Hey Warriors! Welcome to 2023!!
I have to say… 2022 was a pretty good year for me, but I am planning on making 2023 even better! Who else is planning on making this the best year of their life?
If anyone else is like me, as soon as one year starts drawing to a close, you start picturing and planning out next year. What are my goals going to be? What am I going to accomplish? What do I want to focus my time, effort, and energy on?
In this post, we are going to discuss exactly that. I am going to share with all of you my Strategic Theme for 2023 as well as my top 5 goals for the year. Remember, these are only my theme and my goals. Your goals and your theme will probably look very different, and that’s a good thing. The key point is to make your plan work for you!
This is an article about Strategic Planning and goal setting.
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Setting Your Commander’s Intent
Recently, I had the good opportunity and privilege to sit down with the Sheepdog Dad podcast and discuss my upcoming book on the Warrior Spirit. You can find the podcast here.
Among the many topics that we discussed, we talked specifically about a military concept known as Commander’s Intent.
In the military, Commander’s Intent is the “WHY” of a Mission. It communicates the reason that the mission is being conducted. It allows tactical commanders on the ground the make strategic decisions when the situation changes.
While Commander’s Intent is a critical element on the battlefield, I believe that it is also an essential ingredient in our own lives. This concept was the subject of another article that I wrote recently which you can find here.
As a brief recap, developing a Commander’s Intent for your life provides at least 3 key benefits which I outline in the article.
#1 – It provides a focus for your time and efforts.
#2 – It gives the “WHY” for your life.
#3 – It helps to minimize deviations from your plan when changes in your life occur.
This is why strategic planning your year is so important! If you are doing it properly, Strategic planning is just another name for Commander’s Intent.
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So, back to me
This last December, I spent about 12 hours over several days developing my plan for this next year and I am going to share some of it with you. But first, let me give a shout out to one of my personal mentors, Todd Durkin, who developed the 2023 Annual Strategic Planning tool that I have been using. In my opinion, this is the best planner that I have ever come across!
Anyway, I am going to share my Theme for this year, as well as my top 5 goals for the year.
Remember, this is my theme and my goals. Yours will probably (should probably) look different than mine, because they should make sense to you! But first let me answer a clarifying question.
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What is a theme?
This can be a word, or a short phrase, or even a mental picture that describes the attitude and energy that you want to characterize your year. It can be personal; it can be professional; it can be relational; it can be ANYTHING that describes your life right now, just as long as it makes sense to you and gives you a purpose for the year ahead!
For example, if you wanted to focus on your personal life this year, your theme could be Friendship, Love, Reconciliation, or Togetherness.
If you wanted to focus on your business, the theme could be Expansion, Pivoting, New Growth, Consolidation, or Systematizing.
Like I said, it can be whatever you want it to be, just make sure that it makes sense to you!
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My theme
For me, I have decided on a short phrase that really encompasses what I want for myself professionally and personally this next year. That phrase is:
READY, SET, LAUNCH!
Those people who know me best know that the past few years have been years of building and preparing. I have spent the last two years writing a book that will be coming out this year, I have been helping my wife start her business and follow her dreams, and I have been developing my own ethos and philosophy for my life.
In many ways, I feel like an arrow that has been pulled back on a bowstring, and now it is time to let the arrow go and see what happens! In military terms, it is time to “put rounds down range.”
That is what this blog is really all about. It is my attempt to share with others the things that I have learned and that have helped my life. Remember, we gain SUCCESS in life by focusing on our own personal development, but we gain SIGNIFICANCE in life, by giving away the things that we have learned to others. It is time for me to start giving away.
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Goal Setting – The next step of Strategic Planning
The next step of strategic planning is Goal setting. What are the top 5 things that you want to accomplish this next year?
Goals are important! I would never go into a sporting match without a game plan and I would never go into a military mission without a Concept of Operations. Similarly, I cannot hope to win the game of life if I don’t know what I want to actually ACCOMPLISH!
Remember, these goals can be about any aspect of your life: professional, personal, spiritual, relational, familial, etc. Just make sure that they are important to you and related to your overall theme for the year.
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My Top 5 Goals for 2023
Without further ado, here are my top 5 goals for the next year.
#1 – Publish book and establish platform.
#2 – Create online Warrior community.
#3 – (Family focus) Become a better husband and leader. Grow relationship with Carleigh and take at least two weeklong trips together as a couple.
#4 – Develop strategic partnerships for The Warrior Journal. Make at least 15 guest podcast appearances.
#5 – Overhaul personal finances. Eliminate bad debt and expand investment portfolio.
Remember, these are MY goals. Yours can be completely different. I share them only to give you an idea of how this goal setting process should work.
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Conclusion
In thinking about the topic of Strategic Planning, I always remember the words of Dwight D. Eisenhower:
“In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”
Yes. Plans will change. But, the act of planning and thinking about what you want to accomplish in your year and throughout your life has LONG and LASTING value. So get to it!
I wish you all a very happy New Year and a very successful Strategic Planning!
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Jayson Downing is a former Marine Corps Captain and now works as a business owner, author, writer, speaker and podcaster dedicated to helping people find the Warrior Spirit inside of themselves.
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