Drilling Down From The Big Picture

If you want to be sure that you know where you are going, start with the big picture of your life goals first of all. Just as in business plans, battle plans and other plans for key objectives, your personal development objectives plan needs to first tackle the major objectives by defining them clearly against the smart model to ensure that they are specific (do you know what they are), measurable (will you be able to tell if you have achieved them), achievable (are they within reasonable striking distance), realistic (do they make sense, do they bring a significant, positive and relevant change) and time-bound (by when or what date do you want to get this done).

Once you have your objectives in place, its time to make your personal improvement strategy. This is a little lower than the 30,000 feet level that you were at with your objectives, but you are still pretty high up. Your strategy gives the major methods, elements or steps necessary to achieve your objectives. At the same time, it does not explain how to accomplish each of the major steps or how to implement the different methods required. To understand this better, you need to then drill down again to get to a tactical level and then a specific action level.

Actions at ground level

The tactical level of personal development planning is in fact just one step removed from the real ground-level action plan. The tactics describe, in a general way, the nature of the actions that you will carry out in order to execute on the strategy in order to attain your objectives. Theyll describe what you need to do, but without specifying when or where. Theyll also link back to your strategy. A tactic, as a stand-alone item, is often meaningless. It is when it is related back to the strategy and the objectives that it makes sense.

Finally, your action plan lays out specific actions and timescales in order to really move towards your goals. Just like tactics, actions taken out of context dont mean much. Any personal development action that you take must be clearly linked back to, via tactics and strategy to the overall objectives, so that it can be shown to be a valuable and relevant thing to do in the context of your big picture.

Planning to win

Lets take an example from a military scenario. Lets suppose that you are a commander whose objective is to rout enemy forces from their encampment on a hill where they are firmly positioned and defended. For good measure, lets make this a smart objective by saying that you have 48 hours in which to do this. Your strategy might be to attack from the side where you know that the enemy has stockpiled its provisions on a rocky ledge and has posted fewer lookouts. Your tactical moves could then be to create diversions by bombarding the enemy at the front and on the other side, while your shock troops sneak round to scale the ledge and catch the enemy unawares. Your action plan then schedules the initial bombardment, the movement of your shock troops and the coordination of all attacks.

About The Author Mike Cosentino is a professional development expert, entrepreneur, and a top sales trainer read more of his topics or subscribe to his free newsletter at www.mikecosentino.net