The most important question to ask yourself is, "What would my ideal future be?" When I sit with executives to do strategic planning, I say, "Let's describe this company as if it were perfect five years from now in every respect."

We then fantasize: "If the company were perfect five years out, this would be the sales volume, profitability, market position, customer respect, and internal interactions."

This is a very uplifting exercise, because projecting a future vision is very inspiring. Also, almost everything that comes out is achievable. Executives don't say, "Well, we would have a branch office on the moon." Their ideas of what the company would look like if it were perfect are imminently achievable goals. They simply haven't been clarified until now.

As you then organise these ideas by priority, you find that the motivations of the people start to crystallise around a few imminently achievable ideals for the future. You can't hit a target you can't see. So you have to keep thinking, "If this situation were perfect, what would it look like?" And then you work back to the present and say, "What would the first step be that I could take to begin moving in the direction of that ideal vision?" This unlocks human potential at a rate you can't believe.