There are many areas in our lives where we need to have a plan of action in place to reach our goals. For instance education, employment and family relationships. A mentor can keep you accountable to set goals that are reachable, then keep you on track to work on your goals until they are accomplished. The first step in any process is to write down a strategy or action steps to take to help you reach your goal.

Employment

If you are looking for gainful employment in today's marketplace, you need to learn to think outside of the box when setting up a strategy.

• Talk to people you know in your church because they may know of job openings.

• Look on the Internet for business opportunities because in today's marketplace we are a global economy and more and more people work from home for corporations or companies some way from where they live.

• Once you have an idea of what kind of business you want to be in, find a mentor and he will keep you on target to build your career.

Relationships

Just like anything else you have to have a strategy for building strong relationships, whether it is at work or personally.

• Communication seems to be the biggest obstacle in building a strong relationship, therefore, that should be the first action step is to learn to communicate effectively.

• Each family member has his own personality, therefore, you need to understand that personality because what you say to one person may sound like constructive criticism, whereas to someone else, it may sound overbearing and negative.

Not only is this important in personal relationships, but it is also important in the workplace, especially when you have to work together for a common goal on a project.

Education

Having a good education in today's marketplace, may not seem important to a child, but as an adult you recognize its importance. Education doesn't always end when you graduate from high school, college or even get a post graduate degree. Technology is always changing, therefore, your knowledge and education are continuing throughout your life.

• Take online classes, webinars by experts in a field or continuing education classes at night from your local high school or college.

It is up to you to decide what changes need to be made in your lifestyle and then put together a strategy on how to make these changes in your life.