Struggling To Plan For 2021? Here’s The Mastermind Playbook Method

Struggling To Plan For 2021? Here’s The Mastermind Playbook Method.

Why You Need to Balance Your Paths to Growth

 

The online mastermind groups I lead are called “Iron Sharpens Iron,” because I firmly believe the Bible when it says: “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” As a Christian life coach, I’ve found this to be true over and over.

 

It’s wonderful to be surrounded by others who sharpen you. But if you’re not willing to sharpen yourself, you won’t go nearly as far as you could. This takes discipline, and the rewards far outweigh the effort. I like to say, “Can’t” couldn’t do it, and “could” did it all.

 

In Stephen Covey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, he wrote about creating dedicated plans for development in four categories: Personal, Professional, Social, and Spiritual. As the leader of a business mastermind, you need to have a plan for growth in these areas. You have too many people counting on you to ignore this.

 

The Mastermind Playbook can also help you better understand the requirements of this business. Realizing your true potential is a lot easier when you take the right steps. 

 

Plan the Work and Work the Plan

 

By now, you know that workable plans drive better results than “winging it.” But a majority of people don’t understand how it applies to each category. That’s why, in some areas, they leave growth up to chance. You’ll see wizards in business whose home, health, and happiness are completely sideways. Why is this?

 

I believe it’s because dedicating time to create a healthy marriage, body, and self-image fall into those “Important, Not Urgent” activities I spoke about here: (LINK TO SECOND MMPB JANUARY BLOG)

 

Without urgency, it’s easy to push things off until tomorrow. But when you procrastinate, “tomorrow” never truly comes. If this goes on long enough, we eventually do one of two things. Either we decide the activity is not important and eliminate it from our calendar; or we become ashamed at our failure to implement. We start to believe we can’t achieve the great results that activity would provide.

 

As I mentioned before, you can’t allow either of these to happen to you, or to the members in your mastermind group. If these thoughts creep in, you’ll find your business and your emotional gas tank stuck on “E.”

 

Keep your tank filled with the strategies and tactics found in The Mastermind Playbook. 

 

A Better Way Forward

 

Where should you start? Covey gives detailed action steps to pursue growth in these four categories. If you want to know these steps, I suggest reading the book.  But I want to share my own personal journey, “sharpening the saw.”

 

Every quarter, I spend two and a half days creating a written plan. I literally spend 20 hours each day devising plans for the next few months! That way, I know exactly what I’m going to do every single day. 

 

I don't say this to brag; it’s to encourage you to do the same thing. 

 

I’ve already titled every blog I'm going to write between now and March. I know exactly what I'm going to blog about. I know the books I'll read from now until the end of quarter 1. I've already got the names of the people I'm going to interview on my podcast for the next 3 months on a Google Spreadsheet.

 

Let me just be totally honest with you; this is hard and it takes a lot of work!

 

Now, I love Tim Ferriss and “The Four Hour Workweek.” But I can promise you, Tim works more than four hours a week. You need to do the same! Sitting on the beach, drinking iced tea and looking at your bank account sounds great, but that’s not the real world. That’s why I want to encourage you to make a plan and write it down. 

 

You might say, “Man, there's no way I can do that!” 

 

Yes, you can! You've got to sit and strategize. I sit in my designated “thinking space” for hours and hours, and I dream. Then I go out, eat lunch, come back and dream some more. I think about what I want, then I write down the steps it’ll take to get there. 

 

If you don't know where you are today, you certainly can't know where you're going

in the future. This may seem exhausting, but in the end, I know exactly what I’ll be doing each day. I don't have to get up and go, “I wonder what Big A’s going to do today?”

 

The goal is repetition, to create consistency. Whatever it is for you, sit down and write down a schedule plan of what you're going to do. I promise you, it works!

 

The Upward Spiral

 

Growth doesn’t come from strictly committing to new things. You can’t achieve it by learning alone, and you can’t just always be “doing.” You need to find a cycle of learning, committing, and doing to enjoy what Covey calls “The Upward Spiral.”

 

This cycle can take your life from ordinary to extraordinary. You’ll be on a constant upward trajectory.  You’ll still face challenges that force you to learn and grow, but you’ll mostly enjoy new challenges, and anticipate good things ahead.

 

For the tools you need to develop personally while growing your mastermind online, check out The Mastermind Playbook. You’ll receive step-by-step instructions and guidance at every turn,  to make sure you grow with your business.