Planning for Personal Success
For as long as I can remember, I've been an observer. The act of observing now, however, is quite a different experience for me than it once was. I used to observe people and situations with an inherent hopefulness...a certainty that the people I met and the situations I experienced were lifting me ever higher towards my destiny in life. During that gloriously rose-colored phase, there wasn’t a question of greatness existing within me -- the only question was how that greatness would express itself.
But things have changed.
Even as I write this post (in long hand on a scrap of paper as I wait for my daughter to finish baseball practice), I struggle to remember the giddy excited feeling of not knowing what wonderful thing was waiting just around the corner.
So what happened? When did expectation and hopefulness turn into deep reflection and tinges of regret? Truthfully, I could list all sorts of reasons, but the thing that rings most true is the failure to plan for personal success.
Plan Your Work, then Work Your Plan
Until I was in my late thirties, I don’t think anyone ever asked me what I wanted to do with my life. And although it seems shocking to me now, I don’t think I ever really gave much thought to it either. I mean, sure, I thought things like "I'll be successful at my job…of course my life would be great! How could it not?"
How indeed.
As the saying goes, the devil is in the details. For years I did what everyone (including me) always thought I would do – I pursued a career as an actress and singer. Whenever I spoke of my goals however, my mantra was “I don’t want to be rich or famous, I just want to be a working actor.” And that I was, although the “work” and the “actor” part were more often than not two separate things. What I failed to do during these starving artist years was to create a plan for personal success. What I mean by this is that I failed to ask myself questions like “What are the circumstances I want to create/nurture in my life outside of my career?” “What is the minimum I need to be happy?” “Are the words I use conducive to the type of future I want to create for myself?”
Asking ourselves these types of questions is not always easy, but the payoff is that they can help form our actions and give us the laser focus we need to get clear on our higher purpose. They go a long way toward encouraging us to maintain that sense of hopefulness and excitement about life and day to day tasks.
We’ve all been told how we should create concrete professional and financial goals, but how many people take the time to sketch out in detail their personal plan for success? What personal milestones would you like to be experiencing 5 or 10 years down the line? Whether it’s learning to speak a foreign language, playing piano or visiting the beach everyday, have you thought about taking the baby steps that are necessary right now to make those things happen in the future?
Years ago, I read a book that talked about the concept of creating “value boxes” for your life. Essentially, you create a grid where each box within that grid is filled with an area of your life that you deem important to your happiness and well-being. Then you determine a plan for nurturing each of those areas consistently so that if there’s a break-down in one area (as we all experience from time to time), instead of being thrown completely out of balance, your life stays on even keel because of the other well-rounded areas.
Although it’s taken me a while to fully embrace this concept, making sure that each of my value boxes is carefully nurtured is what I strive for these days. That’s what matters to me right now.
Questions to Ponder
- Do you have a personal success plan (outside of work/career)?
- What are the top 3 things in your “value box”? Do you feel you give those things as much time and attention as you’d like? If not, what can you do to make them more of a priority?
I'd love to hear your thoughts about this topic via one of the social media channels listed below!
