Make It Happen

Last night, I met a delightful individual, Tracy Slotin, who works on the road delivering seminars for financial types (How to be a great controller, etc). I was going over my own business plan, and she suggested a different type of planning.

Where do you want your business to be in a 100 years? Write it down. Where do you want it to be in 50 years? Write it down. In 25? 10? 5? 2? next year? in 6 months? 3 months? 1 month, etc. Then next to the result, briefly write one or two things that you must do to achieve that result. If you follow this religiously, you will know exactly what needs to happen this week and next. The beauty of this system is that when you hit each of these milestones, you'll be able to compare the actual with the plan, and assess your progress against a specific milestone.

We can use this same approach when it comes to our career. I am pretty sure where my career will be 100 years from now: 6 feet under. It will work if you start with a number closer to 30 or 40.

Secret Sauce

There is no shortage of books, experts, web sites, and computer programs that purport to tell you how to succeed in your job, and often, in life. They exist because of the public's insatiable appetite for self-improvement. When you examine them closely, the vast majority have two things in common:

- Success will be yours if only you follow "the system" to the letter.

- They know nothing about you and your unique circumstance.

Unfortunately, for both of these reasons, many of these resources are of questionable value. If you are unique, how can a generic "system" help you sell yourself? (It can't.)

No one knows you better than yourself, and no amount of generic secret sauce is going to make you successful. Instead, consider these questions about your unique selling proposition:

1) What skill do you have that is better than anyone else's, with the greatest market value?

2) What are you doing to improve that value further?

3) What are you doing to demonstrate that value to your employer, to your family, and within your community?

This week's action item: By all means continue reading, listening, and surfing - after all, you would not have found this Tipsheet article if you weren't doing so! But if you want to get yourself to the next level, it will take more than just reading, listening, and surfing - it will take action. Start by answering these three key questions.

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.PersonalBalanceSheet.com/news to register.

Randall Craig
www.RandallCraig.com
www.PersonalBalanceSheet.com/news