Plan, Plan, Plan

Whether you are a civil rights activist, civil rights attorney, or a social entrepreneur, it

is important to remember that you must not neglect to plan. If you are committed to a career in activism, you need to plan your career or our activism focus. If you are a social entrepreneur, planning is a must. The same goes for a civil rights law practice or a career as a civil rights attorney. It is important to plan out the areas that you will focus on. Now, just because you have a plan, it does not mean that the plan cannot change. Plans change all the time. In fact one of the most important parts of having a plan for your civil rights and social justice career/business is constant and consistent review of your plan. As a result, as conditions and desires change, your plan can change. You always want to build flexibility in your plan to do so. Here are some resources on strategic planning:

Also, planning helps you to focus and figure out what resources you need, both financial and otherwise, as well as who you need to reach out to in order to accomplish your goal or mission. In addition, planning helps provide the necessary clarity to help make difficult decisions that must be made in any endeavor. Decision-making is a large part of the planning process.

In addition, to be sure, a plan does not have to be elaborate. One-page plans are significant enough. It just needs to be such that it can be reviewed and updated periodically. Keeping the plan short also helps to ensure that you avoid analysis paralysis. Once you make your plan the next most important step is to ACT.

The one surefire way to make sure that you don’t accomplish our activism mission, legal result, or social enterprise goals is to NOT ACT. Action brings clarity and it also provides you with the data and learning experiences necessary to determine if your plan needs to be revised or changed. Here are some resources regarding acting on your plan.

Furthermore, planning is not just for those in business or starting their own organization. Any young or prospective employee should make sure to have a plan for their career. This includes those committed to a career in Civil Rights. You need to know what your interests and values are and design a career that is consistent with those interests and values. One of the biggest mistakes that people make in their career is to deviate from what their personal and closely held values are for their career. Or even worse, not to know what those values are. Many times mid-career or later career professions fail to do this and end up down the road of their career and life and don’t recognize themselves. It is because they have failed to take heed of this very important principle.

So today commit to make sure that you set aside some time to work on your plan. You can call it your Civil Rights Activism Plan, or your Law Firm Plan, or your Social Enterprise Plan. If you would like some help in this regard, please sign up at www.civilrightsuniversity.com to be notified of free resources including free webinars as they are available. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to our podcast Civil Rights University Podcast with episodes now available on Itunes, Spotify and Google Podcasts.

For civil rights and social justice,

Brian