It’s important to know what your strategy is and take a few days to plan it. You need a clear path to change the situation you’re in. While the journey to start somewhere and end up somewhere else can be thrilling, ask yourself if you want to remain thrilled or get out of your current situation. The short answer is to be conscious of your goal and allocate steps towards achieving it. While these steps may need repeated revisions, it’s better to regroup and adjust than to stumble around and hope for the best.
Improvisation can be fantastic, but it’s not foolproof. While I’ve intermittently improvised over the years with relatively okay results, I’ve found that strategy and planning with a clear map to guide my intentions has more often than not proved beneficial.
Corny as it may seem, my motivation finally dawned after a miscellaneous spousal argument and the epiphany finally dawning. A strategy is necessary. As the movie trope went, I looked into my own eyes and told myself, “I’m going to change my life today for the next year and my future.” That audible pronouncement prompted me to take things further.
Without a strategy, you’ll continue to just get by and go in circles. I’ve done so for nearly two decades, and I know the time drips away quickly. Don’t let that happen to you. Develop a specific plan and move forward. Take a few days to plan and know what your strategy is.
It’s also important to have a backup plan. It’s something I never considered until health issues and a lack of a rainy day fund changed that pretty quickly. I had just gotten a lifeline in the form of a guaranteed job that I wanted, but it was only for six weeks. It was a great start, but I knew I needed more than just temporary relief.
However, the job required a good amount of driving and being on my feet a lot, which wasn’t a big deal until I decided it was time to get my eyes checked. I had ample time, but somehow a problem arose with my eyes and my sight. And suddenly, the driving became a task.
Then, outside my apartment building, I came home on a rainy day and the tiles weren’t dry, causing me to slip and land on my knee. It was then that I realized the importance of having a rainy day fund.
It’s crucial to come up with a failsafe plan ahead of time, as it’s not wise to do so when you’re already in a difficult situation. Know what your strategy is, take a few days to plan it, and follow through to thwart any potential challenges that life may throw your way.
Here are some steps to help you reverse work a strategy for a major life goal:
- Define the goal: Begin by clearly defining your major life goal, such as starting a business, buying a home, or achieving a fitness milestone.
- Break down the goal: Next, break down your major life goal into smaller, achievable steps. For example, if your goal is to start a business, some of the smaller steps might include conducting market research, writing a business plan, and securing funding.
- Determine timelines: Once you have a list of smaller steps, determine realistic timelines for achieving each one. Be sure to consider any external factors that may impact your timeline, such as work or family obligations.
- Determine resources: Determine what resources you will need to achieve each step, including time, money, and support from others.
- Determine actions: With your timelines and resources in mind, determine the specific actions you will need to take to achieve each step. Be sure to break each action down into manageable tasks.
- Create a reverse action plan: With all of the above information in mind, create a reverse action plan that outlines the specific steps you will need to take in reverse order to achieve your major life goal.
- Monitor progress: As you work through your reverse action plan, monitor your progress regularly and adjust your approach as needed.
By breaking down your major life goal into smaller, achievable steps and working backwards to create a reverse action plan, you can increase your chances of success and make your goal more manageable.
Daily quote:
“Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today.” James Dean
*** Like most things online it’s hard to say whether these quotes originate with the person they’re attributed to. Regardless, they’re a tool to hopefully inspire you and so does it matter as much as the point the words convey?