 |
|
Making Your Master Plan
The benefits of knowing where you’re going
If you knew exactly where you wanted to work or what you wanted to do after college, you could plan your time to get there in the easiest, most enjoyable and most efficient way possible.
Take Arnold Schwarzenegger for example. I heard from two reliable sources that when he realized his weightlifting career wouldn’t last forever, he formulated a 10-year plan to become an action movie superstar.
Of course, he has done that and now he’s the Governor of California and even my Microsoft Word spell checker knows how to spell his last name. The point is that he had a master plan, a specific goal. He made a long range plan and worked on it step by step.
Let me show you how to apply that kind of success in college. I had a friend who graduated summa cum laude with one of the highest grade point averages in college and she always had time to have fun. After college she went to the graduate school of her choice (Yale) and then got the job she always wanted.
One day in college I asked her “How do you do it? How do you get the best grades, have extra time and stay relaxed?” She shrugged her shoulders and then said to me “well, tell me what classes you’re taking.”
I started telling her my schedule “Biology, Chemistry…” She cut me off right away saying “Oh no, no!” she shook her head and said, “I never take more than one real class a semester.”
I was shocked. I thought I had to work hard and she showed me that you don’t have to work hard you just have to work smart. This is what she had done.
She had a long-range goal and from her first semester freshman year she knew exactly where she wanted to work. She wanted to write public policy on Capitol Hill in
Other than that one “real” course, she filled up her schedule with low demand, low course load classes, courses she knew she could handle. She took electives (like dance classes) that she wanted to take, concentrated all her efforts on the one class that really mattered, got A’s and had a lot of fun.
Not only had my friend known what her focus was, she also found out early on from people in the field exactly how to prepare herself for that field. When she finally got to the job interview they took one look at her resume and said, “It looks like you were groomed for this job” and they gave her the job.
So this is what we are going to do.
1. We will find out your natural talents and abilities, motivations and passions (passions that may even border on obsession), then
2. We will find similar people who are successful in a similar focus and ask their advice about careers and classes. (If you already know, you are one step ahead of the game. However, even if you do already know and are sure you know, you will still benefit from going through with this advice.)
Perhaps you’re thinking, “this all sounds good but I don’t know what I want to do!” or “this would have been good advice a few years ago but I am a senior in college now” Don’t worry! You can make a master plan even if you don’t know right now what you want to do or no matter where in your academic career you are. The next strategy I will let you in on will help you find your strengths and weaknesses and plan your success just like
The Assessment of Your Success
Let’s take a good look at our situation. If we’re planning a long journey through a place we haven’t been before you’re going to need a MAPP. The “MAPP”, one of the best assessment tools you’ll ever find. Not only will it help you put your finger on your strengths, it will empower you to use them. It can help you assess your learning style and select classes that help you get where you want to go as well as find careers that fit your motivations.
There is a free sample version of the MAPP that gives you your results the same day in your e-mail. To get a free MAPP, a book written all about you, right off the Internet, go to: Free MAPP Assessment and answer a series of questions that takes about 25 minutes and it’s yours.
They also have a free deal with schools. If you can get your school to sign up for a school ID number, it’s all free. Even without the ID number they offer a free sample and if you choose to upgrade you can just give them the ID number or pay the fee and you don’t have to answer any of the questions again because you already did them in the free sample.
Another really good free assessment tool is “The Temperament Sorter II.” While the MAPP excels at assessing your intellectual potential, the Temperament sorter excels at revealing your drive and emotional make-up. The Web site (www.advisorteam.com/) claims that it is the “#1 online personality instrument used by 30 million people, Fortune 500 companies and major universities.”
I took it myself to see if it would be something I would recommend to you. Wow! The career assessment was so good, I couldn’t believe it! At the end of the assessment they gave me a list of possible careers that were very well suited to me. In fact I had considered 14 of the 15 on my list.
One word of advice for taking this assessment: try the free sample a number of times until you get the same results consistently. There is no problem with the assessment but you need to be sure and consistent with your answers to their questions. When you can answer the questions accurately and consistently you will get a great report.
They have two different reports; the Temperament Report and the Career Report both are good. If you have to choose one, I would choose the Career Report, most everything in the Temperament Report is covered in the free assessment and the Career Report.
Once you’ve analyzed your MAPP and your Report, talk to people who can help you define and refine your focus. If you already knew your focus, these reports can help you fine tune it and make your efforts even more powerful and effective.
When your talents, motivations, and passions are in line with your area of study or career, you love what you do so much you end up saying, “I can’t believe they pay me to do this!” This is the ultimate goal. You know you’re in the right place when you can say, “I can’t believe they pay me to do this!”
In the end what really matters to college and career recruiters is how well you did in what you choose to do. People with five different majors can be hired by the same company in the same month. I know English majors who after graduating took pre-med prep courses and became doctors, and art history majors who became lawyers and investment bankers.
Achieve excellence in anything and everyone will notice you. The most important factor is that you have the passion and clear focus for your future and streamline your life to make it happen. Of course, this doesn’t mean you can’t change your mind later. However, without a focus, making use of your time and opportunities is virtually impossible.
There are some people who just have a terrible time choosing a direction or anything for that matter. This problem is more common now because there are simply so many options to choose from. You must know that you can’t go too wrong by following your MAPP and that not having a focus (even a temporary one) is one of the worst things you can do for yourself.
There is a saying among sailors “for those without a direction there is no favorable wind,” also there was an old jazz song with the lyrics:
“Accentuate the positive, Eliminate the negative, And don’t mess with Mr. In-between.”
|
If you don’t know what you want to do, one of the best things you can do is focus on something and achieve success in your focus. Succeeding in whatever focus you choose is a universal trait of successful people, so if you are completely anti-goal oriented then try mastering the skill of achieving whatever you focus upon.
It doesn’t matter where you are in your life right now, whether you’re in high school looking at college or a career or looking to enter graduate school the advice is the same. Know what your natural talents are, choose what you want to do with them, find out from the people who are already successful in that field what you need to do or acquire as far as knowledge is concerned, and plan out your time and effort to be the best you can be.
|
Take Action
1. In just five sentences write down a vivid vision statement of your ideal Straight “A” Life. Use all five senses in your vision statement. Write it in the present tense as if it is happening now and make it so real you can hear, feel, smell, taste and see it clearly in detail (the greater the detail the better). I found a good example of how to write a successful vision statement for you on the Internet by Melissa E. Miller Click Here and scroll 2/3 down the page
Here is part of what it says:
Some contrasting examples of vivid vision statements are below.
I’m pulling up the driveway to my home. I walk in and smell something cooking. I hear voices in the backyard and I’m completely happy.
While that’s a beginning, it’s not very descriptive and doesn’t lend an extraordinary amount of excitement. The statement really doesn’t lead you anywhere, nor give you details to aspire to. How does this vivid vision statement sound to you?
I’m slowly pulling up the gravel path that is the driveway to our home. It winds around some historic oak trees and I’m enjoying the sound of gravel crunching as my dream car glides over the path. As I step out of my car, I watch the trees dance as the wind plays through the leaves. I open the double doors to my dream home and smell spices wafting from the kitchen as our cook prepares another delight for us. I feel the sturdiness of our golden oak floors as my leather loafers lead me to the French doors that are thrown open in the dining nook. A light breeze wisps in and I hear leaves tickling our brick patio.
Here’s another contrasting example.
I want to make the world a better place for the less fortunate.
I am building homes in
Which of the vision statements provided more of a visual for you? Which ones beg you to be there, to contribute? Make your vivid vision statement as detailed as possible. Don’t worry about what you may think sounds ridiculous or impossible. There is little that is impossible to do in this world if the initiative, desire, and commitment are present.
2. Take both free assessment tools A. The Free MAPP Assessment and B. The Free Advisor Team Assessment mentioned in this section. Read them over carefully and further refine your vision statement.
3. Choose your focus.
4. Make a list of “Who’s Who” in the focus you chose. Two Examples. Example One. If you chose Art then pinpoint what kind of art (neo-impressionism, abstract …) and find out who are the top artists in that field both throughout all history and today. Example Two. If you chose business then pinpoint what kind of business and find out who is the top person or people in that field.
| The Straight A Life LLC |
