Reviewing Action Plans

Number one, review your action plan every quarter.

Go back ninety days and look at what you believe your priorities were back then.

Did you accomplish them? Did you not accomplish them? What is no longer a priority? What new priorities came up? And most importantly, what got in the way? This is not an exercise to judge yourself.

It is about discovering the relationship between your actions and your results because the thing is that awareness will give you the information that you need to make better decisions.

Second, remember that a real priority requires a real decision.

You're going to love this one.

I do.

The thing is that sometimes we tell ourselves that something is important, but our actions say otherwise.

We hesitate, we wait until we feel comfortable or we feel that the time is right, and what we're really doing is that we're allowing other things to take over.

But the reality is that making a decision means supporting that decision with action, even when the action feels uncomfortable.

If something continues to appear on your action plan quarter after quarter without getting it done, it may be time to ask whether you have truly decided to do it or maybe, maybe you never made a clear decision at all.

Maybe what you did was state a wish.

I want to share with you a parable that captures the distinction between a wish and a decision, and it's called The Bridge and the Boat.

There were two business owners that lived on opposite sides of a river.

They both wanted to cross to the other side of the river where there was a prosperous market where new customers and opportunities were waiting.

The first owner stood at the riverbank every morning and said, "I really need to get across that river." He researched the boats.

He'd talk about bridges.

He wrote, "Cross the river tomorrow," on his list of goals.

But every day, something else came up.

The weather wasn't perfect.

He had emails to answer.

Someone needed him at the office.

So crossing the river was important, but it was always optional.

Meanwhile, the second business owner came to the river and said, "On Friday morning, I am crossing this river." He bought a small boat.

He hired someone to cover his responsibilities.