Written By Machen MacDonald 

When it comes to creating the life you love and the vocation of your desires, it takes careful and mindful planning. This can be done at any stage you may find yourself. Once you design a plan you have to execute your plan, but the very thing you are looking to create or improve somehow becomes the obstacle to it. Therefore, you need to plan and execute as you have never done before.

You have something great within you. You are here to integrate your learnings and experience into greatness and share that greatness with the world. Regardless of your current success, you are absolutely capable of more. The sustaining of the quest need not be exhausting nor daunting. In fact, the bigger and clearer the vision, the greater the fuel it will yield to propel you beyond the gravity of where you are today.

The P.A.C.E. process is designed to activate your full potential and enable your escape from inspired mediocrity. The process has helped many achieve their breakthroughs and has been transformed through the barrier of complexity into a simple and repeatable four-step process to bend your trajectory to align with your ultimate life.

P - Plan with enthusiasm for your compelling future while realizing you are right where you are supposed to be at this time. You can’t have a future without a now.

• Vision - Imagine yourself out into the future 3-5 years from today, living the life you want, having the things you desire, and being with the people who share mutual love and admiration with you. What’s your business look like? How much money are you generating? What are you doing? Who are you serving?

• Mission – We all have a “Why we are here.” That is our mission or purpose. To discover yours, check in with yourself and take inventory of what you do really well, perhaps better than anybody. What do people tell you that you are great at doing? Where in your life do you feel most accomplished? Make a list. From that list select the items that you enjoy doing the most. Where do you lose track of time? What do you do that gives you energy? Where do you feel more alive? From that shorter list, identify what are the high profit or productivity activities? i.e., What will people pay or compensate you for doing from that list? Finally, imagine if you spent the majority of your time doing the top 3-5 things on that list, and people paid you for doing it, what’s the benefit, impact, or even transformation they would experience as a result of working with you?

A - Anticipate & Act – From your imagined vision above, look back to right now and ask yourself, “What has to have happened along the way in order for me to feel happy about the progress I’ve made?”

• List out the milestones along the way starting from today. From that list focus on up to six primary objectives, you are willing to commit to measuring and getting done over the next 12 months. Be specific.

• Create a simple strategy of how you will achieve those goals.

• Identify any dangers or obstacles that could knock you off track. What’s your process for making your way past any obstacles?

• Remember, every goal has within it the necessary ingredients for its achievement. Be careful. At first, some of those ingredients may be perceived as obstacles. Great achievers realize the obstacles are the way. Don’t back down.

C – Celebrate, Cogitate, & Calibrate – The one thing you can always plan on is things not going according to plan. That lends to responding in the following ways:

• Celebrate – When things do go according to plan acknowledge the wins both big and small along the way. In life, somewhere between binkies and business cards, most people forget how to celebrate and take in the win. It’s allowing in the win that activates our willingness and perseverance which are two critical ingredients for staying the course.

• Cogitate - When things don’t go according to plan we need to think through what worked, what didn’t work, what we learned, and as a result what to do next.

• Calibrate – Based on the cogitation, what about the plan needs to be adjusted or improved,

 E - Expand & Elevate – As we make progress on our plan and find our way to greater heights, we start to see new vistas and possibilities along the way. Progress equals happiness. The horizon of progress is always changing. Therefore, review the plan and determine what needs to be included and what may need to be eliminated. Is it time to hire more people? Expand office space or perhaps buy an office building? Are there strategic partnerships to be formed? Is there knowledge to be acquired or new skills to be honed? What might you need to let go of? – Think person, place, or thing.

What does the next climb in your journey look like and why is it exciting to you? Practice keeping P.A.C.E. with your success. 

Make it up, make it fun, and get it done!

#1 bestselling author Machen P. MacDonald, CPCC, CCSC is a certified life and business coach with ProBrilliance Leadership Institute in Grass Valley, CA. He helps business people gain more confidence and clarity to live their ideal life. He can be reached at [email protected] and 530-273-8000