How To Create a Life Strategy for Business Success - Part One of a Series


Ask yourself the following:

1. I have created a life-strategy plan for the next:

a. 20 years.................Yes No b. 10 years.................Yes No c. 5-years..................Yes No d. 1-year...................Yes No e. 1-week...................Yes No

If you knew how to create a life strategy and implement it, would you be interested in doing so? ...................Yes No

Very few people take the time to think through, and commit to paper, a life strategy for the future.

Surely, we all set certain life goals such as finishing High School, obtaining a college degree, attaining a specific professional position, reaching an athletic goal, or achieving a particular level of personal income.

However, in general, few people look to the future and fashion a wide-ranging and cohesive life strategy that would reach 5-10-15, or even 20 years into the future.

Normally, people maintain much shorter life-strategy horizons because it is difficult and very challenging to look far into the future and predict an outcome. In addition, most people, from an early age, do not learn why it is important to create a life strategy.

The lack of long-term life-strategy horizons could also be an intrinsic consequence of our culture and its orientation to instant gratification and wanting everything NOW! You could say a lot about the importance of living in the moment and of not being obsessive to the point of planning one's life down to the last detail. After all what about spontaneity and embracing the naturalness of life as it unfolds?

We could not agree more.

However, we have always encouraged people to develop some form of a life strategy so they have something to look forward to, and, at the same time, set productive goals that have meaning, substance, and represent a raison d'être for their many years of living.

A life without some life strategy is like a boat without a rudder.

Your boat will definitely get you somewhere due to the forces of wind and water currents, but where you end up may not be where you really want to go.

For that reason, it is important to give your life some direction to end up where you want to be in life in the future.

Bear in mind that you do not have to give up spontaneity or the natural evolution of your life to embrace a life strategy even 20 years into the future. It is equally important to be open to all possibilities in your life so that you do not overlook opportunities that might come to you.

You will discover that when you have a life strategy that has a 15-20 year horizon you will be continually refining your life strategy as you gain more knowledge and experience in your life. Additionally, you will also learn to fine-tune opportunities as they present themselves, which further enhances the fulfillment of your life strategy.

Consider a long-range life strategy as a chart of your future, which has elasticity so that you can tweak it from time to time to perfect its outcome.

Conversely, you should build your life strategy on a solid foundation of clear life-goals.

Goals like self-reliance, financial self-sufficiency, and entrepreneurialism.

For instance, let us say that one of your major long-term goals in a 20-year life strategy is to retire a multi-millionaire at age 50. That certainly is a reasonable and worthy goal for anyone. However, let's say you get within 10 years of your goal and lose everything in a bad business deal. At that point, you literally have to start over to rebuild whatever portion of your multi-million dollar retirement nest egg that you had already accumulated.

Does your life strategy change? Yes, it certainly does.

The biggest change is that you now have to extend your retirement age to 60 instead of 50. Then again, based on all of the knowledge, valuable contacts, and business savvy you have acquired in your life thus far you might be able to shorten the time horizon to your goal.

More often than not that is exactly what happens with entrepreneurs who encounter a major setback, they come back even stronger. As a result, the life-strategy goal of retiring a multi-millionaire does not change, only the timeline changes.

Clearly, developing a life strategy makes a lot of sense and can be useful to just about anyone.

In future articles, we'll discuss these questions: How do you go about creating a life strategy? What are the steps, and how do you maintain a life strategy over time in order to reach your goals?

About The Author

Charles and Holly Egner are veteran entrepreneurs. They have trained, coached, and mentored hundreds of aspiring entrepreneurs. Their last entrepreneurial venture sold for just under $400 million in 1999. BuildOnYourDreams.com was founded to help promising entrepreneurs to build the business of their dreams.

For a f.ree Life Strategy Planning Teleseminar, visit http://www.BuildOnYourDreams.com today.

MORE RESOURCES:
RELATED ARTICLES
Quantum Success Thinking
It sounds simple- right? You are where you THINK you are! And it is simple but do we practice it? Of course we are where we think we are! The question is where do YOU think you are?It's a principle I talk about all the time. Everything we do, we create in our minds before we do anything.
Ensure Your Own Success
Being organised is a major step to success and the most important things to organise are YOURSELF and your PLAN.What do you want to accomplish? Is it a new home or to fund your children's further education, or a million and one other things I am sure you can think of.
Learning From Failure--What To Do When You Blow It!
Becoming successful is not easy. We all get tossed around somewhat in our attempts to win or succeed.
Reach Your Goals - Start A Round Robin
Start a "round robin" goal letter with others who need a little motivation and accountability If you know a few people who are working on projects of their own (and lets face it, how many people do you know who aren't) ask them if they'd be interested in starting a "success round robin."  Participants do not have to be aiming for the same goals for this to work.
The Amazing 3-Step Formula To Success!
Believe it or not, there is a special 3-step formula that makes people successful.Unfortunately, you can't buy the formula.
Balance Of Life
Mary and Susan were friends for years. They grew up together and attended the same schools.
Success At Any Time?
It goes without saying that we are unlikely to experience much success in our lives if we don't take action. That is why Anthony Robbins said,"The path to success is to take massive, determined action.
Remembering What You Read - Nine Effective Strategies
Reading lots these days? Having trouble remembering and recalling? For many, reading is a passive activity. And, as with many passive activities, it's challenging for the brain and the body to absorb and assimilate information.
Wait, Thats Not on the Map
Back from my amazing summer excursion, a month long drive through Spain!  Well, I mean, I didn't do any of the driving, my partner did.  See, I only know how to drive an automatic and since we have a stick here in Belgium, my partner kindly agreed to do all the driving.
As Long As You Try Your Best, There Is No Such Thing As Failure
I always say to my children, as long as you try your best, there is no such thing as failure. I believe this one hundred percent and it is a philosophy I am trying to install into my kids.
Achieve Success Now - What Are You Waiting For?
Are you ready to finally realize your dream? I'm talking about the desire that you carry deep down inside of you that you attribute to some adolescent fancy. It's the dream that isn't practical and can't possible be fulfilled.
Hidden Gems in a Quote: From Henry David Thoreau I have learned, that if one advances...
"I have learned, that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours"The great American poet, author, and philosopher, Henry David Thoreau was the writer of the passage above. It's a passage that has been quoted many times by different authors in the personal development field.
Fear of Success? Fear of Failure?
What's holding you back?One of my clients came to me saying he wanted to expand his business - something he had thought about for years. He described the changes he wanted to make but he had taken limited action to make those changes happen.
Tools for Constructing the Road to Success
Too many times in the pursuit of our dreams, we loose sight of the total picture and instead settle on a small piece of it. A job, any job, whether it is in the conventional job market or any one of a number of work from home ventures all require the same thing - people of vision.
I Would Give Anything To ?
A couple days ago I was listening to a CD by one of the most successful speakers in the industry. He has been around for many years and is considered one of the greats.
Keeping Your Mind Tuned for Success
Absolutely no one can underestimate the power of the mind and its role in our success! It is imperative to keep our minds right and on the right track if we are to achieve balanced success in our career, finances, health, emotions, relationships and spiritual lives.The analogy I would like to use here is one of a radio station.
Catching the W.A.V.E.s of Greatness
Greatness is all around us. From Oprah to Bill Gates to Einstein to Stephen Hawkins to Gandhi to Mother Teresa, we read, see and hear it every day and sometimes we even have the opportunity to feel greatness for others and ourselves.
What Do You Know?
"When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school It's a wonder I can think at all"- Paul Simon, KodachromeUnless you are a military historian, it is completely irrelevant to your life that the Duke of Wellington defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Yet that knowledge is taught to you in school.
Fear Not If You Dont Feel Youre Off To Quite The Blazing Start Youd Like
There are those out there who would lead us to believe that if we don't meet with overnight success in our endeavors that we are some how not trying as hard as we can.I am here NOW to debunk this way of thinking!.
The Power of Small
Routinely, I rise out of bed before the birds, and watch the sunlight flood my office every morning. See, I love this time of day! But what I don't love is being rudely rousted out of a deep sleep before my normal rise and shine time, and every day for the past few months I have been.