I am home in the desert. It seems like a rare occurrence
lately. Being here is energizing. I am storing up my energy for the final
travel run of 2008. I am here today, gone tomorrow. I will be in Sacramento
this week, then back to Argentina next week and then I will be home until mid
January. I can barely believe it. I can see the finish line and I am feeling
great about my upcoming time at home. I am especially excited to have our
daughter home for Christmas. Our whole family will be together for the week of
Christmas. I can’t wait. I am sure we will play a few more rounds of “ruthless
Uno”.
This is my favorite time of year. It seems like we all slow
down a bit and allow everyone to enjoy the excuse of “it’s the holiday season”
to be a little less productive at work. It is a great excuse and I promise to
use it a lot this year.
This is a time of year to be productive in different ways,
so give yourself permission to be a little less productive at work. I know it
is counter intuitive and against conventional wisdom, but find a way to do it. I
promise, the world will not fall apart.
Most of us have just finished our annual planning and
budgeting exercises at work. It is something we wouldn’t dare miss. We look
back at the year and how we did. We project what we will do next year and we
submit a budget for how we will do it. Most businesses with over 50 employees
would never dream of skipping this exercise. A lot of time and energy is spent
each year planning for the future.
I notice that many of the leaders I work with are committed
to this process. They make sure it happens. I find it interesting that they are
far less committed to planning their own personal life. They wouldn’t dare miss
the business planning exercises but they leave their life to chance. I think
this is one of the reasons there is so much conflict between professional and
personal life. Plain and simple we give the personal life less time. We think
it has to be that way because there are so many demands placed on us at work. I
want you to know that you can have your cake and eat it too. You just have to
create a plan.
I never miss an annual planning exercise for my personal
life. I actually have a 100-year plan. That sounds funny when I consider that I
will only be on the planet for another 40 or 50 years if I am lucky. I don’t
like leaving things to chance so I have a plan. I update the plan frequently
and I have it broken down into various increments. In addition to my 100-year
plan, I have a 50-year, 20-year, 10-year, 5-year, 1-year and a 90-day plan. I
also like to create a daily plan. All of these plans are aligned with each
other. All of them support the next stage. In other words, my daily plan
ensures that I am doing what I need to today in order to successfully accomplish
my 90-day plan. My 90-day plan ensures that I am doing what I need to do over
the course of the next 90 days to successfully accomplish my 1-year plan. The
same is true for my other plans. Like I said, these plans are alive so I am
free to change them as needed. I feel free within them.
Everything is personal to me, so I include my professional
planning as part of this process. Some parts are expanded to fully cover their
unique perspectives and each is able to stand-alone for the part of my life
they represent. My plans encompass 4 critical areas; my relationships with those
I love, my physical fitness, my professional life, and my spiritual life. I
make sure that each part of my plan is aligned with the other parts and all the
other important areas of my life. This helps me to ensure a greater sense of
balance and integration.
Before the end of the year, I will write about the different
parts of this plan. My purpose today is to evoke in you a desire to better plan
your own life. Don’t leave it to chance. Realize today that time will pass
whether you have a plan or not. The difference is that when you proactively
plan your life, you become the person that you want to be. When you let life
happen to you, you are at its mercy and become its victim. You get what it
gives you instead of what you want and you will always feel unbalanced and
fatigued.
This is a great time of year to create your own planning
process. Use the totally acceptable excuse of “it’s the holidays” and take some
time to think about who you want to become over the course of the next year and
what you want to accomplish. Carefully consider things making sure that you do
not over or under commit. Make plans that you can complete. Make plans that
will stretch you. Make plans that will help you enjoy your life more fully.
Decide which critical areas you want to include in your life and integrate them
together in ways that will enliven your resolve to be better.
Feel free to call me or email me if you would like some help
getting started. I am an expert in this process.
See you on the road!
Andrew Thorn
760-559-3548
athorn@telioscorp.com
