Some colleagues in the planning and problem-solving industry like to suggest that strategic planning is a great mystical temple, where access is limited to only a sacred and learned priesthood elite.

Not so! Strategic planning - although it is a competency skill set of its own - is not rocket science. Whether in our business or personal lives, such planning consists of asking and answering three simple questions:

•  Where am I?

•  Where do I want to be?

•  How do I get there?

The reflection and self-assessment that accompany asking and answering these questions, and the planning that follows, can alter the course of our lives, which is what this article is about. On my bulletin board, next to my desk, I have posted for years quotes from three great thinkers about the value of questioning and reflection:

· It was Aristole who wrote, "It was through the feeling of wonder that people first began to question."

· Socrates, the progenitor of the great Socratic method, wrote, "Since the soul has learned all things, there is nothing to prevent someone from discovering all the rest, if they are brave and do not grow tired of inquiring."

· Plato, who occupied a similar niche with Socrates among the great thinkers, wrote, "We will be better and braver if we engage and inquire than if we indulge in the idle fancy that we already know."

Our Destiny is in Six Areas of Our Lives

The commitment that each of us should feel to lifelong learning needs to include the honesty to look inward, to study self and situation!

I suggest to CEOs, executives, friends, and family that each of us look at six criteria in our own personal lives:

•  Spiritual: Ethical, Behavioral, and Moral

•  Physical: Wellness, Fitness, and Nutrition

•  Financial: Income, Worth, and Asset Creation

•  Relational: Family, Primary, and Extended

•  Professional: Work, Business, and Career

•  Personal Growth and Self

It's been said that "a vision without action is called a daydream; but then again, action without a vision is called a nightmare." Stephen Covey's second principle is to have a predisposition to action, but, of course, starting with the end in mind. That's what we'll talk briefly about in each of the six areas of our lives.

Ultimately, as basketball great Michael Jordan once said, "Heart is what separates the good from the great." What we're talking about here is putting greatness - personal greatness - into each of our lives, and that takes heart!

 

Spiritual: Ethical, Behavioral, and Moral

For those of us who are Baby Boomers, we've seen the spiritual suffer the indignity of becoming passe'. And we've seen its resurgence!

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