Strategic or Tactical?

I hear tons of the supposed experts telling others that they need a strategy, yet very few of them actually have a strategy of their own and even fewer can tell you how to create one for yourself. 

The word "strategy" implies planning.  What's your plan?  Let me ask that differently:  what's your plan for your life, for your career growth, for your fulfillment, for your health, for your relationships, for your spirituality, and for your finances?

Do I mean that you need a plan for all these areas?  Absolutely!  You must plan each category of your life individually and create a collective plan too.  This collective plan is really your strategy for success.  So how should you proceed?

For each area of your life, brainstorm and write out exactly what you want.  Go into excruciating detail.  Write out why you must achieve your end result and exactly what you'll lose by not achieving your end result.  Next right out quarterly, monthly and weekly benchmarks that must occur to achieve your success.

That's your strategy, or plan for your success.  The tactical plan is the actions necessary to make the strategy work.  For the tactical pick your top 3 highest value action items for each category of your life that will beat your benchmarks, and execute them every week.  Capitalize on Pareto's Principle where 80% of your success will come from the top 20% of highest priority efforts.

Review your strategy every Sunday.  Take an hour for yourself, review your professional and personal strategy, celebrate your victories and mitigate your shortcomings.  Does this take time?  Absolutely!  Will this strategy reward you?  Thousands and millions of times over.  An hour of "you" time is better than anything else you can do.  Turn off the tv, the radio and your email and start strategizing.