Have You Planned for Success? – Journey of a Mentee – Episode 3

Like most things in life, success is not something you fall into, you have to plan for it. I am chronicling my mentee journey hoping that you will learn from my experience and perhaps experience what I’m experiencing. I have looked at what I have written so far and realize that I have not given as much useful information as I could.

Before I start the formal part of the program, I have had one orientation session, which was essentially the lay of the land, and to familiarize us with where all the information and resources are on the member only website. I’m in a group program, so we have to have two Quick Start coaching sessions. I have had one so far and will have the second tomorrow. We also have to do three goal achievement homework assignments before we start the program as well. I have done and submitted my three assignments which took an inordinate amount of time to complete because I had to do a lot of reading first.

Assignment One: Goals Exercise

I had to look at my values, purpose and vision then create my goals out of that. This was an intense exercise and I recommend it to anyone who is serious about what they want to accomplish in life. It makes sense that your goals in life should support you life purpose, your vision and the things that give meaning to your life. Here are my top five values:

1. Reliable
2. Be of Service
3. Being Innovative
4. Creating Things
5. Quality of Work

How about you, what are your top five values? Do you know what your life’s purpose is? And how about your vision, do you know what it is? I believe that if we are doing the things we were meant to do we would be a lot happier. I also had to craft my 10-year and three year vision. The feedback from my mentor-coach on assignment one is that my goals are clear, but I need to write my 10-year vision as if I have accomplished it already. For the date by which I plan to accomplish my goals, I had month and year but I was also asked to include a day. When I make the changes I will print and place them by my desk so I can see them every day.

Assignment Two: Goal Planner

Using the Goal Planner from the template, I took one of my key goals, listed the specific actions I need to take to accomplish it with dates attached to each action. The interesting part about this exercise is that for the goal I listed, I had to write the potential barriers I could encounter that would prevent me from accomplishing it. I also had to figure out the steps I would take to eliminate the barriers, and by when, what support I need, and who could provide that support.

For the important goals in your life that still matter to you that you haven’t accomplished, what obstacles did you face? Looking back, what are possible ways to eliminate those barriers, what support do you need and who can help you? You may not want to ask for help, but keep in mind that no one ever succeeds alone.

Assignment Three: Time Blocking

What gets scheduled gets done. I found this assignment the most difficult because I had to schedule everything, the time I spend doing client work, meditating, exercising, having lunch, reading, doing administrative things, personal time and so on. I tested my time blocks today and it needs more work. This system makes you far more productive.

Do you schedule everything in your life?

This is where I’m at in the program, so I will keep you informed about my progress. After Wednesday’s second Quick Start session, I will get into the more formal portion of the program.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

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