4 Tips For Developing Strategy And Ascending To The Next Version Of You
As I mentioned at the close of last month’s blog, Living Your Desired And Inspired Life: Choose the RIGHT Fitness Goals for YOU Right Now, once you get clear on the right goal(s) for you—whether that includes fitness, career, education, relationships, etc—the next step involves developing a strategy to get from where you are now to where you aspire to be.
Designing a solid and realistic strategy and fine-tuning it as needed is critical to success.
Your strategy functions as a road map that you can follow regardless of whether fear, fatigue or overwhelmed arise. A well-developed strategy also creates efficiency and saves you energy so you can be fully present and resourced for the challenge at hand. Rather than wasting your precious energy wondering what’s next or feeling unclear about the future, you can confidently follow your strategic plan and put your energy toward implementation, optimal performance and continued growth.
It’s also important to emphasize that creating the right strategy when you’re embarking on something entirely new or asking yourself to perform at a new level is crucial because these more advanced challenges will require everything you have to meet them successfully.
Put Your Vision Into Action
After you've defined what you aspire to achieve and have identified the right goal(s) for you, the next step is figuring out how you’re going to put your vision into action.
Over many years of coaching, mentoring, teaching and training both myself and others, I’ve witnessed and lived both personally and professionally the power in taking the time and laying out a thoughtful and realistic strategy. A well-developed strategy includes a series of action items and incremental goals to maintain momentum as you progress along the path.
Big growth requires energy, commitment, skill, support and, most importantly, a solid plan.
You still have to show up everyday and work hard, but a solid plan can function much like a nice tailwind—as you learn to trust it and work with it, you can settle in, enter a flow state and experience maximum efficiency in your body, mind and spirit. As you reach the pivotal milestones that you’ve marked along the path, enthusiasm builds upon itself, increasing your motivation and helping you stay committed and engaged all the way to the goal line.
The following exercises that I use with my clients can help you, too, with developing strategy as you begin the exciting journey of reaching your goals and ascending to the next version of you!
Identify The NECESSARY Steps Toward Achieving Your Goal
In building a strategy for success, start with the obvious.
If you want to run a race, do you have the necessary equipment? Are the races, trainings or programs that interest you available for enrollment? If your goal is to apply to college, do you know the precise requirements for admission? If not, where can you find them out?
While these initial steps may seem simplistic, they are important, foundational and necessary actions to take when beginning to work toward any goal.
Write out exactly what MUST be done, determine an appropriate deadline and, if possible, begin immediately. When you create clarity, you create momentum.
This simple exercise also often triggers intuition and allows you to access that deep knowing about the viability of your goal and the path of least resistance in achieving your goals successfully.
There’s also no need to reinvent the wheel.
If your goal is commonly shared by others, the path toward success may already be well paved.
For example, when I decided years ago that my goal was to earn a law degree, a quick Google search informed me that I would need to prepare for and take the entrance exam, request my college transcripts, write an admissions essay, acquire recommendations and fill out applications for each of the schools I hoped to attend. The task items and deadlines for each step were well established. All I needed to do was follow the predetermined path.
In other instances, such as starting my first business, the specific steps that I needed to take were less obvious and required creative thought and outside support. If you find yourself embarking upon something new or you have the desire to reach a whole new level of performance, and you aren’t sure where to begin. Consider asking yourself the following questions:
Journal Prompt:
WHO can you talk with and take guidance from that has been down this particular path before?
WHAT information do you need to collect in order to move forward?
WHERE can you obtain the information that you need to succeed?
WHAT are the MUST DO actions/steps to be taken necessary to reaching your goal(s)?
Finally, ask yourself what’s missing from the information I have right now that I need to build a roadmap towards my goal?
After doing this exercise, you may realize you want to enroll in a self-education program or hire a coach for support to fast forward the process. Think “smarter, not harder and recognize that a little help, in the beginning, can help you remain committed and effective towards reaching your ultimate goal.
Action Items:
The exercise of slowing down and taking the time to ask yourself what MUST be done and creating a written list often reveals that you know most, if not all, of the major steps needed to reach your goal or, alternatively, that you need support in developing strategy. As stated above, creating your roadmap is an imperative first step in building a successful strategy because it maps out the major milestones you will need to meet along the path toward reaching your goal.
It’s also important to identify what I call the “low-hanging fruit” on your list. These are the items on your list that can be done quickly and easily. The low hanging first on your list are the perfect first steps on your road map. Accomplishing these early incremental goals creates the energy and momentum that you’ll need to solidify your commitment towards reaching your goals .
Remain vigilant and continue tweaking your strategic road map until you feel confident that it’s the right path for you, and do not be afraid to ask for help along the process. Reaching your goals, especially those that push you to your limit and ask you to uplevel as a person, is going to require a lot out of you. Keep an eye on tasks that can be outsourced to save time and energy—and recognize that developing strategy itself could be one of them.
Quick Sidenote:
Beware of the potential trap of ONLY doing the easy things on your list. If your goal is asking you to grow as a person, it's likely asking you to do things that make you uncomfortable or that you find difficult. While the easy things are a great place to START, be sure to carve out time to push through the challenging tasks on your list early in the process.
Also, I mentioned it briefly above, but it's worth noting again, if you’re starting a new venture—whether that be in fitness, business, relationships or making a transition—and nothing seems “obvious” and everything feels hard, consider hiring a coach or talking to a friend who has already been where you’re aspiring to go to help with developing strategy and creating your personal road map to success.
Address Potential Hurdles, Obstacles And Hesitancies While Honoring Your Strengths
In building an efficient and effective strategy it is important to assess both your strengths and weaknesses. It's through honest self-reflection that you can anticipate and overcome what I call hurdles, obstacles and hesitancies that arise on the path.
Hurdles are those specific tasks that require a lot of you and make you work hard to get over them.
Obstacles are the impediments that pop up and require problem-solving to get around.
Hesitancies are all about mindset. When we hesitate, there may be no big challenge in the way but, for whatever reason, we’re not doing what we set out to do.
By knowing our innate skills, talents and gifts, we can lean on them to get us through challenging times and use them to our advantage to remain committed to our plan.
Having an honest and humble understanding of our weaknesses assures that we aren’t blindsided or sabotaged by them. Even the strongest among us still have an Achilles’ heel. By anticipating and addressing the hurdles, obstacles or hesitancies that could arise on the path, you can correct your path and/or ask for help before any challenge becomes overwhelming. Reach out to your friends and family, find/consult a mentor, hire a coach.
An effective strategy that is thoughtfully designed to get you where you want to go requires knowing where and when to push hard and where and when to pass on tasks and get the support you need. Use your energy wisely.
Journal Prompt:
Take a few minutes to review your road map to success, visualize yourself progressing from one critical step to the next.
Highlight any tasks you consider a hurdle that will push you or require significant effort. Evaluate whether you would benefit from support in accomplishing these feats or whether you feel confident that you can push through them on your own.
Next, ask yourself how you will address any obstacles that arise on your path. Is strategic thinking and problem-solving one of your strengths or are these or others areas in which you’d be better served through asking for help or calling upon an external resource?
Finally, assess your mindset. Do you have a can-do attitude or is self-doubt, anxiety or negative self-talk keeping you from living an Inspired Life? It's important that you become your greatest fan, cheerleader and aly in the process of reaching your dreams. If, instead, you find your mind bringing you down, seek support immediately. Nothing will take you down faster than being your own worst enemy.
Action Item:
Include what you can see as hindering your progress in a sidebar of your strategy. Take steps immediately to get support in place to assist and support you in overcoming both the real and perceived challenges.
Strengthen Your Resolve With Healthy Habits
Setting a goal and establishing a strategy for getting there is only half the battle. It’s in following your plan consistently that the real magic and personal growth occurs. The single best way to assure continued effort and progress on the path is by creating healthy habits that are consistent with your goals and that reinforce the strategy you’ve put in place to get there
When I work with clients I spend as much time helping them tweak their schedule, improve their habits and cultivate a positive mindset as I do in helping them choose a goal and build the strategy to reach it. It’s well known by coaches, trainers, athletes, CEOs and others who have attained high levels of success that one of the most effective ways to shape the future is to continuously examine the habits that you routinely engage in, transforming those that do not serve your highest self and building upon and strengthening those that do.
If you want more information on accessing your habits and a few tips to keep honing them, check out my blog Changing Habits: The Simplest And Most Effective Way To Change Your Life.
Journal Prompt:
What activities do you do on a regular basis that support you in reaching your goals? How can you do these more or build on them with additional healthy habits?
What habits or beliefs are holding you back from reaching your dreams? What can you do to improve upon these, or where can you seek support to make a change?
Work With A Coach
The fastest and most effective way that I know to overcome limitations, reach goals and ascend to higher levels of performance in any area is to work with a coach.
A great coach offers the guidance and support necessary to efficiently and effectively uplevel. An excellent coach saves you the precious time and energy that you need to focus on and work toward becoming the next version of you. If you know—or are starting to realize—that you need assistance in identifying the RIGHT goals for YOU, developing a solid STRATEGY that aligns with your lifestyle and breaking down bigger tasks into incremental actions to continually move forward, build strength and endurance and maintain momentum, let’s talk. As a coach, mentor and trainer who has excelled in athletics, academics and business, I’m inspired to help others reach their full potential and fully enjoy this precious and incredible life.
Whether you’re pushing yourself to accomplish new physical feats, starting or upleveling a business, reinventing yourself or in the midst of trying to gracefully and effectively navigate a life transition, together we set the right goals for you, develop a solid and realistic strategy, and assure you have the support you need to build an Inspired Life ripe with ongoing growth, health, happiness and vitality.