I just spent a few days in Quito, Ecuador this weekend, participating in a project we're running called "The Lean Start Enterpreneur Project". We (Extreme Response) brought together some strategic partners (Hope Ventures & Pan de Vida) along with our Quito Program Staff to sponsor the first half of this Entrepreneur Project. The goal of the project is to help to break the generational cycle of poverty for a group of about 35 women by providing them training and support to launch their own businesses, creating ongoing income and helping them to change their lives. It's a great project!

I was walking through town the other day on my normal route to my favorite coffee shop, and the street was completely torn up, and I literally moaned when I saw that the work would continue until March!

It's so easy to focus on the inconvenient side of construction:

* It's noisy

* It stirs up lots of dust and dirt

* It affects the normal flow of traffic

* It makes a mess

* Normal businesses are affected

On the upside, when the construction is complete:

* The street will be nice

* It will revive the area

* Businesses will thrive

* It will feel new

Last week I talked about doing a RISK. Read it HERE

*What did you define as areas of RISK to your life?

*Were you able to evaluate and address them?

This month I'm showing you parts of 4 tools that come from the Paterson LifePlan Process. We started with THE FOUR HELPFUL LISTS. Then the TIME AUDIT. Last week we talked about RISK.

Today we'll finish this 4-week LifePlan Preview with Action Steps.

A LifePlan is a waste of time if you don't do anything with it. One of the most important parts of this plan is the Action Steps: What's Important Now? Your W.I.N.S.

To begin with, I want to reminder about SMART GOALS.

Today I want to share a simple exercise that's part of a larger DASHBOARD. You create a dashboard so you can easily measure how you're doing in some areas of life. If there's a problem or a crisis, you immediately pay attention to it, much like the dashboard on your car.

If there's a warning light that comes on in your vehicle, most of us wouldn't ignore it. We would immediately pull over and try to figure it out, or we'd get it to a mechanic to help fix it. If you ignore the warning, it usually doesn't end well for your car, or for you!

Pay Attention to your Dashboard!

Here's a simple tool for you to use to identify some areas of your dashboard. If you're interested in doing the full LifePlan with the complete toolbox, contact Russ.

It's a simple RISK ASSESSMENT.

4 STEPS:

First, IDENTIFY WHERE YOU'RE GOING

- What are you working towards in life? What's important to you? Why do you get out of bed in the morning? This is your life purpose! Define that.

Second, IDENTIFY SOME RISKS TO YOU ACCOMPLISHING THAT

- What are some things that might keep you from fulfilling your life purpose? What are things that can get in the way or distract you from that?

Here are a couple of samples from my dashboard a number of years ago:

* Poor Physical Health

I was in a place where I couldn't keep up with the demand of work physically. I was tired all the time, I didn't have energy, I was overweight, and I wasn't eating well. This was a real risk to my life, my calling and my purpose.

* Unstable Finances

We were in some transition financially and it was difficult to plan, it was difficult to even survive. We needed to do something to bring some stability to our financial situation, or it could affect everything.

* Fear of Isolation

I was working away from my organizations office. I was spending a lot of time alone, and that was unhealthy for me. I needed to create a local network of people to engage with instead of leaning into being on my own.

3 practical and real illustrations from my first LifePlan. The Plan helped me create a roadmap to address each of these areas, and I'm happy to say that today all 3 of these are off of my Risk List. Now there are other things on that list, but I was able to identify these and develop an action plan around letting these risk impact my life in a negative way.

I'm introducing you to 4 simple tools that are a part of the Paterson LifePlan Process. To learn more, CLICK HERE.

The first tool was called "4 Helpful Lists".

Today, I want to talk about doing a TIME AUDIT.

Here's the premise:

We all have goals, ideas, dreams and things that we want to achieve and accomplish. The problem is, we aren't able to achieve these things because we think we can just add them to our already busy and overloaded schedule.

In the LifePlan Process, one of the most impactful tools we do is called the "LifePlan Time Assessment". I'm not going to walk you through the actual tool we use with the Paterson LifePlan because it integrates into the other work that is a part of the full process, but I want to give you some tools so you can do this for yourself.

When we define goals and priorities that help us get where we want to be, but we don't make time in our schedule to execute, or adjust our schedule to allow us to do these things, we fail!

I was teaching a class of graduate students at a l local university, and I was asked how Life Coaching is different from Executive Coaching. I spent 3 hours walking through the difference, and talking about the wholistic approach Life Coaching takes in addressing all domains of a leader, not simply the business side of executive coaching.

Some of you may not know that I do Life Planning with strategic leaders around the world. CLICK HERE to learn more.

While teaching the class, I was reminded how powerful some of the tools we use are in simply determining where we are today, answering the question "how did I get here?", and in figuring out where we're going.

Over the next 4 weeks, I want to share a couple of these tools with you, one at a time. I'd like to encourage you to take a few minutes to do each one, and then figure out what you can learn from each of them.

If you need help, don't hesitate to ask.

The premise of Life Planning is this: If we want to figure out where we're going, we have to look back and learn from where we've been. Or, more simply: "Perspective before Planning" (Tom Paterson).

Today, I want to illustrate this concept from a company I follow and one that I was reminded of yesterday in the Dallas Airport.

I wear Stance Socks. Many of you know about my love of orange socks, but the reality is that it's not just the orange, it's the brand: STANCE.

I found this local company here in Southern California years ago, and became a raving fan, even giving out Orange Socks at our last Leader Mundial Summit in Atlanta last year.

When I first found the socks, I could only find them at 2 stores near where their company is based.

Last week I talked about PREDICTIONS. If you missed it, read the post HERE.

John Wayne from Mozambique shared this...

"I Remember once reading this: 'The only way to predict the future is to study the past'. It's helped me to learn from the life lessons of those that have gone ahead of me."

Thanks John Wayne. The quote he shared is credited to to Robert Kiyosaki, and the full quote says: "The best way to predict the future is to study the past, or prognosticate."

Today I want to share something I've been thinking about over the past number of weeks. At a planning session, someone shared this idea with me in talking about planning and implementation of a project: