Planning should be simple but too often it’s not. That’s why I’ve built a framework that can give you the actual steps you need to be successful in life.
The process I use is a mixture of Hero on a Mission, Full Focus, and guided by Scripture. Having a well-rounded life plan can help you navigate the day to day grind of launching out into the unknown as you develop and grow your business.
Hero on a Mission
The focus of HOM is on rituals. You wake up, plan, review your vision, review your goals, read your eulogy and edit as needed to refine your life plan over time. I love the idea of consistency and it’s helped me become more disciplined in many ways. But reading and reviewing things on a daily basis is often drudgery for me. And it doesn’t really inspire me to be creative and think outside the box. This is why I replace a lot of the tasks of this with reading. Harvard Business Review actually covered this topic all the way back in 2012 with this article — For those you want to lead, read.
Full Focus
This is another planner that can help you get out of the way of your hodgepodge of ideas and get some serious focus. Michael Hyatt has been one of the more disciplined leaders I know and I’ve followed his journey from his time as a CEO and learning to code to run a successful blog to retiring from Corporate America to start his own independent group which turned into a $30M+ business coaching organization. My only real issue with his approach is some of it is more complex than you need at the beginning stages. The rule of thumb I’ve always used to guide my leadership is to not overthink decisions and to not add more than necessary. In programming terms there’s something called the MVP — minimal viable product. The Full Focus approach isn’t minimal, but it is a solid one and one that’s always worth garnering insights.
Scripture
I mean this one you probably saw coming. Faith drives everything I do and is the foundation of my purpose. I truly believe we are given physical and spiritual gifts that can help use fulfill our destiny. It starts with having the right foundation of course, and there’s so much wisdom throughout the Bible that can guide you. I love to pay attention to the “Wisdom” books as well as the great entrepreneurs and how they built homesteads, farms, commanded crews, traded in the marketplace, etc. Even the woman mentioned in Proverbs 31 acquires a farm to start a new business and Paul who wrote most of the New Testament invested in others while self-funding many of his journeys. The Bible is literally filled with countless stories of people that put the Lord first and worked hard at the task at hand.
So how does any of this help you build a Life Plan? Well it doesn’t at face value. But I do have a secret I’d love for you to unlock. Join our Follow Your Soulheart community and you’ll get a total of 7 emails designed to help you take those next steps of practically developing a Life Plan, Business Plan and Marketing Plan to help you start, launch and grow your business.
I know so many of you are thinking — WHY should we listen to you, Josh? Do you really have it all figured out? The answers is NOT AT ALL! In fact, the reason I built this community is to learn from people just like yourself and people that are further ahead than all of us. We’re building something special and I want you to join in. Bring your ideas, hopes, fears, dreams, failures, and passion to the table and let’s work together to help you stop chasing your dreams and start building them.