Taking action without a strategy can lead to months or years of wasted effort.

I spent 8 years managing projects to learn this the hard way. Success and failure were random. And a lot of the failures were preventable had we only answered a few important questions before going off half-cocked.

I don't want to make the same error with Ship 30, so I'm using Rich Horwath's business strategy framework to help me:

• Know what I want

• Know why I want it

• Know what it takes to succeed

He used this same framework to make his books New York Times and Wall Street Journal best sellers and get hired to train over 50,000 managers in strategic thinking.

This approach will help anyone increase their chances of long-term success.

Here are the four elements that will help you excel:

• Goal: Figure out your general, long-term aim. It can be a bit abstract.

• Objective: Determine a clear, measurable outcome. It should have a number.

• Strategy: Your general approach to reaching your goal and objective.

• Tactics: The specific things you'll do to implement your strategy.

Here's how I defined each element for Ship 30:

• Goal: Build an online business that allows me to leave my job

• Objective: Make $10k a month

• Strategy: Discover which of my ideas are viable for building a business

• Tactics:

  • Write daily for 30 days

  • Write about multiple topics

  • Look at data to see which ideas resonate most

  • Experiment with more writing on the more popular topics

  • Once I figure out my niche, double down and create a newsletter and a product to sell

This clarified my thinking and made my next steps clear.

How would you apply the GOST framework to one of your goals?