MaXIMIze - Planning for Success

Many of you have heard me refer to TED Talks and TEDx. There is an awesome TEDx talk from 2014 titled Getting in Control and Creating Space by David Allen, who is a management consultant and executive coach with over 20 years experience in his field.

His message here is that we already have a natural planning model, that our brain has used since we were six months old, that works to bring our desire into reality.

It flows something like this:

1. Identify your desired outcome. What is the main reason/purpose for having this event, getting that item, accomplishing that goal?

2. Create a vision for the successful accomplishment of your desire. What does success in this particular endeavor look like as you move from here to there?

3. Generating ideas. The tension between where we are now and where we want to be causes ideas to be generated - also knowing as brainstorming. What needs to be done in order move from where we are now to where we want to be?

4. Structure - also known as outline or schedule. This is laying out the most viable, workable ideas in a logical sequence to accomplish the desired outcome.

5. Taking the next action. Identifying and then taking the very next action needed to make progress toward the desired outcome.

He also contrasted this against two more "normal" processes we very often see in the business world.

The first supposedly "normal" process he described is where we seem to jump in the middle - generating ideas - without first identifying what the desired outcome is and what that outcome looks like.

The second supposedly "normal" process he described is where we start taking action first, and then maybe work backwards through the process.  This way of working the process is actually the more common of the supposedly "normal" processes we see in the business world today.

My question to you this week is two-fold:

1. Which process do you use to take a project to fruition, either on your own or in a group?

2. Which process actually makes more sense to use to take a project to fruition?

My challenge to you for the next few months is this:

For each of the areas we will be discussing - finances, relationships, physical health, spiritual health, career, and overall well-being - use the natural process of identifying the desire/purpose/goal, creating the vision, generating ideas, laying out those ideas in a logical sequence or structure, and then finally taking the next action to achieve the desire/purpose/goal in living your best life now.

With April comes tax time and a focus on finances.I'll be sharing insights I've gleaned from Suze Orman and other sources to help all of us live our best financial lives now.

Until next time, Namaste!