In the last couple days, I’ve been networking with some people and they have expressed some issues that they find overwhelming.  One was in the context of paying off student loans and the other wants to become a consultant.  Both of these ideas are great visions.

Whenever someone talks about a vision though, I always wonder if the person has a plan from getting from the current state to the vision.  I can relate to both of the people involved, by the way.  At one point in my life, I was each of them.  Here are the steps that I took.  Maybe they will help others think about how to achieve the successes that others are seeking…

When I was eight years old, I decided that I wanted to help business people as a consultant.  Here are the steps that I took over the last 30+ years to do so…

1. Obtain a formal education
2. Gain practical experience
3. Develop alternate sources of revenue
4. Build relationships with people where synergies exist
5. Align our interests
6. Work together to create opportunities
7. Evaluate results
8. Identify opportunities for improvement
9. Make the improvements

This plan involved a lot of formal education.  When I graduated from law school, I had $27,000 in loans that I needed to repay.  Sounds like a lot of money, but by today’s figures, it was chump change.  A television report the other day was talking about $50,000 and a friend of mine has a loan for $100,000. 

Here are the steps that I took to do so:

1. Write down who I owed money, how much, payments due, and interest rate on a single sheet of paper
2. Focus on the debt that had the highest interest rate and the smallest debt first
3. Develop a repayment schedule
4. Talk with creditors
5. Avoid new debt

It seems to me that most goals can be achieved by similar processes.  The process really boils down to:

1. Defining the vision
2. Setting goals
3. Developing a plan
4. Executing the plan
5. Evaluating results
6. Identifying opportunities for improvement
7. Implementing the improvements

Filed by Coleen Davis at 3:11 pm under About Coleen Davis, Planning Tips, Solving Problems