More about Vision, Mission, Goals- the order of development is critical

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Last week, I differentiated between what is our Vision, Mission, and Goals.  We  tend to focus on those goals- we have something in mind, hone in on it, and drive relentlessly to complete it.  We put together these goals to achieve the success we desire in our lives. Others may have goal(s) in mind, but life (or lassitude) helps divert them (or us)  from focusing and completing that goal in a reasonable amount of time (and reasonable is in the eye of the beholder). But, we all understand that we need to develop goals, plan to achieve them, and get what we want from life.

The problem is the very process delineated above is “bass-ackward”.  One must develop the vision first- the view of where you (or your enterprise) will be in the future. Codifying values and mission is a lot easier than developing that vision (this is presuming we live according to our values and mission), so that we can then choose the goals needed to achieve our vision- using processes that comply with our mission and values.

Yes, we will have to do other things in our lives.  After all, we have jobs (unless this IS your enterprise- and that makes the process a whole lot easier), we have kids (most of us adults, anyway), we have spouses (some of us, anyway), and we have friends (if you don’t, you have bigger problems to address).  But, that does not mean we don’t insure that the bulk of our actions every day achieve the goals that let us convert our vision into our reality.

We have spent hours combing our wants, our needs, our loves, our strengths and weaknesses.  Our vision for the future is succinct and cogent.  Our (written) plan of attack  is top-notch.  But, now, just a few months later, it’s clear that many (most?) of the short-term goals are not going to be met.

You see, developing a goal (or series of goals) and achieving same are two different issues.  Failure to achieve a goal is not (necessarily) related to how many hours one devotes to the matter(s).  It is more related to the decisions we are asked to make each day, how many hours we think about the goals each day, and how one effects or delegates activities each and every day.

Spend a little time every day (get up earlier, stay up later, stop watching TV for just one show- we are only talking about 15 minutes [at the start] to hone your actions into achievable chunks.  Your vision thanks you- and you will be thrilled with your life down the road.

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