I was only 22 years when I had my first mid-life, or I suppose realistically quarter-life, crisis. I was sitting in a business management class having just been introduced to all of these strategic tools for planning business - tools that helped you get clear on the vision for what the company could be, the values that were important to it, that made sure all the key stakeholders were on the same page and working towards shared goals. These tools were incredible, they filled an entire textbook and as someone who always loved systems for doing things better, I geeked out on it and read the whole book in just a few days, diving into practical case studies of every tool & technique.

But what struck me, was this overwhelming feeling — why was it that we spent so much time strategically planning our businesses, and so little time strategically planning our lives. And I don’t mean the big picture stuff like career goals, or a fancy house & car. I mean that we spend hours in boardrooms talking about the values, the brand personality, the specific goals we have for our companies and then we make a roadmap for how to get there. But 99% of people never sit down and put time into thinking about who they want to be.

And just as importantly, we rarely reflect honestly & strategically about the gaps between who we are and who we want to be. Where we’re up to in our lives, and where we want to be.

We’re often either oblivious - thinking of ourselves as a certain kind of person when our actions don’t match up, or we’re hyper critical of ourselves focusing on all the ways we think that we’re not ‘enough’ without really believing that have the power to change that.

So that’s what we’re going to do today. We’re going to geek out and do a strategic review on life, using variations of the tools that I learnt more than a decade ago in that business class.

It’s a vulnerable process and I would be lying if I said it didn’t sometimes involve a couple of tears & moments of doubt. But it’s a process that’s shaped my whole life, and I’m so incredibly grateful for every insight this process has brought me.

We’d love to hear what you come up with - share it with us under our dedicated post for this workshop on the IOC facebook page or instagram account. And as a little bonus, everyone who shares their thoughts or biggest aha-moment will go in the drawer to win all 4x of our new foundations mini-courses that are launching in 2024 worth $350 each!

P.S. Want to dive deeper? We hope you’ve found these strategy session lessons helpful as you plan your new year, and if you want to go further this is only a tiny fraction of the knowledge and practical techniques we share in each of our digital bootcamps. We pull back the curtain and share step-by-step exactly how to build a sucessful business as a photographer, web developer or social media manager. Enrollments for our 2024 digital & Bali bootcamps are open now and if you send us a message via live chat with the message ‘2024 strategy sesh bonus’ for an exclusive offer that expires on the 14th Jan.