Planting What You Want

Last week I spent two interesting days with Leslie Morris, an image consultant. I learned a lot from her but when she shared her philosophy about dressing I had one of those Aha! moments. Leslie's approach is to plan for where you want to be in the future and NOT for where you are today.

"Dress like you're already there."

It makes sense to me. Back in the old days when I created computer systems to support business processes the first question I always asked was "What end result do you require?" Once we got that right, the rest was easy. By being as clear as possible on where we were headed I knew what to build to produce those results.

Think of it like this. If you want a garden filled with roses why would you lay sod? You'll only have to pull it up eventually. A lot of wasted effort, extra expense and delay in achieving what you really want. In fact, you might get so busy fertilizing, cutting and trimming the sod that you never actually get around to creating your rose bed.

Better to plan your activities with those roses in mind from the get-go, even if the garden looks empty for a season or two.

Ask yourself, "What vision do I have for my business a year from now? Two years? Five years?"

Be as specific as you can and as daring as you want, right down to income and the hours you'll work. Don't rush this part of your planning process. It's just too important to everything else you do. And don't get hung up by thinking it can't be changed. So what if it does? Whose business is this anyhow? You get to have you want.

When you've got a lock on your vision take a close look at what you're building today. Are you keeping your eye on the roses or just laying sod?