A really common mistake I see business owners make is to just start doing things without a plan. Then they get frustrated when things don’t turn out the way they’d hoped. The solution for this is creating a business flight plan BEFORE you make changes. That’s what we’re going to talk about today.
What Is A Flight Plan?
Think of it like this: if you’ve ever called an Uber, you can’t actually get one unless you know where you’re going. Before you even begin, you have to put in where you want to go.
Personally, I call it a flight plan because I fly helicopters. And before I can get in a helicopter, I have to have a flight plan already in place. I need to know:
- where I am starting
- my final destination
- what I’m expecting to see on the way
- and what it will feel like when I get there
Often, I have to check Google maps to see what kind of terrain I’ll be flying over, what height we’re at, what’s happening at the airfield that particular time, and check to see if I need any clearances. There are all sorts of things to take into consideration
To get where I want to go, I have to be at a certain height, at a certain time, in a certain space. Essentially, I have figure out exactly what it will look like on the other side of my trip, put myself into that space, and then work backward from there.
The exact same thing is true in our business. It’s all good and well to say, “Yeah, I want to transform my business.” But what’s it all for? What will your business look like a year from now? How will you feel when you reach your destination? What will your destination actually look like?
This is a process I do every year – sometimes multiple times a year, depending on what’s happening. Because it’s important.
If you do this, everything going forward will be so much easier. And if you don’t, then other things you try may collapse in on themselves.
You must KNOW your big why and have a clear understanding of your vision, your destination, your goals.
What Do You Need To Know To Get Where You Want To Be?
To start working on your business flight plan, take some time to really answer these questions:
- What will your business look like a year from now?
- What journey do you want to take?
The way that we do it in a helicopter is we plunk ourselves exactly where we want to be. So if I was flying to our local aerodrome I would plonk myself right at the aerodrome near the petrol pump and then talk my way back through:
- how awesome my flight was
- the amazing landing
- who helped me with the landing
- the person who talked to me in the circuit
- what I needed to know and what I got clarified
- how amazing the weather was
- the things that I needed to navigate
- how excellent the instruments were
- what planning did I do before
And so on. I would work backward from my destination. And that’s what you need to do to create your business flight plan.
Visualise As If It Has Already Happened
What I want you to do right now is put away whatever’s distracting you and pop your feet nice and flat on the floor. Take a deep breath in.
Now, close your eyes and choose a specific date in the future when you will have achieved your goal. Not “six months from now” or “in a year or two.” Pick a specific date. And visualise what it will look like when you get there. Describe it to yourself in detail.
“It is now this particular date. This day, this month, this year. And I am so grateful for the abundance of cash flow that I have.”
I want you to consider your business bank balance, your personal bank balance, your home, and your savings. What will abundance actually look like for you?
“I am so grateful for the friends I have.”
And think about the people that come to mind.
“I am so grateful for my family that I have and what this past year has brought with them. How I’m connected to them in a way I wasn’t before. “
Think about each of those people (or those fairy people) that are in your life. Maybe, at this future date, you’ve repaired some relationships or re-connected in a way that’s different. Perhaps you’ve got some extra in your family or your friendship circle.
“I’m so grateful for the adventures I’ve been on these past 12 months.”
What adventures will you have? Will you travel internally or externally in the world? What business brought that travel about – was it part of your practice, a conference, or a symposium? Was it running a retreat? What parts of your business might have brought about travel?.
Or was it because of your friends or family? What adventures did you have together? What experiences did you have the past 12 months that you’re really grateful for?
Be Grateful And Excited
Feel the excitement and gratitude you would feel after the year you dream of. How will that feel in your body?
Think about your schedule and what that looks like here in the future. When you look at your calendar for the week, what does it look like? How much time are you spending:
- on your business
- with your clients
- face-to-face
- online
- creating new programs
- teaching or mentoring
What does that look like on your calendar in your mind’s eye?
How much space do you have in your calendar for yourself, for self-care, for connection with your family? And things that you find really important in your life (which might be different than what you consider important right now)?
How Will You Change?
In this future self, how do you feel in yourself and your body? In what ways have the past 12 months of taking care of yourself changed things for you? What shifts have happened in the way you think about things for yourself, your health, your wealth, your relationships, your business, and your clients?
What magical moments happened in those past 12 months that were just so amazing you couldn’t be more grateful for those things happening?
Are there changes in your home or your environment? What about your business, your clinic, or wherever you provide your services from?
Don’t Fight It
As your mind brings things up, go with it. Don’t fight it. What’s changed for you?
Who have you connected with – other practitioners in your network, who are your business buddies keeping you accountable and inspired to continue doing what you do? Which mentors have you worked with over the past 12 months in different areas of your life that have changed the trajectory of where you were going?
Do you have partners, collaborators, and referrals? What kind of contributions are you making to others in your community, locally, or globally?
Has your team changed? What does it look like? Did you bring anybody on board, is there a new staff member, a contractor, or someone helping you with that part of your business that in your current present was really hard? But now you’ve been able to hand it over and create something new?
Do you have new hobbies or have you rediscovered ole ones? What does your life look like outside of work and outside your home? Have started doing things over the past 12 months that you’re so excited about?
What new skills do you have? Where did you upgrade and how has that changed the way you show up over these past 12 months?
Finally, what does it look like now that you’re here in the future? Now that you’ve achieved your first horizon, what are you looking forward to in the following year – what’s on the next horizon for you?
Creating Your Business Flight Plan
Now, there’ll be different feelings, emotions, and visuals for you than for others. You might find yourself resisting. But I want you to take a deep breath in, notice where you are, take a bit of a little check-in. Open your eyes and make sure you’ve got some paper in front of you for your flight plan.
Consider what just came up for you while you thought about all of these things.
If you had a red frame around the whole visualisation concept, that’s totally okay. Notice where it might be hindering you or helping you.
Whatever has come up for you around any of those places and spaces, anything that’s inspired you, that got you thinking outside of what your world is like right now, write that down.
The Importance of Writing It Down
Writing it down is really important. When we put pen to paper, neural pathways are created that help transfer an idea into something real. A path is created for our reticular activating system to notice patterns about where these things might show up for us.
Where these mentors might be, these business buddies might be, this beautiful new part of our relationships or these travels might be. And they’ll start to randomly come into your world.
The thing about having a flight plan is you get to see your horizon. You something you might not have seen before but because you now have a bigger perspective of things, you’ll start to see opportunities.
You’ll start to see green frames for your business and your space online you might not have been looking at before. And when you get to that horizon, you’ll see the next one because what until you’ve travelled to the first horizon, you can’t see beyond it.
Business Is A Long Game
The reason we do this exercise is that business is a long game. It’s not a short game or just a matter of sticking a button on your website and hoping for the best.
It’s a long game and some of the best and most successful practitioners I have mentored have created new bathrooms with mosaic tiles on the wall. And that got them through some of the toughest times of wanting to throw their computer against the wall when they couldn’t nail some technology, couldn’t send out that email, or felt like a salesy weirdo.
One of my mentees wanted to go on family holidays all the way around Australia in their caravan. And they did it – because they stuck with what they were creating and continued to do the things in their flight plan.
Some of them have run give back missions overseas multiple times a year because that was part of their flight plan. That was the thing that motivated them to increase their prices, to make sure they were serving people in a in a way that was really valuable, making sure that they created something that was absolutely helpful to them and somebody else.
Do you have a travel plan that came to mind? Something in that future that you really, really want? Use that vision to propel you forward.
Rise to the Challenge
Remember this is your business flight plan.
I want you to notice what changes you might have seen for your future self, for your:
- business
- practice
- personal life
- clientele
- or anything else
Now, you might find this exercise challenging. The first time I did it, I was way challenged!
I had a really hard time visualising but the further I got into it, the more I let myself think about things. And I just went with it rather than overthinking it. Once I did that, things started popping up.
In fact, the first time I did this exercise, I dreamt up an entirely new practice!
At the time, my practice was on the third floor of an abandoned building. I had second-hand furniture, no shingle on my front door, and no clients coming in. It felt completely beyond me that in 12 months time, I could have something different.
But when I started my visualisation, my brain gave me some ideas that felt totally absurd. There was a whole shop front with offices and a fully-kitted out dispensary. My office had a new laptop, and I have new clothes including some amazing red boots! I thought it was ridiculous.
Find Your Red Boots
But guess what happened about a week later? I walked by the shops in my local area and the red boots I saw in my mind’s eye were there. I thought, isn’t that interesting? So I went in and asked how much they were.
They were way too much for me at the time, but I put them on layby. It felt like a hint to me that I could do this so I put them on layby because I wanted to feel the way I did in my visualisation. A practitioner seeing people with a reception area and a dispensary.
Then, a week after that, a building I had walked past I don’t even know how many times – every day taking my kids to school – this shop front had a “for lease” sign on it. And it had apparently been for lease for six months but I had never seen it!
My reticular activation system in my brain had never registered that as a possibility, so I literally didn’t see it even though I walked past it every day.
I finally saw it and realised – that’s the building I had in my mind! So I organised a time to see another two weeks later. It was actually twice as big as the shop I had, and I said to the landlord, “I never imagined having this much space. I’m literally in an abandoned building right now. I’d love to come out here but I don’t think I can afford both of these sides.”
And he said, “Oh, well you can have it free for a month while you’re setting up your practice. Then you can have half rent for six months since you’re only going to use this side.”
I was mind blown! It wasn’t even on my radar. Two weeks later I was moving in.
Take Action
Less than 10 weeks after I did that visualisation, I had a full complement of other practitioners filling all those rooms. And I had opened the doors on my first multi-modality clinic.
So, I get that this exercise can be challenging for many. Thinking forward, particularly right now, can be hard. But I invite you to get imaginative because parts of your brain are actually holding on to and looking out for these green frame opportunities.
If you find yourself resisting this, I invite you to try it again. Get creative and see how absurd you can get creating something new!
And once you activate that part of your brain, you will start to see them become reality.
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