Why planning a holiday impacts your future success

Going on vacation this December? If you’re heading out of town and maybe even out of country, I bet you have done the following things:

1. Agreed on the timing with your family
2. Decided on a destination (and booked the hotel if applicable)
3. Decided how you are going to get there and booked your mode if travel (if necessary)
4. Booked a rental car (if needed)
5. Checked that your passport is still valid (if heading across the border)
6. Arranged for out of country medical cover
7. Booked time off work
8. etc etc etc

All this planning, and organizing – oh, the bother!  But where would you be without it?

So, if forward planning is absolutely crucial to a successful vacation, why would people that run businesses look at planning in their businesses with such a laissez faire attitude?  Now, it may not be you, but it certainly could be.  And I bet that most of you feel that you could probably do it better – after all, if planning could lead to greater success, just imagine where and for how long you could travel next December?

Why is business planning more important now than in the past?

Quite simply, the world around us is changing so fast these days that the environment in which we operate is different from day to day, week to week, month to month.  In the past we probably only needed to worry about change every few years, or even decades.  Today, that is no longer applicable.  So, if change is happening so fast, anyone that is thinking they can survive (never mind thrive) with a “status quo” attitude is going to find out very quickly that they are simply “dead wrong”.  And I am using the term “dead” very deliberately.  That status quo attitude will likely lead to their demise, not to a status quo end result.  Those days are gone.

Those people that move, innovate, and change will become the drivers of their destiny.  Those that don’t will be passengers in their demise, and they will soon become powerless once the downward momentum has become.

Please don’t become the passenger.  Please, stay on as the driver and ensure that your future success remains in your hands.

Start today – time is passing you by on the highway to the future

You cannot go on vacation without planning.  So make the decision to plan a business future that is growth oriented, based on good, proactive and forward facing decisions.  Develop a strategy that keeps you agile (this article from the Huffington Post will provide some additional insight on how make your business more agile by focusing on factors such as collaboration, knowledge sharing and flexibility) makes sense, and represents activities and plans that are achievable.

And get help if you don’t feel comfortable doing it on your own.  After all, your business is probably all about people, and having good people to help is part of the journey to a happy place of your choice.

Neville Pokroy is a founding partner of Mastermind Solutions Inc., a strategy, planning and implementation organization that assists businesses to create a vision from their unique imagination, and develop a new growth mentality in their organization.  He is also the author of Big Bang for Business – 8 Steps to Create Explosive Growth and Success.  Video review.

neville@mastermindsolutions.ca  (905)886-2235.