Spontaneity?
When you decide to go on a road trip, do you take the time to plan out your route, decide where you’ll stop along the way? Or are you someone who just hops in the car and drives, figuring out where you’ll go along the way? While hitting the road without any plan can seem exciting and spontaneous, it can also lead you into a lot of unanticipated roadblocks as you travel.
Your ability to plan and take action has a big impact on how you get through life. Plan well, and it will be smooth sailing. Fail to make a plan, and you are in for a long, bumpy ride.
Maybe you’ve gone most of your life flying by the seat of your pants and you think it’s too late to change now. The good thing about becoming an effective strategic planner is that it is something you can learn no matter how far along you are in your journey. The better you learn to plan and make decisions, the faster you reach the goals you set for yourself.
People who make strategic planning a central part of their life make more things happen in less time than someone who does not plan at all.
Why is strategic planning so helpful?
Because it saves you time and money. When you think through all of the key aspects of your strategy, you will notice that you are accomplishing more of those important tasks that help you achieve your biggest goals.
It also helps you to cut out all of those things that do nothing to help you succeed, the things that eat away at your productivity. Essentially, you are doing more things right, and fewer things wrong.
Applying strategic planning to your company makes it easier to measure and track your results. A good plan allows you to increase the return on equity, the amount your shareholders invest in your brand. Having a solid strategic plan makes it easier to restructure and reorganize so that each activity works to increase financial results and profitability. This gets your company utilizing resources more effectively.
In personal strategic planning, instead of being driven by a return on equity, you are focused on a return on energy. A personal strategic plan improves your return on life. Where business equity is measured in financial capital, personal equity is measured in human capital- your mental, physical, and emotional energy.
When you invest in your personal self, you will see that reflected back in the way you work and the income that you produce.