It’s National Dolphin Day today, and as Facebook does, a memory popped up from six years ago. It was from a family holiday in Dubai where we were lucky enough to get up close in the lagoon with dolphins.

The twins were only eight at the time, so were a little apprehensive (as was I!), but as we relaxed into it, learnt about their behaviours, and started to interact with them in the water, it was an experience of a lifetime, and a great “bucket list” to tick off.

Not long after this, we further developed our “family bucket list” which became our Team Norbury Life Plan...

A plan of everything we want to be, do and have in our lives over the next 5 / 10 / 15+ years...

We involved the kids in the process and by working this out, writing it down, and creating a visual board, we had a roadmap specifically for our own lives that helps us focus, prioritise, and make decisions EVERY SINGLE DAY!

The problem is, most business owners never do a Life Plan, some have a Bucket List at best, so they never align their business goals to what they really want in life (in fact many don’t know or have lost sight of what they really want in life).

Some will have a plan in their heads, but never commit it to paper or even visually so it’s never there in front of them as a constant reminder every day to focus and prioritise.

It’s our experience that family businesses / partnerships, don’t ever have this discussion until it’s too late, so as a business grows and opportunities arise, the partners / family members have disagreements because they want different things out of life – and therefore out of the business.

That’s why, when we developed our 9 Step Blueprint, Step One is Life Plan and helps you:

• Understand what you really want, and,

• What you’re prepared to do, to get it.

If you’ve not already done this, then I strongly urge you to do so, regardless of how long you’ve been running your business.

I’ll leave you with this (if you’re familiar with Back to the Future Part II then you’ll recognise the concept!):

Imagine meeting your successful-self, 5 years from now, and ‘future you’ gave you a Business Almanac containing everything you need to do for the next 5 years to achieve that success...

Imagine how that would feel and what it would mean to your business and your life...

BW,

Martin

Martin Norbury

Investor | Business Mentor at Advocate | Author of I don’t work Fridays