Why YOU need a Strategic Plan

I thoroughly believe in strategic planning – whether it’s for your life or your business or both!  Here’s why:

1 – Strategic planning helps you look back, look inside, and look forward.  Taking a look at your accomplishments and failures, your assets and debits, your dreams and realities is healthy and necessary for growth.

2 – Strategic planning forces you to define who you are and what you do in concise terms.  This is essential for marketing and networking.  More importantly, it helps you determine if you are really who you want to be.

3 – Strategic planning asks you to answer the big “WHY?”  Defining your purpose and passionately pursuing it will carry you through tough times.  Knowing “why” you do what you do forces your gaze outward to how you give back and who you serve.

4 – Strategic planning helps you set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-specific goals.  A dynamic strategic plan is always in front of you urging you on toward those goals.

5 – Strategic planning allows you to narrow your focus on the action items that will make you successful.  Keeping your eyes on the goal and the specific action steps needed to accomplish those goals will keep you from wasting time, money or other precious resources.

6 – Strategic planning will outline the ways you plan to measure your progress.  Nothing encourages more than steady, measurable progress.

7 – Strategic planning can be personalized so that it is YOUR plan, highlighting YOUR strengths, embracing YOUR passion and purpose.

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Make 2010 YOUR Year!!

Forget the Resolutions!

I hate New Year’s Resolutions!  If you are serious about making a change or changes in your life, don’t make a resolution — create a specific plan of action, build in accountability, and take action!!

Here are  Ten Questions to Start 2010

1.  What problem or seemingly overwhelming challenge did you conquer in the past year, and what is your greatest challenge or unsolved problem that exists in your life right now?

2. In what area of your personal or professional life would you consider yourself most improved, and what area will you focus on this year?

3. In which areas will you improve your personal, family, and spiritual life?

4. How are you going to maximize the use of your time? Where will you cut out the time-wasters in each day?

5. What task or projects have you been putting off that you will take care of within the next two weeks?

6. What challenge, wish or desire–that you’ve never attempted before–will you finally achieve this year and how will you do that?

7. Where are you going to write all of this down so you can review and revise your plans regularly?  When are you going to do that?

8. What will it LOOK like when you accomplish everything you’ve just been thinking about?

9. How good will it FEEL?

10. What will it SOUND like when you achieve these things?

Okay, here’s one more question…

What’s keeping you from doing all this??

Meaningful Purpose

I shouldn’t have been surprised.  There are seven traits of a “spiritual entrepreneur” identified by authors like Marsha Sinetar and Nikos Mourkogiannis or “conscious business owners” described by Fred Kofman:  inventive inclination, authentic focus, meaningful purpose, figuring out skills, risk taking effectiveness, strategic long term outlook, and spiritual intelligence.  Of the entrepreneurs taking my Spiritual Entrepreneurs survey, all of them felt they had a sense of “meaningful purpose”.   All the rest of the traits were rated in varying degrees, with risk-taking effectiveness being the lowest.  Purpose.  That sense of who you are, why you are here, what you are called to do.  It is an essential trait that, in my opinion, enables someone who is not all that comfortable with risk, to take a leap of faith and pursue the passion and vision that leads them to create a new business.

Have you found your purpose?  Are you fulfilling that calling?

Entrepreneurial Intelligence

One of the reasons I created the Spiritual Entrepreneurs survey (see last week’s post) was because of a working theory I have about entrepreneurs. It’s not new or earth shattering. I simply believe that true entrepreneurs possess a unique kind of intelligence. One of the traits Marsha Sinetar attributes to entrepreneurs is “higher than average spiritual intelligence”. I added questions about this on the survey and have been surprised at a few of the responses. People define this “spiritual intelligence” in widely differing ways. Because of this, they include or exclude themselves from being a “spiritual entrepreneur”. This became evident to me when I followed up with a friend who I would describe as highly spiritually intelligent. On the survey she said she was not. Her definition for spiritual intelligence had more to do with intellectualism than spirituality or intuition. Interesting!

Another theory I have is if you think you are an entrepreneur (spiritual or not) – you probably are one. You might not own or operate your own business… yet… but chances are you will. Another question I have is how is your entrepreneurial spirit affecting the rest of your life, your relationships, and your community?

Interested in taking the survey? There’s still time! http://bit.ly/4V6uRD

Do You Believe You’re a Spiritual Entrepreneur?

Research has identified several characteristics possessed by most entrepreneurs:
• Inventive inclination
• Authentic focus
• Meaningful purpose
• Figuring out skills
• Risk-taking effectiveness
• Strategic long term outlook
• High spiritual intelligence

I’m interested in learning how people who see themselves as entrepreneurial define these terms and how these traits affect their lives. Do you believe you’re a spiritual entrepreneur? Would you be willing to complete a brief survey? http://bit.ly/4V6uRD

Thanks for your help! I’ll be sharing more as I connect with some of you on this subject!

Spiritual Intuition & Business Decisions

A couple weeks ago I wrote about being cautious of “experts”.  The saga of  ‘the out of control business consultant’ continues.  He and his partner are using their power of influence and knowledge of psychology and strategy to demean, harass and abuse people who think they need his wisdom.  It’s appalling to watch.  It’s embarrassing to recognize my own failure to identify a sociopath sooner.  Yes – even psychologists can make mistakes!  I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt.  I talked myself into tolerating his behavior and poor boundaries.  It feels so good to be free from that toxic relationship, but hurts to watch others continue to suffer.

There is such an important lesson to be learned here.  I now realize how I was blinded.  I failed to invoke what Carolyn Myss calls the Grace of Reverence.  In her new book, Defy Gravity, Myss talks about reverence being the root grace of the intuitive system.  I needed to listen and trust my own heart and the Divine guidance speaking into it.  When my survival instincts were alerted, my sense of justice toward others, my fight-or-flight response, and my sense of integrity were heightened.  Then the questions started, how does this fit with my purpose? Do I have meaning in this situation? What is my unique vision?  Quiet reflection grounded me and set me back on my true path – one of a spiritually conscious entrepreneur.

Have you found yourself experiencing a psychic assault?  A crisis of faith?  A loss of purpose? A need for clarity?  Meditate on Carolyn Myss’ Prayer for Reverence:

“I invoke the grace of Reverence so that I might be one with all life and that my life might serve the whole.  I ask that this grace alert me to all that I do that keeps me separated from my vital life force, so that I might make wiser choices.  I ask that this grace alert me to when I am compromising my intuitive guidance because I don’t like what I am hearing.  I ask for the courage to hear what I must hear and to act on the guidance given to me.”

Entrepreneurs – The New Normal

I love reading stories of entrepreneurs – they inspire me and make me believe  my dreams and aspirations are more within reach because of their achievements.  I’ve often felt out of synch with the rest of the world – I’d rather slave away creating my own business than work for anyone else.  Even when the hours are long and the pay lower than I could get elsewhere –  the pride of ownership of what I’ve accomplished far outweighs any hardship!

I guess I’m not that unusual.  Entrepreneurs are becoming the new normal!  More and more people are seeing how they can invent a life of purpose and passion – and profit!  I just finished a couple books I highly recommend on this subject:

 

• Life Entrepreneurs: Ordinary people Creating Extraordinary Lives by Christopher Gergen and Gregg Vanourek

 

• To Build the Life You Want, Create the Work You Love by Marsha Sinetar

 

I just celebrated the anniversary of my business and am proud of weathering storms, excited to see new growth, and thrilled at the success I see coming my way!

How can I help YOU create the life and business you want?  Contact me at lisa@VanAllenCoaching.com

Beware of “Experts”

I recently ran into someone calling himself an expert in business coaching and in personality assessment.  Sadly this gentleman is neither.  He is actually a business consultant – who knows just enough about personality profiling to be dangerous.
A business consultant is different than a coach.  A consultant is hired to share his/her expertise in a specific area.  A coach has expertise, but that knowledge and training is shared only with permission as the client sets the agenda and the coach uses powerful questions to pull the wisdom and knowledge from the client.

I admit I am biased.  I love coaching because it sees the client as creative, resourceful and very capable of making informed choices about his/her business.   I do some consulting with my clients, especially in the areas of sales psychology and social media.  But even then, the client is in the driver’s seat, setting the pace, choosing the direction.

You can probably tell – this “expert” left a very bad taste behind.  I heard him tell people how ignorant they were and how desperately they needed to trust and obey his every word.  Too often we allow this kind of consultant to run rampant over our lives because we believe we need something he/she has.  Don’t believe it.  Recognize the power residing in your heart.  Trust your intuition.  You do not need a guru!  A true coach will treat you with honor and respect.  They will bring out your strengths and empower you to live beyond your weaknesses.

Living with a Lie

Every day I talk with people who struggle with what I call the “Fraud Factor”. The Fraud Factor shows up when your internal self fails to match up with your external persona. You have created an image that actually is covering up for the inadequacies your feel inside. Unfortunately, the “glittering image” (to borrow from Susan Howatch) takes over and we even lose ourselves in the false image. We live in fear that our internal self will be exposed. We live with a lie.
All this stems from a sense of inadequacy or worthlessness. I so surprised as a young woman to learn I was not alone in feeling this way – that in fact most people live with a lie. Until we can claim our authentic selves, accept and nurture them, we drag the Fraud Factor through our lives, our relationships, and our business.
Take a look at a video I did on this – and then leave me your thoughts… I’d love to start a deep discussion on this subject!

What is the lie you live with?

The Big Why

I made a commitment a few weeks ago to update my blog every week – no matter what!  Rather than let a sinus headache keep me from connecting with you, I’ve decided to pull a video I did off of YouTube last April.  It complements a post I did a few months ago (Purpose, Passion, Values, Vision – What’s the Difference) that’s been getting hits lately.  This video is entitled ‘The Big Why’. 

Is your enthusiasm for your business sagging?  Examine the Big Why — re-ignite your passion!  Fall in love with your business all over again.