Day 7 of 31 days to Creating Your Inspiring Personal Plan for 2012.
Congratulations. If you have completed the previous six steps you are now 20% of the way to a personal plan for that will accelerate your success in 2012. If you have some loose ends from the first six steps, set a goal of having them tied-up by the end of the upcoming weekend. (If you are just arriving to the process, it starts here.)
Over the last week, we focused on building a foundation for your 2012 Plan. Many of you report being inspired just with this prep work. That is great, as that means you are feeling the power of all the strengths with which you are blessed.
For the next seven days, we move into what many find the most challenging, and most rewarding, part of the 31 day process. Over the coming week, we each will be defining our respective Legacy, Life Purpose, and Current Vision. You can get an overview of how this work fits into the process with this week-by-week summary.
Before introducing you to Step 7, Designing a Legacy Worth Living, I want to caution you. The work we will be doing over the next seven days is very, very important work. Many people spend weeks, months and even years searching for the meaning of life. Many benefit by getting a coach to work them through reflection on these important subjects. The fact that we will be motoring through these challenging subjects in one week is not meant to marginalize the work of coaches who work people through longer processes. I, myself, have benefitted from years of study on these important subjects. I strongly recommend that you use our one week on these subjects as just a starting point for your study of these important areas.
My philosophy is that all of us need a personal plan. And, none of us can really afford to wait for months to get one. I believe it is better to have some plan, even if it is one that you will be tweaking through further work, than to go into the new year with no plan.
So set aside thoughts of perfection and instead focus on moving forward. Follow and complete each step over the coming week and I am confident that, one week from now, you will have an invigorated sense of purpose and a much clearer sense of your personal vision.
Hang on, as we have some very introspective work to do together in the coming days.
Steve Covey has long recommended to “start with the end in mind.” And I believe that profound advice applies to the life planning that should precede any serious annual planning.
So let’s fast forward to the end of your life and ask
What is it that you would want friends, colleagues and loved ones
to say about you at your funeral?
Now, I know that sounds somewhat morbid. But, since none of us control when we will pass, it is important that we know NOW what we would want people to say so that we can start living our life in accord with our legacy NOW.
All of us have the power to shape our lives in a way that will support our desired legacy. In my experience, most people don’t do so because we assume we know when we will pass and that we have plenty of time to focus later on our legacy. Well obviously, none of us know when we will pass. So it becomes important to start living the legacy you desire. NOW!
Step 7 is to create a list of the six attributes that you would want people to use in summarizing what your life was about.
What is really, really important to you when one looks at the totality of your life?
Type your list of six attributes on a single page under the heading “My Desired Legacy”. Start the list with this positive affirmation “I will be known as someone who was consistently thought of as:”
This is one of the pages that will get assembled into the draft plan you will be sharing with your Board of Advisors so be genuine and be committed with your listing. Committed to living your life from this day forward in the manner by which you want to be remembered. (No need to wait until your plan is complete to start living in a manner consistent with the legacy to which you aspire.)
Tomorrow, we will be coupling your Legacy description with a description of your Life Purpose so as to make sure that your 2012 Plan is fully aligned with the two.
(Tomorrow you will be a little more than 25% through this planning process. If you are finding this process helpful for yourself, imagine what it could do for some of your friends, loved ones, colleagues at work, etc. I need your help. I have set an audacious goal of getting 10,000 high performers launching 2012 knowing that they have a personal plan for 2012 that inspires them. Day by day, I am seeing evidence that the number participating is growing (since there is purposely no sign-in, it is impossible for me to have a precise count of those participating). But, I have a long way to go to get to 10,000. I would appreciate any help you can give me in getting others onboard. If you are sending them to a specific page, I recommend this one. Thank you!)
When you have completed Step 7, you can access Step 8 here. If you want an anouncement every time a new step is posted, you can sign-up – to the right – to receive new steps by either RSS feed or email.
Please note: If you have arrived at this step first, it is not too late for you to join other high performers who are collaborating to follow the bite size steps that are unveiled here every day. Get started here.
This blog post was written by Dave Carpenter. Dave is a prolific author, inspiring speaker, and well-known consultant to professional service firms. Besides writing regularly for this blog, Dave’s writing can be seen in leading business and personal development publications. Dave is also the leader of the Accelerate Success mentoring program where he mentors high performers in a unique program designed to do great things for the favorite charity of each participant. If you are (1) a high performer who believes you still have untapped potential, and (2) passionate about a favorite charity, you may want to learn more about this powerful program. You can also follow Dave on Twitter, on Facebook, and/or on Google+.
