What is a personal strategic plan and why do you need one?

​A few years ago, I was feeling stuck.  I was in a job that was what I always thought was my dream job, but I still wasn’t happy.  I was in a condo that, after 14 years, no longer brought me joy or met my needs.  I was putting work ahead of my health, to the point where I had several stress related medical issues that were mild enough that they weren’t going to kill me, but resulted in two surgeries within a three month period. Long story short, I needed a change but couldn’t quite bring myself to do it.

The more I talked about this with friends, family and colleagues, the more I realized that this “stuck” feeling was the rule, not the exception.  Very few people I knew were feeling like they were living their best lives, either personally or professionally.  Everyone I talked to was feeling like life was just happening to them, that they were no longer in control.

That feeling is what psychologists call an external locus of control.  Having an external locus of control means that you feel external forces are driving your life.  This perceived lack of control increases your levels of stress, anxiety and depression.  Long story short, an external locus of control was chipping away at my day to day happiness.  It was also affecting my physical health.  I was stressed out, not exercising and eating comfort foods to make myself feel better.  These unhealthy lifestyle habits, if continued, would have put me on the path to metabolic disease, which is one of leading causes of death. Something had to be done.

I needed to take back my life.  I started small by doing a Marie Kondo overhaul of my condo.  (Yes, I Kondo’d my condo!) The process went something like this:  I’d pick up a pair of shoes and ask if it brought me joy.  Sometimes the answer was “Yes!” and the shoes went back on the shelf.  For most of the shoes, the answer was “No, you give me knee pain” or “You make my ankle hurt” or “You give me blisters.”  Those shoes went in the donate bag.  As I went through this process, I began asking this question to everything in my life.  Did my job bring me joy? No. I started looking for other opportunities.  Did my house bring me joy? No, I started looking into how feasible it would be to find a larger place that met my current needs.  You get the idea.  

Pretty soon, I was taking action.  I found a new role in the same organization, and a new single family home six houses away.  These may seem like small changes, but they were a sign of something much bigger.  I was no longer stuck in one place.  I was moving. And once I started moving it was easier to keep going.

The momentum was great, but my actions weren’t well planned.  I wasn’t being strategic.  I was moving forward toward an undefined future. As I result, I still felt unsettled. 

Then I had an “Aha!” moment.  I realized that I was really strategic professionally, but wasn’t applying the same rigor to my life.  I decided to shift my approach.  I started documenting both my personal and professional goals.  Over time I started mapping my values and priorities onto my goals as a way to help decide what I needed to focus on in the near, mid and long terms.  Once I did that, making decisions was a lot easier, my actions were more aligned with my goals and I was acting with intention.

It took trial, error and leveraging my professional training in business and as a licensed therapist for me to land on a framework that was intuitive, easy and effective.  I saw great results and immediately started integrating this framework into my coaching practice so my clients could benefit as well.  The results have been staggering.  Each of the people I’ve worked with have reported increases in their happiness and feelings of ownership of their lives.  They’ve gotten promotions and salary increases without asking for them, and even bigger ones when they did ask! We do an assessment and goal setting in January that set the intention for the year.  We assess progress periodically and compare year over year changes. I like to call this process a “personal strategic plan” and I believe everyone should have one. 

Do you need help? Reach out to see if a coaching relationship would be a good fit.  Whether you do this on your own, or with support, begin the process and be strategic.  

Wishing you an intentional New Year!
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​Copyright 2023 Brownstein Consulting, LLC

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