Imagine you’re going on vacation, traveling to a bustling city where there will be plenty to do and see.  You’re so excited, you’ve been dreaming of this vacation for over 2 years.  You’ve seen pictures, surfed the web, picked out the perfect hotel, and have the ideal itinerary lined up.  The vision is becoming reality. You board the airplane and can’t wait for vacation to start.

A few hours later you land and with butterflies of excitement, rush out of the airport to jump into your rental car. But wait; there’s a huge problem…You don’t have a map.  Now what: Do you      wing-it in a foreign city by riding along hoping you’ll stumble onto the correct path? Or, not wanting to waste any of your precious vacation, do you find the closest convenience store to purchase a map?

Depending on your personality the response will vary, but one obvious thing we know is that it’s much harder and stressful to find our destination in unfamiliar spaces when we don’t know where we’re going.

Are you living without a Map?

As a leader, often times we get super excited about vision. Just like a vacation destination, when we get a vision, we see the end destination and are so thrilled about getting there, that in many instances, we jump on the journey without a map.  Here’s a simple 3 step process to be sure you never travel without a map again.

Before you start on the journey create your   M – My   A – Action  P – Plan

Step 1: Define My

“My” is writing the vision or the goal you want to achieve.  Habakkuk 2:2 says write the vision and make it plain, but so many of us miss this step.  Writing down your vision or goal not only provides clarity and focus, it provides confidence.   As leaders we have 101 thoughts and ideas that run through our head.  Hopefully we’re writing them all down, eliminating the ones that are good ideas and only keeping the ones that are God ideas.  If your “My” for the moment makes the cut, that’s a mode of confirmation that it’s a “My” you should pursue.

Step 2: Write down the required Actions

Here’s the bottom line; without action, nothing is achieved!  After you’ve defined your my, the next step is make a list of actions that are necessary to achieve your my.  Your actions list should be as specific and as detailed as possible.  This list doesn’t have to be pretty, organized or final….a braindump that serves as a living document will due. Seeing all the necessary actions to achieve your vision or goal may be overwhelming at first, but the best way to achieve your vision or reach your goal is to break down task into small action items and tackle the them.

Step 3: Create a Plan 

Once you’ve defined your my and developed a preliminary action list, the next step is to create a plan.  In the planning phase, aim to answer more complex questions like who, what, when, where, why, and how.  Planning should include:

• organizing your action items into categories
• delegation by assigning specific actions to specific people
• enlisting supplemental support
• setting benchmarks
• plotting timelines

Here’s the beauty of using this kind of  M – My  A – Action  P – Plan…..

No matter the size or importance of the goal, a MAP  is fully customizable.  I use this MAPing process to achieve simple goals like meal prep and more complex goals like launching a business initiative.

So, do you have a map for that?…

Or do you get a great idea, have an amazing vision, or a set a goal and then jump in the car, turn the key, and put your foot to the pedal in wing-it mode? Sure, enough correct turns may eventually lead us to the intended destination, but what would your life look like if you took control and created a M – My  A – Action  P – Plan for every journey.  Its time to pull out the navigation, plot the course, and reach our intended destination.

Question: What are you currently doing to stay on track with reaching your destination? You can leave a comment by clicking here.