02 Jan 2017: Plan Your Work And Work Your Plan
I am not a professional coach in any way shape or form, but I have used one on a few occasions in the past, and in 2016 I went through an invaluable exercise in goal setting, as encouraged and outlined by my coach. I’ve never been one to set firm goals in any areas of my life; I always knew what I wanted to achieve financially, personally, physically, and spiritually, but I never physically came up with a plan…until last year. Without getting into too much detail, I developed a list of lifelong goals, annual goals, quarterly goals, monthly goals, and weekly goals, but I did not tuck them away in a journal, or just post the list on the frame of my computer monitor. I worked them into a spreadsheet, and then tracked on a daily basis those tasks that would lead to my goals, and I did this for an entire calendar year.
What an eye opening process this was. I’m 42 years old and I’m left shaking my head wondering why I did not take the time to do this earlier on in life!
At the conclusion of 2016, I was able to celebrate my successes and understand what I needed to do to continue forward momentum, and I was able to evaluate my shortcomings and understand what I needed to do differently in order to meet or exceed my goals for 2017. I give credit to the life/professional coach who taught me this process, but I also learned quite a lot from Jeff Olson’s book, The Slight Edge. If you have not read it, I highly recommend it.
So as you kick off the new year, I challenge you to not just “plan your work,” but “work your plan!”
Wishing you all the best in 2017!
Matt
Matt Barcus
President :: Precision Executive Search, Inc.
Managing Partner :: CivilEngineeringCentral.com
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