Times of refreshing in a dry and dusty land

The review of our plan for life
"how different from your business plan is it"

I am not one for making and breaking new year resolutions, but I do believe in setting life goals these are more that just linked to work life objectives they do have some connection, but they are also about my personal "Holistic" development. I believe that we need to a step back from time to time and review where we have been, where we are and where we want to be in a 1 year , 2 year and 5 year time frame. I also believe that we let life pass us by , because we are focused totally on work life objectives, we miss so much life enrichment that could make our work life experience more rewarding for us and our families and friends.


I have a friend who sent me her list of life goals and she keeps me updated on her progress, some good, some bad, she has focused on experimentation and exploration of her self, she has some goals that I would have to raise an eyebrow over but I admire her for sticking to her own agenda and making her choices for herself. This is the key idea that I want to bring out today, if you don't have goals for your life you will never be stretching yourself, developing yourself, we are flesh and blood, but we also have a "spiritual" component as well and in setting our life goals we need to create a balance, the old saying " to much work and not enough play makes Jack / Jill a dull boy/girl" is very true.

The balanced approach can be hard to get for our lives, but having life goals and planning to tick them off is one way to make sure you do achieve that balance. I have some major goals I want to lead my "own company", but also have to some people minor goals, exercise 30 mins a day, go for a long walk somewhere different every month "come rain or shine". I structure my goals to stretch me in areas that are not normally touched in my work life.

The other thought I would like to share is the one of review, it is so easy to let our life run by us without us reviewing our life goals and looking at where we are, my friend who sent me her list mentioned one time we chatted that why she gave me a copy off her list was that she knew I would ask her how she was doing with her list, and it would be a constant reminder to her of her life goals and progress.

I would suggest that today you do a review and if you don't have anything to review against, get some goals down on paper, write them down by hand, it has deeper impact, and then share them with a very close friend, and as I do for my friends, they can do the same for you. I hear some of you saying we are responsible for our own lives, yes we are, but it does make it a tad easier if you have some help...


Slainte

Gordon

An Interesting comment on the no business plan post

From Rob Smorfitt

Check out Rob's webpage his company is based in South Africa and it assists early stage companies, interesting comments...


The research showing no business plans were needed for success is skewed in a generic context. The people who formed the universum for this research project were all graduates, therefore extrapolations regarding non graduates cannot be done. Would the same apply to someone who has very little if any formal education at even school level as is often the case in developing countries?

I also believe that all the graduates may not have had a written business plan document, but they had a mental one. There are key issues addressed by a business plan, which are critical to business success. I am sure that these people did not ignore their business educaiton, and that they used it in one way or another.

I also saw research where in the USA business graduates had a higher success rate than all other, eg arts, graduates. However, similar research in South Korea found that business graduates generally underperformed all other graduates.

However, I believe knowledge is important.


Furthermore,

Regards




Rob Smorfitt
MainSpring - driving business development
http://www.mainspring.co.za/
http://main-spring.blogspot.com