I have written a business plan every year of my corporate life. Schools don’t require them and one of the first shocks in the birthing from student to a job is the business plan
When I worked on Wall Street the plan was detailed on a spreadsheet. The plan went to the bosses and it had value for both sides.
I’ve done a business plan, all the pieces of visualization, reasoning, goal setting, mathematics and observable metrics in each subsequent year, although in different formats and to a different audience receiving it and perhaps, as i change, a different performer reciting it.
This year I have no recipient, other than myself, of my business plan.
So this is my plan to me, and to whomever the anonymous and casually interested person is.
It is written differently than I would under other circumstances. This is because my return on investment is mostly units of spiritual fulfilment, which in itself is difficult to measure or score. Time with friends and meeting new people is also hard to attach a value, it does not have an equity that can be precisely measured or anticipated. Nor have I included a marketing plan, this is because my biz plan is such a broad document. It is the spirit of this that is important to me. Memorializing how I will evaluate the success, or failure, of 2016.
I think the greatest lesson of I learned in 2015, in the only way a lesson can be properly learned, was to to forgive myself for the big and little failures. To understand why they happened, what the cues were that moved me off kilter, and to be compassionate to me.
Two books that I read in 2015 truly helped me understand what goals are, and aren’t, and how to achieve them. Wisdom is a gift that (should) keeps on giving. Also, I am a huge fan of Seneca and his writings keep me above the high water mark. The books are
The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It by Kelly McGonigal
Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself by Kristen Neff
Lastly, before the list begins, I am deliberately not including the tools I will use to measure myself against plan. I don’t feel that this is the right place to include that calculator.