Stories about a backpacking adventure and what it takes to stay course toward accomplishing our dreams despite the inevitable and unknown obstacles and challenges that get in the way. The key in backpacking?  Following a map!  The key in life?  Following a strategic plan. What’s that? Simply put, it’s a map to turn your dreams for your life into reality.  It’s a way to turn your dreams for your business into reality, your dreams for your family into reality, your dreams for your health into reality, your dreams for your finances into reality. In a sense, it’s a like creating a recipe for success.  Big picture, strategic planning is the process you’ll use to actually get what you want from life. You’ll use strategic planning systems to build your ideal life, your ideal family, or your ideal business. How Does It Work? First you define what critical focus AREAS are most important to your life, your family, or your business at this point in time.  So, if you are in business you would decide what areas are important to focus on in your business this year.  Or if you want to develop a strategic plan for your health, you would decide what areas are important for you to focus on in your health this year.  Then you focus the necessary ATTENTION and RESOURCES on those issues. As the result of this process like this, a strategic PLAN is created that charts the path to your success. As you go through the planning process, you’ll begin to put write down the results of each planning stage. You will first write down your vision, your ideal for some area of your business or life. Then you will write down a few critical focus areas you can focus on to make progress toward that vision. Then for each critical focus area you will write down at least one objective. Then for each objective you will write down a few specific, measurable goals that will help you accomplish that objective. Then you will write on your calendar specific action plans that will help you accomplish each goal. Make Your Map Strategic planning bridges the GAP, between where you are TODAY and where you WANT to be.  It creates a bridge from where you are to where you want to be in some area of your life.   You create specific plans and action steps that form the road over that bridge from your current reality to your desired future. You create a strategic plan for the same reason you take a map along when you don’t know how to get to where you’re going.  You need direction. Think of your plan as a map you’ll follow to reach your destination…to the other side of your gap between how things are in some area of your life now to how you want things to be. Most people start journeys with some destination in mind.  Most people start new ventures with some vision in mind. Everyone starts their marriage with some vision I mind.  If you’ve had kids, everyone starts having kids with some vision in mind for the kind of family they’d like to have…the kind of relationship they’d like to have with their kids.  If you’re in business, when you started your business you had some destination in mind. But here’s the kicker.  Even though most people have some idea of where they want to end up, they rarely take the time to create a map for exactly HOW they are going to get there. So they still start on the journey toward where they want to end up but inevitably they hit some bumps in the road…some circumstances that threaten to take them off track or sideline them from achieving their dream.  Without a clear plan, you may make some progress toward your dream but you won’t know what to do when you hit that first bump in the road? Without clearly defined goals and a well-thought-out plan for how to get there, every time you hit a bump in the road, you’re likely to stop your vehicle, get out and analyze — the bump.  Or wor