Welcome to my blog! I hope you’ll have as much fun reading it as I hope to have writing it. This is a lifestyle blog…make that life with style blog. It will document my attempt to try and live my life a little better today than I did yesterday.
This blog will consist of my humble attempts at various kinds of self-imposed mini-challenges designed to help me meet the goals of my 3-year strategic plan and come out the other side a little smarter, a little wealthier and a little wiser. I invite you to join me by making your own strategic plan and joining me on some of the mini-challenges. Of course, if you don't want to do it, then you’re still very welcome to read along and give me your comments along the way.
I also invite you to send me your ideas for mini-challenges. If I like it, I’ll probably do it, if I don’t I’ll just politely ignore it and pretend I didn’t get it. Sound fair? Good.
Let’s get started with our first challenge which is to create our five-year strategic plan!
THE THREE-YEAR STRATEGIC PLAN
Why? Well, I’m thinking if companies do it, why shouldn’t I? It makes sense if you think about it. Life can come at us hard and fast and if you’re not ready, it can take you months, years, sometimes even decades to recover from a personal or financial setback.
Also, studies show that people with a life plan are 5 times more likely to reach their personal, professional and financial goals than people who don’t. (That’s not a real statistic, but the trick is to say it like it is and 9 out of ten people will believe you.)
So I’ve talked to my husband and he has agreed that yes, a three-year strategic plan is in our family’s best interest and he’s going to do it with me. Basically, if we’re going to be in the same boat for awhile, we need to be paddling in the same direction.
Now if you decide to take on this challenge with me, it’s up to you to tailor your three-year plan to suit your individual circumstances, but I’m going to give you kind of the outline I’m going to follow. Think of it as an a la carte menu and you can pick and choose what you want.
Who can do it?
Anyone who wants to be better off in three years than they are now. See what I did there? I just made the subtle suggestion that all the cool kids are doing it.
How do I do it?
Well, here are the steps…
Step 1: Make an Appointment
Pick a day when you have some time with no distractions and make an appointment with yourself (and your spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend, life partner, friend with benefits, or any other stakeholder in your life) to get it done. I’m thinking you’ll need two or three hours. It’s important to make an appointment with yourself. My husband and I have been talking about doing this for months now, but something always seems to be in the way. He’s got a big project at work, I’m busy with my daughter’s activities, blah blah blah.
Bottom line: If you get it on your calendar, you’ll get it done.
Step 2: Break it Down
This one is going to be different for everyone so ask yourself this important question, “Where do I want to be in three years?" Identify your personal priorities and break them down.
Financial Goals
For my husband and me, we have definite financial goals we want to meet and our goal is to create a plan to meet them, but know that this will be different for everyone. Here are some examples of sound financial goals you could consider, but it is by no means a definitive list, just a guideline.
- Create a college savings plans for each of your kids
- Save the equivalent of three months salary for emergencies
- Pay down credit card debt
- Buy a house or refinance your current home
- Make a Last Will & Testament
- Increase your contribution to your 401K or open a 401K if you don’t have one
Personal Goals
This is the part I’m most excited about. I love this kind of stuff. Yeah, financial goals are probably the most important, but personal goals are more fun. Yet, here’s the trick…
When it comes to personal goals, you have to be specific. It’s not enough to simply say you want to “get in shape.” A goal stated like that is too subjective with no timeline for completion. Instead say, “I want to lose 30 pounds or I want to run a half-marathon.” Stated like that, you now have a finish line to work toward and an exact moment when you can proclaim with great certainty that you have accomplished your goal!
Here are some examples of suggested personal goals you could consider, but again, they are your goals and they can be anything you want them to be:
- Lose fifteen pounds
- Go back to school (Get my GED, Bachelor’s or Masters. Sure, you could get your PhD, but that’s just showing off!)
- Learn Spanish
- Read War and Peace (and not the Cliff’s Notes!)
- Make a new friend or break-up with a VDP (A VDP is a Very Draining Person. Let’s face it…you know who they are, you just have to choose to do something about it).
- Join or start a book club.
- Grow a garden.
- Go vegetarian three times a week.
- Go to individual and/or marriage counseling
This is my philosophy about counseling: Sometimes we can get into patterns that sabotage our attempts to be happy, healthy and successful and we don't even realize we're doing it! Counseling is a good idea if you or someone you love is struggling with life, drugs, alcohol, or past traumatic experiences. Marriage counseling is a good idea if you’re starting to think that it's the only thing standing between you and a homicide charge. The last thing this world needs is another cheesy Lifetime movie about a woman who snapped and did in her husband.
Think of your personal goals as a bucket list, but instead of things you want to do before you die, it’s a list of things you want to do to be better off in three years than you are today.
Be honest with yourself and be brave. Sometimes the things that are holding us back the most in life are the things we’re most afraid to confront.
Professional Goals
Sure, your professional goals can influence your financial goals and vice versa, but I see this as a separate category. Ask yourself these questions:
Do I like my job?
Do I see opportunities for advancement?
Do I want to do something completely different?
Do I want more or less responsibility that I have now?
Do I want to make more money than I'm making now? (This one might seem like a no-brainer, but if the answer to this question is 'yes,' then you have to do something about it.)
The answers to these questions should give you some direction for setting your professional goals.
Step 3: Make it Happen!
After you have identified your goals, write each of them down on a sheet of paper and leave space under each goal. In that space, write the specific steps you are going to take to achieve that goal and give yourself a deadline!
For example: Say your goal is to learn Spanish. Well, short of moving to Mexico for three months as part of a radical emersion program, you have to figure out a logical and realistic way to make it happen. I recommend that your steps should look something like this…
Objective: I want to become fluent in Spanish.
Goals:
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Timeline
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Check out the Rosetta Stone Software at the library.
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By September 1st.
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Practice my vocabulary three times a week for at least one hour.
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For one year.
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Ask a Spanish-speaking friend to practice with me.
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By October 31st
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Watch the news or a Spanish-language soap opera on Telemundo everyday to test my language comprehension.
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For one year.
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Read an entire novel in Spanish
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By December 2014
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So here it is…the three year strategic plan. If we do this, and we stick together, we should all be a little better off than we are now. So who’s with me???
I can already tell you that my husband and I have completed Step One. We’ve made an appointment. We’re sitting down tomorrow night to create our strategic plan. Stay tuned and I will share parts of our plan and I'll embark on my first mini-challenge!
