Strategy Theme

Design and plan your career journey with an aspirational vision and phased approach to guide the realization of your unique value proposition.

How are you going to experience and achieve the goals you have set for yourself?

Strategy Outcomes

By internalizing and practicing the concepts of this strategy, you will increase the ability to:

  • Gain a clear vision of where you are heading through a roadmap of experiences you have architected to reach destinations throughout your career.
  • Realize long-term outcomes through focused, short-term achievements that compound and magnify.
  • Make transitions from a position of strength that aligns with your planned career journey.

The Philosophy

The Plan strategy introduces two complementary approaches to planning a career. I advocate leveraging themes to maximize your probability of success.

A “planned, conscious” strategy is where we use the insights from Know and Target to shape your direction. A direction that aligns with our inner purpose and target that differentiates our strengths. We all need a stated direction otherwise we lack purpose and passion. This does not mean it will never change, it’s just that we are headed somewhere whether it’s perfect or not.  

The other approach is where “unplanned opportunities” come your way that can alter your plan and direction. We can’t anticipate when it will happen, but we should be ready to evaluate the opportunity and make a conscious choice on whether and how it aligns with our long-term goals. In this latter scenario, we must bounce the opportunity off our personal profile to see if it aligns with our purpose, identity, and goals.

Mental Models

  • Plan a Direction with Options: Your Power and Freedom Depend On It

    Mental Model Rome was not built in a day. Buildings are not constructed without a solid design and plan. The journey of your career and life is no different. Hope and chance do not deliver results – a strategic plan and hard work do. The decision to go down a certain path should be guided…

  • Plan a Quest to Motivate Action and Results

    Mental Model There are countless opportunities to pursue in life and allocate our precious time. Choice can be overwhelming as can mobilizing ourselves to realize an ambitious goal. But when we are driven by a calling or sense of mission to achieve a goal with a specific endpoint, a life-altering quest is born. The clear…

  • Plan a Think Week

    Mental Model [add here] Summary Overview Adopt one of Bill’s best practices. There is a reason why he escapes to read and think. It changes the world for the better. You can easily do the same. Plan a Think Week. Directives 1 – Escape your normal routine for a week (or weekend). Get away from…

  • Plan a Transformational Experience

    Mental Model Playing it safe and working in an environment that does not challenge and make you uncomfortable will limit your potential. You make tactical, narrow-minded decisions to go from one job to the next without thinking how that next experience will change you. The secret to accelerating your potential is carefully planning a transformational…

  • Plan and Think Long Term

    Mental Model There are rarely shortcuts to health, wealth, freedom, and a respected reputation. The most valuable things in life require long-term thinking and contributions that compound over time. In a world of instant gratification, people make the mistake of thinking there is a shortcut or hack to creating or accomplishing something truly remarkable. View…

  • Plan for and Act with Power to Supercharge Your Career: Play or Pay

    Mental Model Our logical and moral view leads us to believe that our excellent work will speak for itself and earn us rewards accordingly. In most cases, this is an illusion. Great work is integral to realizing achievement and operating at our true potential, but it alone is insufficient. Differentiation in the “hard” measurable skills…

  • Plan the Impossible

    Mental Model We are brought into the world with a clean slate and the freedom to dream big and become anything we want. As we progress through life, the pressures and constraints of life can often limit our ambition and what we can achieve. We conform to what society expects of us and accept the…

  • Plan Your Transition – Make It Easy for Others to Help You

    Mental Model You are ready for a career change but what you want to do next is not exactly clear. As opportunities come your way, you have ineffective means to evaluate them for fit. Only you know what is best for you, but the lack of clarity is delaying the transition. Write a short description…