshots, content creation tools, LinkedIn/Resume updates, etc.
4. Track my progress over the next 12 months towards my goal

Conclusion

I have found having a strategic plan for the upcoming year to help me focus on what's important and aim me in the right direction for that year. We don't always get the luxury of time to plan, which is why this typically takes place at the end of the calendar year for me. But you can do this kind of planning at any point in the year, and it doesn't hurt to revisit these strategic plans now and again throughout the year as well to update it based on new experiences and new goals.