About the Author STEVE BLACK Business Consultant & Speaker

TABLE OF CONTENT

Letter of Welcome ...... 3

About The Author - Steve Black ...... 4

How To Prioritze Your Life ...... 5

Exersize - Personal Goal Setting ...... 15

Exersize - Personal Strategic Planning ...... 27

Exersize - Personal Financial Planning ...... 45

© BusinessSuccessTraining.com All rights reserved. The contents, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form for any purpose without the written permission of BusinessSuccessTraining.com THE LIFE PLANNING PROCESS

Dear Achiever,

Welcome to the Life Planning Process. You are about to embark on a journey into the mind of the most fascinating person you will ever meet — yourself!

The strangest secret of success is that “you become what you think about — most of the time.”

Successful people think and plan better than unsuccessful people. That’s all. People with limited natural talents or advantages can run circles around other people if they are clear about what they want and they have a plan to achieve it.

When you ﬁ nish answering the questions and completing the exercises in this book, your whole world will start to improve.

You will start to think about different and better things and get better results — almost immediately. You are in for a great experience.

Good luck!

SteveBlack .biz -Follow Me @ FB.com/SteveBlackSpeaker

© Brian Tracy. All rights reserved. The contents, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form for any purpose without the written permission of Brian Tracy. PHONE (407) 790-1141 • FB.com/BusinessSuccessTraining5

About The Author

STEVE BLACK Business Consultant & Speaker

He is regarded to be one of the nations best Marketing Consultants, Sales Trainers and Public Speakers. Having worked with Tom Hopkins and Brian Tracy for over 17 years, and having spoken to over 500,000 business people … he really knows his stuff. He has developed extensive online and offline marketing that are used by business owners and entrepreneurs across the country. His clients love his enthusiasm, and ability to motivate the veteran or the rookie. In addition to Sales Training, he specializes in Social Media and Internet Marketing Strategies.

Whether he is hired as a Speaker, or as a Marketing Consultant, his clients love working with him because he gets results!

Connect with Steve Black at

www.SteveBlack.biz

www.businesssuccesstraining.com/

www.linkedin.com/in/steveblackspeaker

www.FB.com/BusinessSuccessTraining

www.fb.com/SteveBlackSpeaker

Prioritize Your Life: Make More Time for Achieving Your Goals and Enjoying Life

For many people, it seems like life has two options: achieving goals and enjoying life. Neither one of them seems as if they are one hundred percent fulfilled. There seems to be a broad spectrum on the scale of go-getters and over-achievers to those who slack in all departments.

How many times have you caught yourself saying you don’t have enough time or there isn’t enough time in the day? Is this really the truth? There are many books on the subject of how to be highly successful as well as how to achieve happiness.

If you’re like most people, you probably think these notions are for other people, who are super extraordinary, and you feel that you don’t fall into the mix. Today, the demands of work, career, education, family, and homeownership seem to take priority over enjoyment. Relaxation time may be scheduled as a once-a-month outing or even an annual vacation. However, even those pleasures seem to be filled with work.

There’s planning and scheduling and not enough time – or so it seems – for down time. Are you waiting for retirement to enjoy your life? Many workers feel as though they are waiting for life to happen rather than creating life they want.

Do you wish you had more time to achieve goals and even more time to enjoy life? If so, you are certainly not alone. Here is a special report on how to prioritize your life and make more time for both achieving your goals and enjoying your life.

Finding Balance

If you think about life being balanced, you might envision a seesaw in the position of being directly balanced in the middle with no ups, no downs, and simply managing to stay in the middle ground.

Of course, life doesn’t work like that. There are ups and there are most certainly downs. Sometimes you might feel as though you just want to jump off the seesaw and lay on the ground for a little while just to gain your equilibrium back.

What does it mean to be in balance, if life has its difficulties? When you are in balance, you maintain your equilibrium while life’s ups and downs come to visit. Of course, you go through the various emotions as circumstances both good and not so good work their way through your life.

However, being in balance means you get to choose how long you stay in the down position. Of course, realistically, you can’t always stay up on the seesaw of life, but you can choose how you feel and what your action steps are going to be while you’re down.

Being in balance means intentionally, no matter how hard it is, choosing how you will show up under any given circumstance.

How do you really achieve balance? You can achieve balance in several ways:

• Feel your emotions and move quickly through them – it’s perfectly fine to become emotional when the roller coaster of life gets too fast and too furious. Feel what you need to feel but move quickly on to the next step. The next step after feeling is action. If something doesn’t feel right, chances are it isn’t right. The next logical step to create more space in your life for fulfilling goals and time for enjoyment is action.

• Choose an action step to recreate the scene. If you’ve lost a job, fire up your resume. If your home needs a repair, start asking family and friends for referrals on contractors. Don’t just sit and stew about what happened, but take the appropriate time to recreate what happens next. The faster you barrel through the downs of life, the sooner you can get back up. It’s simply a matter of gravity. Put those feet on the floor and bounce that seesaw up once again.

• Don’t regurgitate facts and stories repeatedly – the more you talk about what happened, how unfair it was, and what a nuisance it was, the more energy you expend. This energy could be used for better purposes. You can create an answer to the problem and you can spend that much more time enjoying your life, setting and achieving goals.

• If you find yourself faced with a problem, take the energy needed to create some sort of answer rather than dwell only on the issue at hand. We all use energy to get through the day's events. However, we get to choose how much energy is spent on each project. Look at your life, what is going well? Do you have an amazing successful career or education? If so, then you might be spending all of your time and energy in that one area and the rest of your life is completely out of balance from family to personal relationships.

Sometimes, the unexpected can throw you off. How do you hit the reset button when life throws you a curve and knocks you off balance? Sometimes truthfully, no matter how hard we try not to dwell on something, we fall back into patterns of thinking and talking about something. What do you do when you can’t get the needle off the record and you are stuck? Call a friend and get an accountability partner.

Ask someone you know to reroute you when you are stuck. Ask them not to let you dwell on what happened or what you cannot control and help you return to present moment status.

Sometimes all it takes is someone to remind you that, in this present moment, you are fine and all is well. You might not have the answers to what will happen in the future, but anything is possible.

Make a choice and make some change. If you really want to achieve your goals and enjoy life to the fullest, you must choose where your energy will go. Make a choice that seems best in the moment and follow through with it.

If it doesn’t work out, don’t hold yourself to task because in human nature, there is always a choice. You may not like all the choices, but staying stuck won’t ever work. Make a choice with the information you have in front of you and take action steps toward that choice.

You will find yourself balanced, until a more optimal choice presents itself. At least you are not standing still and you are taking action steps toward a solution as compared to constantly focusing on or talking about the problem.

It is okay to be out of balance. Sometimes there’s a big project at work or a special event at home. You are out of balance because that event or project takes priority. A special event, like a wedding for example, takes a lot of time, but it will eventually be over. A home repair or project will come to completion, as well.

An annual meeting at work will soon be nothing but a distant memory. Sometimes it’s your season to work like a dog to get the job done. It’s okay to be out of balance for a while on occasion. Remember, however, it only takes a few minutes every day to get closer toward a goal. One small action step is better than no action at all.

It’s perfectly fine to be out of balance due to a special meeting or function or life event. You can still create a daily habit of taking one small actionable step toward a personal goal, dream, or desire.

Achieving Goals

Create reasons not excuses. Even during those times when you have no choice but to be out of balance, for example a work project is taking up most of your time, there’s no reason why you cannot set aside a mere five minutes toward a goal.

If you want to author a book, you can write a paragraph in five minutes. You can edit it later on but you can’t edit a blank page. If you want to start your own business, you can write down one paragraph or several notes of a business plan in five minutes. By the end of the month, all those five minutes will turn into something bigger.

It’s like a snowball effect. You start small and continue rolling that snowball down the hill. Before you know it, you have a boulder of success coming your way.

Being goal oriented is good, up to a point. Some people are obsessed with getting things done. People who obsess about getting things done, put everybody and everything before their own hopes, dreams, and aspirations. Then, suddenly, they look around and their life is moving faster as time goes on. They’ve reached a certain age and all of their hopes, dreams, and aspirations are nowhere in sight.

Don’t be addicted to getting things done for everyone and everything. Put yourself on the schedule. Put your dreams on your to-do list. Be addicted to getting things done for you, and more importantly for your dreams.

Put it down on paper. There’s no better or faster way to achieve a goal then to put it down on paper. Have you ever noticed how the items on your to-do list get done when you write them down and refer back to them?

If you have goals, dreams and aspirations or you simply want to enjoy more of life’s simple pleasures, put it down on paper. If you want to spend more time in nature, put it down on paper. If you want to walk down by the beach, write it down. Believe it or not, it becomes more tangible and real if you put it down on paper. You can now look at it as a goal or an item, which is incomplete, if you don’t follow through. Putting things in writing makes them more effective.

Break it up into smaller sections. When a task looks like a mountain, it will feel that way until you break it up into smaller stepping stones. If you have a task to complete, break it up into smaller chunks. Take the project apart from start to finish and spend a few minutes each day breaking it down.

If you want to rent your basement out, for example, and you go down there and look at how many days and hours it will take to achieve the goal and simply throw your hands up and walk away, break it up into smaller chunks.

Give yourself 15 minutes per day, each day, where you clean out one box or one corner. Before you know it, the basement is cleaned out and you are ready to move on to the next step. It’s important that you do not exceed the 15-minute time limit. Once the 15 minutes is up, go on to the next task.

Take one small step each day even if you don’t feel like it. This is probably one of the most important tips. Take one, small actionable step every day. If you want to achieve goals, you must realize the thoughts in your head will create your life to show up as it is.

If you feel that a dream is unreachable or unobtainable, then it will be. However, if you take one small actionable step each day, you will soon realize your goals and dreams and you will be living life to the fullest.

You might even ask yourself how you got there so quickly. Our dreams are so important to us and when we think about how they show up in our heads, they are these grand visions. Maybe yours is of a mansion in California or an acceptance speech at the Oscars. Then we check out and tell ourselves those dreams are too big and too unrealistic.

If you want to become an actor, take on extra work to pay for some acting classes. If you want to author a book, write one paragraph per day. Small actionable steps can add up to large measurable results.

Get an accountability partner. Grab a partner and share the experience. For example, if want to lose weight ask someone who is dependable, honest, and capable to help keep you on track. Don’t do it alone. You may also want to consider the following ideas to help you focus on being accountable to yourself.

• Record your progress. • Pay a fine. • Join a mastermind group. • Put a timer on it.

Focus on Your Goals

Meditate on your goals. If you’re like most dreamers, your dreams are so big and so vast, you think about them and just as quickly, you put them aside because they are too big and too unrealistic. Rather than look at the big dramatic picture of your dreams, meditate on your goals.

If you wish to be a successful entrepreneur, meditate on the goals you need to put in place in order to achieve the dream. Sit quietly with the goals you need to achieve, one at a time and meditate on them.

Create an emotion associated with your meditative practices. Meditate on how it feels to be exhilarated once your new dream comes to fruition. Meditate on how good it feels to be financially abundant and successful.

Visualize your goals. Once you’ve chosen vibrations such as excitement, exhilaration, satisfaction, and success, now it’s time to visualize your goals. See yourself at a book signing as you visualize, envision what it’s like to work on a remote beach somewhere as a successful entrepreneur. Get into the visualization and the feelings.

Speak about your goals in the present tense. If you want to live the life of your dreams and be the person you wish to be, it’s time to speak about your goals in the present tense. When someone asks you what you do for a living, you can tell them you are an accountant or whatever it is you do, but don’t forget to mention you are on your way to building your own business at the same time.

Get excited about your plans, dreams, goals, and accomplishments. When you speak about your goals, speak about them with enthusiasm. If you are ashamed, embarrassed, or uncomfortable with your visions and desires, then so will others. It’s all in the delivery. It’s all in the excitement. If you are enthusiastic and excited, then others will jump on board.

Create momentum. Once you have built up enthusiasm and excitement, it’s easy to get so high there’s no place left except for down. You come crashing down and don’t want to get back up again.

The best way to achieve goals and create a life you love is by creating momentum and keeping it up. How do you create momentum? You create momentum by staying in action, every day. It doesn’t have to be a grand scheme, just simple action steps whether it is talking enthusiastically about your business or creating and generating excitement through marketing. Keep a steady flow of momentum and watch the magic happen.

Managing Life Areas

In order to live a whole, full, and complete life, you need to break your life down into categories. What are the categories that are most important to you? Which ones are you most successful in? Where is there a breakdown and you need to recreate?

If you look at one of the categories and see how successful it is, you can rest assured that this area is one wherein you are fully accountable and available.

Have you noticed an area that is falling by the wayside? You might have to repurpose some time and energy from a super successful area, in order to create a life you love that is full of balance and success in all areas of your life.

Create a worksheet for each category in your life. For example, consider beginning with areas of your life similar to the ones listed below.

• Cooking • Social life • Cleaning • Sleep • Food shopping • Healthy eating • laundry • Fitness • Organizing • Mindfulness • Scheduling • Physical activities and adventures • Finances • Travel

Keep the list fresh by adding other categories as needed as well as removing any that are not suited to you or needed. Don’t forget to include dreams, wishes and bucket lists.

Time Management

At the end of the day, it’s all about time management. When it comes to time management, we don’t want to admit we don't have it all together. It’s one of the hardest issues to face and can be a challenge. However, the good news is it’s very doable.

What’s the hardest task? Do that one first. For some people, filing is the worst administrative task there is and for others, it’s filling out paperwork and making phone calls. Whatever you identify, as being your hardest task, is the one you should do first.

You will find this practice to be difficult at first; however, as time goes by you will be grateful you stuck with it. If you do nothing else in time management, this is the best tip you can follow. These tasks will become easier and quicker the more you practice.

Write It Down

Writing things down is very important. "Forgetting" tends to waste a huge amount of time and effort. When you write things down, the mind/body activity helps you to remember the task. Plus, you also have a built-in reminder you can refer to when or if you forget the details or specifics. Seeing things on paper also helps you to prioritize.

Prioritize Tasks

In order to prioritize tasks and events, you must know what must be done, what needs to be done, what you want to do, what is important to you, where your priorities are, and what’s falling by the wayside.

Put things in order of what should be done first. Putting things down on paper is the key to getting your life prioritized. Don’t simply make a to-do list. Write everything down in order of importance and priority. If you have to, you can number the items. This will drive home the point of how important one item is over another. Continue to write down what needs to be done.

Defer Tasks

Don’t be afraid to carry things over to the next day. If you were unable to complete a task, don’t be afraid to carry it over to the next day’s to-do list. Don’t view it as a failure. View it as a fact and keep on moving. Moving forward is what’s important at all times no matter the day’s successes or failures previously.

What’s the worst thing that could happen if you don't get to do everything? Can it wait? Will everyone survive? These questions may seem as though you are making excuses, but you are learning to prioritize. Once you learn how to prioritize, you will be in flow with what’s important to you and your life.

Avoiding Procrastination

The most highly successful people don’t have to deal with procrastination often. It’s not even in the cards for them. However, for the rest of us, it’s a reality. Here are a few tips to deal with procrastination when it strikes:

• Allow a few minutes for guilty pleasures but put a timer on it • Set a schedule for checking social media • Work on a computer that does not allow (blocks) social media and email • Time yourself when checking emails or answering them

Balance Work and Play

If you’re all work and no play, you are sure to be successful; however, the down side to this is burn out. If you do anything for too long, burn out will surely follow. Here are a few tips to keep the scales balanced:

• Choose your time to work and stick to it. • Decide, how much if at all, time you will spend on work after hours (for example reading emails at the dinner table, taking calls during family time, etc.) • Leave work at work. • Prioritize your work schedule and your home life will run more smoothly as well. • Learn how to delegate. • Learn how to say no.

Just like children, we need to schedule free time or play time. We need to be intentional about our time but to understand that while it’s over, it’s time to let it go. Playing for too long can lead to procrastination and loss of structure.

Take 5-minute play breaks; walk in fresh air, hydrate yourself, do some deep breathing or write in a journal. All of these help to energize your spirit.

Use Technology

There are absolutely no excuses for not being organized and achieving goals. Gadgets and technology can help you stay on track and help you meet your goals. There are calorie counters and even counters that track your steps. Take advantage of technology.

Declutter

If you feel as though your life is chaos, look at your environment. You are only as productive as your environment you are in. Take a weekend and throw everything out or donate it. If you haven’t used it in six months and it’s not season, then it’s time to let it go.

Organize

When it comes to organizational skills, you are in luck because you can create a new habit at any given time. You can learn new organizational skills that work for you. If you’re environment is a hot mess, then chances are more than likely so is your life. Use these tips to get yourself in gear:

• Put yourself on the calendar. • Don’t sweat the small stuff. • Let go of what you can’t control. • Expand on the positive and minimize the negative so you can enjoy life more. • Start new habits. It takes only a couple of weeks to create new habits and once they are in place, they will stick. • If you backslide, it’s okay. Let yourself off the hook and start again. Pick up where you left off. • Don’t look at major projects like a mountain. Climb one step at a time. Before you know it, you’ll reach your objective. • Laugh at your mistakes. • Don’t beat yourself up so much. • Make time to meet your needs. Take a catnap, go for a walk, get some fresh air, write in your journal, or chat with a friend. • Make time management a priority. • Divide your day into manageable blocks of time. • Fine-tune your scheduling to meet your responsibilities to others, as well as yourself. • Work on your dependability and accountability. Do what you say you are going to do when you say you are going to do it. • Encourage and reward yourself. Use the reward system. For little goals incorporate small rewards. When you meet larger goals, treat yourself to something very special.

There are many challenges we all have to face, when it comes to achieving our goals, fulfilling our dreams, and living a life we love. However, once we step out of blaming our childhood, life, other people, we can clearly see we have the power to create a life we truly love.

We are given every tool and habit we choose to implement and by taking responsibility and looking deep within ourselves and our lives we see how we can step up our game and show up to shine brighter than ever.

Once we look into our own lives instead of looking outwardly and externally we can recognize where we fall short and create self-discipline in our lives. By creating self-discipline, we rest the button for a powerful and productive life. What thoughts come to mind when you think of taking responsibility and being self-disciplined? If they are negative thoughts, you might want to spend some time rethinking this thought.

You are a product of your thoughts. Associate success with taking responsibility and self- discipline and you will soon see, your life will be in priority order and you will have so much more time to enjoy it.

Once you establish new priorities and habits, you’ll wonder how you ever survived without them.

Personal Goal Setting

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

Personal Goal Setting

Goal setting is the “Master Skill” of success. The more you set goals and work toward them, the happier and more successful you will be.

Only 3% of adults have written goals. This small minority earns ten times as much as those people without goals.

Success in life begins with your deciding exactly who you are, what you want and then writing it down. Then, make a plan for its accomplishment and take action on your plan.

Finally, do something every day to move you toward your major goal — whatever it is.

By setting clear goals and then thinking about them all the time, you trigger all kinds of ideas and insights that will help you achieve your goals.

By thinking about your goals all the time, you become more positive, optimistic and conﬁ dent.

And as you achieve your goals, you increase in self-esteem, self-respect and personal pride. You feel like a winner and you eventually become unstoppable.

Complete each of these exercises in detail. They are cumulative. At the end of this section you will have a clear plan for your life. You will feel terriﬁ c!

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

Personal Goal Setting

Personal success is a result of two factors:

1) You must know exactly what you want;

2) You must determine the price you will have to pay to achieve it.

Absolute clarity regarding your goals is essential to high performance.

1. Begin with your values; what are the three most important values, qualities, factors in your life today?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

2. What would you do, how would you change your life, if you received $1,000,000 cash today?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

3. What would you do, how would you change your life if you learned today that you only had six months to live?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

4. What sort of work or activity gives you your greatest feeling of importance and personal satisfaction?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

5. What have you always wanted to do but been afraid to attempt?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

6. If you could make any signiﬁ cant changes in your life today, what would they be?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

7. What one great thing would you dare to dream if you knew you could not fail?

______

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

To achieve greatly in life, you need to be clear about your goals in the seven main areas of life:

1) Personal 4) Financial 7) Social

2) Family 5) Education

3) Business & Career 6) Health

When you set your goals, imagine you have no limitations.

1. List your three most intensely desired personal goals:

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

2. What are your three most important family and relationship goals?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

3. List your three most important business and career goals:

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

4. What are your three most important ﬁ nancial goals?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

5. What are your three most important educational goals, your goals for personal and professional development?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

6. What are your three most important health goals — physical ﬁ tness, sports, weight?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

7. What are your three most important social goals? What contributions do you want to make to your community?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

8. Without referring to your answers in the previous goal-setting questions, make a list of 10 goals you would like to accomplish in the next 12 months:

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

4) ______

5) ______

6) ______

7) ______

8) ______

9) ______

10) ______

9. Imagine you could be absolutely guaranteed of success in any of your goals, which one goal would you choose?

______

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

10. Take this one major goal and follow the twelve steps below:

1) Write out your goal in detail — make it clear, speciﬁ c and measurable:

______

2) Set a deadline for completion: ______

3) List the main obstacles and limitations that stand between you and your goal:

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

4) List the additional information, knowledge and skills you will require to achieve your goal:

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

5) List the people whose help, support and cooperation you will require to achieve your goal:

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

6) Make a list of everything you can think of that you will have to do to achieve your goal:

Priority Sequence

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

4) ______

5) ______

6) ______

7) ______

8) ______

9) ______

10) ______

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

7) Organize your list by:

a) Priority: What is most important?

b) Sequence: What must you do before something else?

8) A list organized by priority and sequence is a PLAN.

9) Assign responsibility for carrying out your plan. What exactly is going to be done by who? (Yourself? Others?)

What? Who?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

10) Set deadlines on the actions you are going to take:

Actions Deadlines

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

4) ______

5) ______

6) ______

7) ______

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

11) Take action: What one task are you going to complete immediately?

______

12) Resolve to do something every day toward the achievement of your major goal. What one thing should you do each day?

______

Action-orientation is the most important single quality of high performing men and women.

Your willingness and ability to take immediate and continuous action toward your goals is the key determinant of your success.

Begin now! Do something every day to achieve your goals, and never give up.

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

Power Principles for Goal Achievement

Here are seven power principles you can use to accelerate the achievement of your goals.

1. “You become what you think about most of the time.”

Think about your goals — morning, noontime and evening — keep them in the forefront of your mind.

2. Rewrite and review your major goals every day. Visualize and imagine them as if they already existed.

3. Write out your goals as positive, personal, present-tense afﬁ rmations on individual index cards. Review them continually.

4. Be intensely solution-oriented. Whenever you have a problem or dif- ﬁ culty in achieving a goal, treat it as a form of feedback and ask the question “How?”

How do I solve this problem? How do I overcome this obstacle? How (or how else) do I achieve this goal?

5. Dedicate yourself to continuous learning — reading, listening to audio programs, attending seminars and courses — to help you to achieve your goal.

6. Look into every problem or setback for the equal or greater opportunity or beneﬁ t it might contain.

Look for the good. Look for the “silver lining.”

7. Resolve in advance that you will never give up.

Work on your major goal every day and continually remind yourself that, “Failure is not an option.”

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

Personal Strategic Planning

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

Personal Strategic Planning

Your ability to think, plan and act strategically can have an extraordinary effect on your business. Strategic thinking is the key to increased sales, reduced costs and improved proﬁ tability.

To achieve your full potential for sales and proﬁ ts, you must engage in regular strategic planning for yourself and your career.

Questions stimulate thought and ideas. Well worded questions that bring out ideas and insights can change your thinking and change your life.

In this session on Strategic Planning, you are asked to answer 52 of the most important questions ever developed to help you to be more focused and effective. Just one question that changes what you think and do can change your future.

Please read through and answer every question in writing. Review these questions and answers with your colleagues or spouse. Turn them over in your mind and be as honest and thoughtful as you can.

When you can ask and answer these questions correctly — for you — you can improve the quality of your entire life and career.

Good luck!

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

ersonal Strategic Planning

1. What business are you in? Deﬁ ne your business in terms of what you actually do for your customer:

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

2. What is your mission or purpose for being in your business or career? Why do you do what you do?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

3. How do you want your customers to talk about you, think about you, describe you to others? What words do you want them to use?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

4. What are the three biggest worries or concerns you have about your business today?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

5. Who is your ideal customer? Describe him/her in terms of age, income, education, occupation, location:

1) Age? ______

2) Occupation? ______

3) Education? ______

4) Income? ______

5) Location? ______

6. What does your customer consider value? What beneﬁ ts does your customer seek or expect in dealing with you?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

7. What are your core competencies? What skills or abilities do you have that are essential to your business?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

8. What do you do extremely well? Where do you perform in an excep- tional fashion?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

9. Who are your competitors?

1) Primary Competitors? ______

______

2) Secondary Competitors? ______

______

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

10. Why do your customers buy from your competitors? What beneﬁ ts do they receive from your competitors that they don’t receive from you?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

11. What products/services give you your highest proﬁ ts? Where do you get your highest payoff? Your highest return on effort, investment?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

12. What activities should you abandon, eliminate, get out of to free up more time for higher value activities?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

13. What could you do to attract your competitor’s customers to your offerings?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

14. How could you change your methods of sales and marketing to increase your sales?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

15. What is your area of specialization? What are your products uniquely suited to do, and for whom?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

16. What is your area of differentiation or excellence? In what ways are you superior to your competitors?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

17. What is your speciﬁ c competitive advantage? What will it be in the future? What should it be? What could it be?

1) Today? ______

2) Will be? ______

3) Should be? ______

4) Could be? ______

18. What type of customers can beneﬁ t the most from the special, unique, superior beneﬁ ts of your product or service?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

19. In what areas should you concentrate your energy and resources to get the very highest pay-off from your efforts?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

20. How could you attract more customers who can most beneﬁ t and pay for what you sell?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

21. What customers should you phase out, abandon because they no longer represent the best use of your time and energy?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

22. What is your current positioning in your marketplace? How are you perceived by, described by your customers and prospects? What words do they use to describe you?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

23. What is your brand? What value does your name mean to your customers?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

24. What should your brand be? What words or description would you like to own in your customer’s mind?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

25. What could you change or improve in your products or services to create and keep greater customer loyalty?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

26. What are your greatest personal strengths — your special talents and abilities?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

27. What are your greatest business strengths — those that cause your customers to want to do business with you?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

28. What are your greatest weaknesses as an individual?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

What are the main weaknesses in your business — the ones that limit your sales, growth or proﬁ tability?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

What are the constraints that hold you back from achieving more of your business goals?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

29. What are the greatest potential threats to your business today?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

30. Looking into the future, what are the three worst things that could happen to hurt your business or career?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

31. What steps could you take immediately to guard against these possible dangers?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

32. What are your areas of greatest opportunity for the future, based on the trends in your business?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

33. How could you begin positioning yourself to take advantage of these opportunities?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

34. What core competencies or skills will you need to be ready for the opportunities of tomorrow?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

35. How is technology affecting your business? Especially, what changes will the Internet make in the way you do business?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

36. What are you doing today that you wouldn’t get into again if you had to do it over — knowing what you now know?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

37. Reorganization — What changes should you make in your business, with regard to people and expenses, to improve both effectiveness and efﬁ ciency?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

38. Restructuring — How can you shift more of your time and resources into more proﬁ table activities?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

39. Reinventing — Imagine your business burned to the ground. What activities would you start up again immediately?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

What activities would you not start up again?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

40. Reengineering — Simplify every step of your business activities. What could you outsource, eliminate or discontinue altogether?

1) Down size? ______

2) Outsource? ______

3) Eliminate? ______

4) Discontinue? ______

41. Are there any people in your business life — a customer, employee, associate — who, knowing what you now know, you wouldn’t get involved with today?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

42. If you could start your business or career over again today, what would you do differently?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

43. What skills, abilities, talents do you have that have been most responsible for your successes to date?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

44. If you could be absolutely excellent in any area, which areas would be most helpful to you in achieving your goals?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

45. What is the driving force of your business career? What determines the products, services and markets you offer or work in?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

46. What are the critical constraints on your business today? What sets the speed at which you achieve your main goals?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

47. What are the biggest business mistakes you have made recently?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

48. What are the most valuable business lessons you have learned recently?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

49. If you could do just one thing all day long, what would you choose to do?

______

50. If you could only sell one product or service, which one would it be?

______

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

51. If you could only deal with one type of customer, who would it be?

______

52. What speciﬁ c actions should you take immediately based on your answers to the above questions?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

What one action are you going to take immediately?

______

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

Personal Financial Planning

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

Personal Financial Planning

The quality and condition of your ﬁ nancial life has a major impact on your health, happiness and well-being. Your ﬁ nancial situation affects your relationships and your self-image. It raises or lowers your self-respect and self-esteem.

Your goal should be ﬁ nancial freedom, ﬁ nancial independence. You should have enough money so that you never worry about money again.

The good news is that it has never been more possible for you to achieve your ﬁ nancial goals than it is today. There have never been more opportunities than now. Your goal should be to take advantage of them.

The key to ﬁ nancial success is simple. It can be summarized in ﬁ ve words: “Spend less than you earn.” But it is not easy.

You become ﬁ nancially independent by ﬁ rst of all deciding to do it. And second, you set a goal, make a plan and work on your plan every day.

You fi rst of all analyze your current fi nancial situation and get your fi nancial life under control. Then, you dedicate yourself to becoming better, more valuable at what you do. Finally, you cut back everywhere you can and save or invest more and more of your income.

In this session, you complete a series of exercises that can change your entire ﬁ nancial future. Then, you take action.

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

Personal Financial Planning

Personal ﬁ nancial planning begins with a thorough and accurate analysis of your current ﬁ nancial situation.

1. Make a list of all your assets, things that have a market value, that you could sell and turn into cash.

Organize your list starting with the most liquid assets (i.e., cash) and going to the least liquid (i.e., personal possessions):

Cash (in banks, on hand) $ ______Receivables (money owed to you) ______Stocks, bonds, other securities ______Real Estate ______Equity in your business ______Cars, boats, motor home ______Personal property ______Other: ______Other: ______

Total Assets: $ ______

2. Make a list of all your liabilities, money owing, of all kinds:

Current bills (home/ofﬁ ce) $ ______Credit cards ______Loans (cars, boats, motor home, etc.) ______Mortgage balances ______Unpaid taxes ______Commitments/promises ______Other: ______

Total Liabilities: $ ______

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

3. Calculate your current net worth:

Total Assets: $ ______Less: Total Debt ($ ______)

Net Worth: $ ______

(Be sure this is an “honest” number. Imagine having to explain each asset and liability, under oath, to a banker).

4. Determine your main sources of income today: Annual Amount

1) ______$ ______

2) ______

3) ______

5. Make a list, in descending order of importance, of your top ﬁ ve customers or sources of income.

Customer/Source of Income Amount

1) ______$______

2) ______

3) ______

4) ______

5) ______

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

6. Analyze your most recent ﬁ ve year income history. How much did you earn each year?

Year Amount ______...... $______...... $______...... $______...... $______...... $______

7. What are your ﬁ nancial goals for the next ﬁ ve years?

Year Amount ______...... $______...... $______...... $______...... $______...... $______

8. What are the most important things you do today that are responsible for most of your income?

Activities Percentage %

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

9. What are the key result areas of your job? What are the results expected or required of you to accomplish the business result?

Key Result Areas 1-10

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

4) ______

5) ______

6) ______

7) ______

Give yourself a score of 1-10 (1 = lowest) in each of your key result areas, in terms of how well you perform today in each area.

10. What are the three skills or qualities that are more responsible for your income than any other?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

11. What one skill, if you developed and did it in an excellent fashion, would have the greatest positive impact on your career?

______

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

12. What is your weakest important skill? What one skill, quality or ability holds you back more than any other?

______

13. What is your “area of excellence” today? Where do you perform in an outstanding way?

______

14. What are the key qualities and abilities of the highest paid people in your ﬁ eld?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

15. What core competencies, skills or abilities will you have to have in ﬁ ve years to earn twice as much as you are earning today?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

16. In what skill area do you have to be absolutely, positively outstanding to lead your ﬁ eld in the months and years ahead?

______

17. What is your plan to develop this skill — as quickly as possible?

1) Write it down:______

2) Set a deadline: ______

3) Make a list of all the things you can do to develop this ability.

Priority?

a) ______

b) ______

c) ______

d) ______

e) ______

f) ______

g) ______

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

4) Set priorities on your list — what is most important? a) ______b) ______c) ______

5) Take action on your plan — immediately!

What one step are you going to take today to become outstanding in this key skill area?

______

6) What are you going to do every day to improve yourself, to move you toward your goal? (Read, listen to audio programs, attend courses and practice!)

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

18. Track your current income and expenditures. Determine exactly how much you are earning and spending each month.

Monthly income (all sources)? $ ______

Monthly expenditures? $ ______

1) Mortgage, rent? $ ______

2) Car, transportation $ ______

3) Food, clothes, entertainment $ ______4) Utilities, telephone, monthly bills $ ______

5) Payments — credit cards, etc. $ ______

6) Other payments $ ______

7) Other expenditures $ ______

Total ($ ______)

Monthly proﬁ t/loss? $ ______

19. Long-term ﬁ nancial planning: how much would you need to retire on today?

1) Determine the amount you would need each month: $ ______

2) Determine the amount you would need each year (your annual income goal): $ ______

Lifetime estate goal (Annual income goal x 20) $ ______

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

(Example: If you wanted to retire on $100,000 per year, you would need $2,000,000 in savings. With this amount, you could withdraw 5% per year indeﬁ nitely).

20. Desired net worth at age 65? $ ______

21. Subtract: Your Net worth today (# 3) ($ ______)

22. Amount you must accumulate between today and age 65? $ ______

23. Amount you will have to save/invest each month/year to reach this amount? $ ______

(Exercise: Assume compound interest growth of 7% per annum on your savings and investments. Use a calculator or have someone calculate your required monthly savings rate).

24. Trim your expenditures whenever possible. In what areas could you cut back, reduce expenses?

Area of Expenditure Saving

1) ______$ ______

2) ______$ ______

3) ______$ ______

4) ______$ ______

5) ______$ ______

6) ______$ ______

7) ______$ ______

Potential monthly savings: $ ______

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

25. What are the three most important things you could do to increase your income?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

Which one activity are you going to start on today?

______

26. Savings/Investment/Accumulation Projections:

Year Net Worth ______(current year) ...... $______

______(5 years in future) ...... $______

______(10 years in future) ...... $______

______(15 years in future) ...... $______

______(20 years in future) ...... $______

______(25 years in future) ...... $______

______(30 years in future) ...... $______

2017 2022 2027 2032 2037 2042

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

Example: Determine each 5-year goal. (assuming your Net Worth today is $100,000) $1,000,000 $1,000,000 $875,000 $750,000 $625,000 $500,000 $375,000 $250,000 $125,000 $100,000

27. Five year plan: determine how much you want to be worth each year:

$175,000 $160,000 (at 10%) $145,000 $130,000 $115,000 $100,000

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE PROCESS

28. Determine how much you will have to save each month, each paycheck:

Answer: Approximately 6% of your annual goal.

Example: Annual Savings goal = $15,000 Monthly saving: $990.00

(These calculations are conservative. Your experience could be better).

29. What three things could you do to study, learn, read, become extremely knowledgeable about money, investments, ﬁ nances?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

30. What three things does money mean to you? What roles does it play in your life? How do you feel about it?

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

What one action are you going to take immediately to achieve your ﬁ nancial goals?

______