How can you create strategies to achieve YOUR future?

A strategy is simply how to do something. Some strategies are better than others, so it’s worthwhile to take the time to understand which life strategies will be best for you. While you are thinking of strategies, consider goals and tasks. These are terms that are tossed around in business, but not always clearly understood.

For perspective, the ancient Greeks had a vision of defeating Troy. Their goal was to get their troops inside the city gates. Their strategy was the Trojan horse. Their tasks were; 1-build the large wooden horse; 2- conceal troops inside the horse; 3- get the woodEn horse inside the gate.

The Greeks completed the tasks, executed their strategy, achieved their goal and realized their vision of conquering Troy. The strategy was so successful it is still used today to sneak malware into computers!

In personal futuring, you will need two types of strategies. First you will need strategies to deal with high impact, high probability events in your life. Second, you will need strategies to help you achieve your vision of your future.

For example, if you are about 20 years of age, there are several events that you are likely to encounter over the next 10 years. You will probably complete your schooling, you will probably start work or begin a career, you will probably move into your own home, you may consider marriage, and you may become a parent. Those are all very common events for people in their 20s, so if you are about twenty, these are events you can anticipate and prepare for. In some cases, you will have to develop strategies to deal with these events. If you are looking for a job, or beginning a career, you will have to decide how you are going to get the job or career opportunity. How will you find potential employers? How do you prepare an effective resume? Where do you want to live and work?

One approach is to decide what outcome you want for each of the events you will face.
What do you want graduation to achieve for you beyond the diploma?
What kind of work do you want to do? Where? What compensation? What position?
Where will you live when you have your own home?
What would you want your marriage to be? Describe your ideal spouse.
What about children? If you have them, how will you raise them to adulthood?

When you have defined an outcome, pick the strategies to achieve that outcome. Then execute the strategies.

The second type of strategy deals with achieving your vision of your future, ten years or more away. This starts with creating a vision, which we’ve discussed in an earlier blog. Once you have constructed or designed your vision of your future over the next ten years, you will want to develop long-term strategies to achieve your vision. Here’s an approach that you will find useful.

Divide your future into six parts, then divide each part into its components and deal with each component. The six parts (described in the last blog) are:
ACTIVITIES: all the things you do, including education, training, career, hobbies, sports, etc.
FINANCES: everything related to your money. Income, expenses, investments, debt, etc.
HEALTH: everything to do with your physical and mental health including diet, exercise, medicines medical care, etc.
HOUSING: everything to do with your housing including location, type, community, region, climate, etc.
SOCIAL: everything to do with people. Family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, etc.
TRANSPORTATION: everything to do with your mobility, including walking, commuting, and forms of transport.

Now, dealing with your vision of the future is no longer a big, difficult concept to grasp. Your future is composed of many little parts of your life, each one relatively easy to think about in terms of what you want or need to achieve over the next ten years.

Once you identify the areas and what you want the future to be in each area (your vision), ask yourself, “HOW?” How am I going to achieve this? The “HOW” will be your strategy. Within that strategy you will have some goals, and for each goal there will be tasks to accomplish.

In short, this is personal strategic planning and it is doable by ANY individual. The “Personal Futures Workbook” will be a big help, and it is available as a free PDF download at www.personalfutures.net, along with other workbooks, tools and articles about personal futuring.