THINK STRATEGICALLY 2

PRINCIPLES OF SUCCESS Series 12

THINK STRATEGICALLY 2

Planning begins with clearly written down goals. You should be clear about what you want achieve. You need to see the goals clearly before you can step on them to reach your desired future. Until you are clear about what you want, you don't know where you are heading and you cannot achieve. You therefore should have clear goals and write them down on paper.

People with clear written goals accomplish far more in a shorter period of time than people with unclear unwritten goals. The more you write and rewrite your goals the more you think about them, and the clearer you will become about them. The clearer you are about what you want the more likely you are going to strive to achieve them.

Think on Paper. Think and write down goals that will lead to your ultimate vision - and read them to yourself regularly. Think about what you can do daily to reach you vision. Think about what you can achieve within days that will lead to your vision. Call those your short-term goals.

Think about what you can achieve in a period of time, say a school term, session or year, and write down as your mid-term goals. What you want to achieve ultimately that will lead to your vision is your long-term goal. 

Thinking about goalsetting, what matters is not how many goals you set for yourself but how big are the goals. A wiseman said, "The greatest danger to most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss them, but that it's too low and we reach it."

Think bit. Aim high. Think abundance. Aim higher than you. It's better to aim at a star and hit an eagle than to aim at an eagle and hit a stone. Whatever your aim, be clear about it and write it down.

One goal should be a stepping stone to another. The ability to state and achieve a short term goal - say, to get an A in my Mathematics - should lead to the ability to achieve a mid-term - say, get admitted to my first-choice university - which in turn leads to the achievement of long-term goal to become a scientist.

Steps to Strategic Thinking. Use these action steps to help you do strategic thinking.


1. Sit down and think. Strategic thinking needs concentrated effort. First, create your own thinking time. Second, have a thinking corner. Then, sit down and think.

2. Decide exactly what you want. Be very clear about it. The clearer you are about what you want, the easier you can keep track of it.

3. Consider all sides of the issue. Weigh the hard part and the easy part. Is it realistic, achievable?

 4. When you're clear about it, then write it down. Writing it down make it graphically clear. If you're are artistic, you can draw it in colors, or dramatize it, or picturize it - whatever makes it graphic - just do it.

5. Put time bound on it. Write against your goal exactly the time you want to achieve it. The time frame should be realistic and flexible and challenging at the same time. 

6. Make a statement of commitment to your goal and share it with somebody who can always hold you accountable. It should be somebody who will pester you, even trouble you, until you take persistent actions to realize your goal.

7. Review your goals regularly. Go through it everyday. This helps you put your goals in your mind.