BLUEPRINT FOR SUCCESS

Writing your goals has been shown to increase your chances of accomplishing them tenfold. Use the following guide to begin designing your blueprint for success. Form a plan, recognize your cornerstone values and sharpen the tools you have to get you there.

YOUR ASPIRED DEVELOPMENT

What kind of construction do you want to build toward?

Just as assembling a house without a plan may result in plumbing piped into the den and a partially completed roof, working toward success without a picture of what that means may cause an outcome different from what you might have hoped!

Take this opportunity to spell out your picture of success.

Describe how you see yourself three years from today.

Blueprint Question / For Example / Your Vision
What industry are you working in? / Health Care, Retail, Publishing
What is your job title? / Director, Manager, Coordinator, Consultant
What is your salary?
What are the aspects of your job which you value most? / Salary, vacation, health benefits, annual bonus, environment, continuing education

This kind of personal designing can be used to project five, ten, twenty years into the future and can be applied to a variety of personal as well as professional goals. Details of Your Vision will adjust with time and circumstance, but it will maintain focus if based upon your individual values.

YOUR PERSONAL CORNERSTONE

What are you framing your goals on?

As we grow and learn our ambitions develop with us. Our goals can remain focused if based on our core values. What is most important to you? Are you framing your goals around your personal penchants?

It can be challenging to define our must haves. Try this exercise and explore what comes up!

From this list of values circle the ten that are most important to you.

Accomplishment
Accountability
Accuracy
Adventure
All for one & one for all
Beauty
Calm, quietude
Challenge
Change
Cleanliness, orderliness
Collaboration
Commitment
Communication
Community / Competence
Competition
Concern for others
Connection
Content over form Continuous improvement
Cooperation
Coordination
Creativity
Customer satisfaction Decisiveness Delight / Democracy
Discipline
Discovery Diversity
Ease of Use
Efficiency
Equality
Excellence
Fairness
Faith
Faithfulness
Family
Feeling
Flair
Freedom
Friendship / Fun
Global view
Good will
Goodness
Gratitude
Hard work
Harmony
Honesty
Honor
Improvement
Independence
Individuality
Inner peace
Innovation Integrity
Intensity / Justice
Knowledge
Leadership
Love, Romance
Loyalty
Meaning
Merit
Money
Openness
Patriotism
Peace
Perfection
Personal Growth / Pleasure
Power
Practicality
Preservation
Privacy
Progress
Prosperity
Punctuality
Quality of work
Regularity
Reliability
Resourcefulness
Respectfulness
Responsiveness Results-oriented / Rule of Law
Safety
Satisfying others
Security
Self-givingness
Self-reliance
Self-thinking
Service
Simplicity
Skill
Solving Problems
Speed
Spirit in life
Stability
Standardization / Status Strength
Success/
Achievement
Systemization
Teamwork
Timeliness
Tolerance
Tradition
Tranquility
Trust
Truth
Unity
Variety
Wisdom
Now that you have identified ten, imagine that you are only permitted to have five values. Which five would you choose?
Now imagine you have to choose three:
And choose once more. Bring your list down to two:
Finally, choose the one most important to you:

What did you find out? What did you cut and keep? What did you find to be most valuable to you?

With defined goals and values, it becomes that much easier to see your goals through. The third thing to evaluate is what skills you have and how to further develop and add to them.

Your Tools

What skills do you need to develop to carry out your plan?

Just like a craftsman, if you don’t know what tools you have you cannot use them! Conversely, when building toward something, one needs to note what skills and education are going to be needed to get there.

Skills Inventory

Circle the skills in which you believe that you excel. Note the ones you believe need the most work

and think about a plan to improve.

Communication: the skillful expression, transmission and interpretation of knowledge and ideas.
•Speaking effectively •Writing concisely •Listening attentively •Expressing ideas •Facilitating group discussion •Editing •Providing appropriate feedback •Negotiating •Persuading •Interviewing •Perceiving nonverbal messages
•Reporting information •Describing feelings / Research and Planning: the search for specific knowledge and the ability to conceptualize future needs and solutions for meeting those needs.
•Forecasting, predicting •Creating ideas •Identifying problems •Imagining alternatives •Identifying resources •Gathering information •Solving problems •Setting goals •Defining needs •Analyzing •Extracting important information •Developing evaluation strategies
Human Relations: the use of interpersonal skills for resolving conflict, relating to and helping people.
•Developing rapport •Being Sensitive •Listening •Conveying feelings •Providing support for others •Motivating •Sharing credit •Counseling •Cooperating
•Delegating with respect •Asserting •Representing others •Perceiving situations / Organization, Management and Leadership: the ability to supervise, direct and guide individuals and groups in the completion of tasks and fulfillment of goals.
•Initiating new ideas •Handling details •Coordinating tasks •Managing groups •Delegating responsibility •Teaching •Coaching •Counseling •Promoting change •Managing conflict •Selling ideas or products •Decision making with others

Work Production: the day to day skills that assist in promoting effective production and work satisfaction.

•Implementing decisions •Cooperating •Enforcing policies •Being punctual •Managing time •Attending to detail •Meeting goals •Enlisting help •Accepting responsibility •Setting and meeting deadlines •Organizing •Making decisions

In addition to professional skills, your vision may need education to propel it. What additional training do you need to fulfill your plan?

Education & Training
i.e. College, Training Programs, Seminars, Workshops, Personal Reading
Educational Subjects Needed
i.e. Quality, Credentialing Privileging and Competency, Accreditation Requirements, Technology, Finance/Budgeting

Barriers

What may be blocking you from following through with your plan?

Many different obstacles can stall development. The best way to overcome them is to acknowledge them!

What are some of your barriers?

What are some strategies or tools you can employ to overcome them?