Do you have a 3 year plan?  Do you know where you want to be, what you want to be doing and how much money you want to have 3 years from now?  Success does not happen by happenstance.  If you don’t know where you want to be in the future and if you don’t put together a plan on how you are going to get there, you will most likely end up someplace else.

People that have achieved results in their lives have a plan.  That plan usually starts with a vision.  But a vision is just that – an image in your head; a starting point.   We would encourage you to create as clear a vision of what you want as possible.  But once that vision is created,  you should not stop there.  You need to build a plan – a detailed plan that you guide you in your journey.  The plan does not necessarily need to be frozen or immutable.    In fact, most likely your plan will change, but you have to have an initial plan that you will adjust along the way.

The length of time that we recommend for your plan is 3 years.  Why?  Because most worthwhile accomplishments take that long to materialize.  Yet, this is still a length of time that is relatively short and that will motivate you to take action immediately.  There is enough stability in a 3 year period for you to stay the course with your plan, and you are more likely to follow through on a 3 year plan than if you try to create a plan that spans a longer time period.

What should you have in your 3 year plan?   Let’s start with the vision.  Here are some suggested questions in different categories that you should be asking yourself:

Financial

• What will be your net worth?
• How much income will you generate?
• How much will you save?

Health

• How much will you weigh?
• How often will you exercise?
• What habits will you change in your eating habits?

Lifestyle

• What lifestyle changes will you make?
• What hobbies will you start?
• What trips will you take?
• How are you going to have fun?

Career

• Where will you be working?
• What kind of work will you do?
• What promotions, positions, titles, and raises will you strive for?

These are just some suggestions to get you thinking but you really should create your own list based on the things that are important to you.  Once you have built your own list of questions and a vision around them, you should create some specific steps that you will take to get where you want.  Then put some key milestone dates next to each step. 

For example, let’s say that in 3 years you want to be promoted to a management position.  Here are some steps and milestones you might associate with your vision:

• Find a mentor to help improve your management skills and guide you through the process – by March 2010
• Start an MBA program at night – by June 2010
• Achieve a very positive performance review for your current position and repeat for the next three years – by January 2011
• Complete a green belt six sigma project – by June 2011
• Start having serious discussions with your manager about management opportunities – by October 2011
• Start performing management tasks even before being promoted to manager – by June 2012
• Apply for management positions at your existing company or if necessary start searching for management jobs outside  – by August 2012
• Become a manager  – by November 2012

You can also build some experimentation into your plan and you should feel free to change the specifics of how you are going to get there and the associated dates as necessary.  So, following the example above, you may decide that instead of spending precious time getting an MBA, that you would be better off spending more time at work, staying late, and finishing some critical projects that will get you good visibility within the company.

Once you have a plan in place, monitor your progress against your milestones, and make adjustments as necessary.  The most important thing in your success journey is to stay the course and follow a plan, even if the plan requires continuous adjustments.