What about your personal business plan?

Written by Angie morgan

Most of my clients right now are knee-deep into budgeting and business planning for 2023. At the end of the year, we all get so focused on how we’re going to make our organizations successful by achieving the strategic goals laid out.

I wonder what would happen if we applied the same intensity to our lives? That is, spending time putting together a plan for how we want to live our lives, a budget that can support it, and backing it up with the commitment and discipline to achieve our goals?

I’m confident that this level of intention would give us the runway necessary to take off into 2023.

If this sounds like a good idea for you, here are a few thoughts on how to get personal business planning off the ground:

Spend at least a half-day alone, disconnected, so you can spend time thinking about what would make 2023 successful for you. Creating a vision board might be a great use of time.
Also, as we write about in “Bet on You,” don’t forget to apply Kaleidoscope thinking to your goals – you should have at least one for all four areas of your life: Your career, personal life, areas for impact (like volunteering), and joy!
Create a reverse plan. Rather than start laying your goals out by beginning in Q1, imagine it’s Dec 31, 2023 and you’re calling the year a success. Then, start planning with the end in mind by asking yourself What will I be doing in November, October, September leading up to your success. This type of planning helps you uncover activities you wouldn’t otherwise see if you were forward planning. As an added bonus, it allows you to realize how do-able your goals actually are!
After your personal retreat is over, schedule time to get intimate with your finances. Seek to understand where you need to invest/divest to make your goals a reality. A budget helps you put some guardrails around your income to ensure you’ll be able to resource your dreams.
Start putting your plans in motion – that is, use the rest of the year to re-orient your life to accommodate your dreams. Consider the remainder of Q4 as your warm-up to 2023. This is a great time to start building up the behaviors and disciplines to ensure you are successful next year.

Angie Morgan and Courtney Lynch are Lead Star’s co-founders, leadership coaches, and the bestselling authors of SPARK, Leading from the Front, and Bet on You. They help professionals reach new levels of success through their innovative coaching program, Year to Rise.