How has 2009 gone for you so far? Was it all you hoped it would be?

Did you create a plan for the year? If so, you’ve got an excellent tool for making 2010 even better.

Take a look at your plan for 2009 and ask yourself these questions:

• Where did things go according to plan?
• Where did things fail to go according to plan?
• Where did you deviate from the plan?

Now look at your answers and start working on your plan for a better 2020:

Where did things go according to plan?
These are the strong parts of your plan. What things do you want to repeat next year? Jot those things down.

For example, one of the things in my 2009 plan was to map out my blog content for the year. That turned out to be very, very helpful and I’ll be doing it again.

Where did things fail to go according to plan?
These are the weaknesses in your plan. Why did things fail? Was is because you were too ambitious? Or not ambitious enough?

For example, I wanted to have my content for the year ready as earlier on in the year as possible. I was never able to manage that … although I did, on occasion, have my content for the month ready ahead of time. My evaluation of this “failure” is that I don’t have the systems in place yet to support being that ahead of the curve. I was basically too ambitious. So, I’m going to scale it down a bit for the new year and start working toward the goal of achieving this level of planning and preparedness within the next five years.

Where did you deviate from the plan?
Things change … it’s O.K. to deviate from your original plan … as long as you do it consciously and strategically.

So take a look at why you deviated from your plan. Did new opportunities arise? Did unforeseen obstacles occur?

Now see if you can incorporate what you learned from these deviations to your plan for next year.

When you’ve gotten into the habit of planning each year, creating your new plan becomes so much easier, as outlined above.

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