Strategy Me: 5 Steps That Will Improve Your Life Trajectory
Where will your 80,000 hours take you?
“ The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be. ” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
It is all too easy to fall into the daily grind of our lives or business, continuously doing stuff. That’s normal, in-fact in many ways, it is the typical path; get up in the morning, put our blinkers on, go through the day -rinse and repeat.
On average, you will spend 80,000 hours of your life in work! If at the beginning of your career (or at the end), you were told that you would spend this percentage of your life doing something where you would be largely unsatisfied, would you take action (or have regret), would you do something about it there and then?
Then, why is it okay to allow it to happen slowly, day by day, month by month, year by year. The answer is, it’s not okay, so let’s do something about it…
StrategyMe
Many corporate or business strategies have a framework, a plan of action to achieve a long term goal, a strategy. Many good strategies go something like this: a Vision, Current state, Target state, Gap analysis and a Roadmap to get there.
Wrestling with where I was going, what I wanted to do, it dawned on me, that there already was an existing proven framework, so why not adopt and apply it, but to myself… a strategy on me, a StrategyMe! A plan of action for my long term goals.
Your Personal Strategy steps:
Warning: This may require deep thinking, maybe in a dark, quiet room!
1. Vision
A short, concise, inspiring statement of where you want to be, at a specific time in the future.
This is the bigger hitter statement, the one that’s gonna get you excited! Most likely this won’t be nailed up front, don’t worry though, it will evolve through the following steps.
2. Current state
The idea here is to get a well-rounded view of where you are at today: experience, skills, drivers, strengths, weakness, opportunities, threats, what kind of things do you enjoy most or not like doing at all.
- Where am I currently? Think about the breadth and depth of your experience, what you’ve done so far, achievements, what expertise, skills, strengths, do you have.
- What are my drivers ? What do you enjoy doing, What excites you? What are you passionate about? When did you last get a butterfly feeling in your gut?
- Seek feedback: colleagues, friends , surveys, self-reflection.
Gather, collect and summarise your thoughts, findings, themes and any epiphanies.
3. Target State
The objective here is to arrive at some potential target state goals, types of roles, careers etc.
This requires more aspirational thinking — give yourself permission to not be constrained by the “how”.
- Think about the types of ideal roles, activities, things, that you find exciting.
- Think deeply. Visualise. Go BIG.
- Set a timer for 1 min. Jot down a thought, an idea — sketch a picture/write. Repeat as many times as possible, when you think you are done and there’s nothing left, go again!
Next, refine and choose the top X or a combination of and iterate.
Don’t worry if it’s not 100% nailed, if you have some green-shoots, some new ideas to explore, that’s success too.
4. Gap Analysis
Gap Analysis = Target state minus Current State.
Think about the gaps between where you are today and where you want to be. Think about the activities that you might need to do, to close the gaps. Think inside and outside the box. Think big and think small.
A few thought starters:
- Skills, experience, expertise, learning
- Seeking coaching, mentorship
- Practice, volunteering, experimentation
- Research, books, podcasts, blogs, meet-ups
- Networking
- Roles, responsibilities
5. Roadmap
With the learnings in hand from the previous steps, create a high level roadmap. This will form the major steps and milestones needed to move towards or reach the target state.
I like to think in 3 Time Horizons:
- Horizon 1: This will include a more detailed set of tasks, activities and milestones, that will allow you to take (immediate) action, experiment, create some habits and get momentum going.
- Horizon 2: This will contain more macro steps and milestones, likely to be less populated at this point. Will evolve based on learnings and progress in Horizon 1.
- Horizon 3: Potentially even more macro steps and milestones here. Will evolve based on learnings and progress in Horizon 1 & 2.
“Always plan for the fact that no plan ever goes according to plan.” -Simon Sinek
The clarity in the previous steps will help you to move forward, towards something personalised and special.
However, it is not a fixed plan, it will evolve and change, it will be living, and just like life there will be many twists and turns. It will give you a much better likelihood of moving towards a journey and destination of fulfilment, on your terms.
The creation of a strategy on yourself maybe a seem a little extreme for you. and that’s okay. The important takeaways here, are: Make the time to think about what you want, where you’re at currently, where you are going and how you might get there. Then… Take Action. Experiment. Learn. Iterate.
Take control of your 80,000 hour journey. StrategyMe.
