Today's world is the "Era of Knowledge & Intelligence".

Life styles, needs, cultures, and many things have changed a lot since human civilization has progressed so far. Earlier in prehistory, it is the muscle power that is required to gather foods, shelter, protect self, etc. It is the survival of the fittest. But the concept of the survival of the fittest is getting changed & adapted to new eras.

Earlier, people are recognized based on caste, place of birth, sex, age, etc in the past years. But, at present, knowledge & intelligence is what decides the status of an individual. We keep on doing something and whenever, we made mistakes on the way, we keep on learning & apply the feedbacks on our lives.

Thus, proper & clear planning is something that is going to make a difference between individuals. People around us are more or less sharing the similar access to knowledge & other facilities. In order to differentiate among us and to lead among us, the concept lies on the implementation of strategic planning.

Steps in executing a plan or thinking are the areas people mostly do emphasized more so as to get success and realization of expected dreams consistently. But, "Change" is something which is bound to happen.

So, making a process of ideas to execute a plan is the suggested thinking rather than concentrating on a collection of steps. This article is meant to analyze the possible ways of strategic planning to achieve a preplanned goal.

Mostly, we can have a simple two ways of planning - (1) Top to Bottom Flow (2) Bottom to Top Flow.

The first method "Top to Bottom Flow" refers to the analysis of process & steps as we keep on executing our planning i.e. forward way of looking at things. While, the second method, "Bottom to Top Flow" refers to the analysis of process & steps as if we have gone far up to the end & currently starting to execute our planning i.e. backward way of looking at things.

Both the ways of planning can be effective and these are nothing but the way of looking at things as per one's capacity & thinking. I do prefer "Bottom to Top Flow" at most situations, though "Top to Bottom Flow" do find its way of needs.

Taking an example, let's try to understand the concept of strategic planning. The process may comprise of the following steps -

1) Objective: To Become a Doctor/Engineer/Lawyer - Any career being set as goal

2) Current Academic Status: (a) Studying in schools, or, (b) Studying in higher Secondary schools, or, (c) already passes 12th Class. - The prevailing situations on self

3) Current Personal Status: (a) Level of learning capacity, (b) Health situation, (c) Family responsibilities, (d) Financial Situations, (e) Any possible impacts out of personal relations - The Psychological & Physical Conditions of the individual

4) Surrounding Environment: (a) The access to knowledge, (b) The access to any guide, (c) the feasibility of executing the thinking, (c) The level of competition - The situation where the individual has to make the strategic planning

5) Making a detail chart comprising all the needs towards the goal: (a) Date of Exam, (b) Date of Selling Application form, (c) Last date of Submission, (d) Date of Receiving Admit Card, (E) Total Days remaining from the present day till the date of exam, (f) Coverage of topics in the Exam, (f) Question or examination styles, (g) Suggested Books or knowledge banks to refer, (h) Feasibility of access to any guides, (i) Number of people to be selected, (j) Last year's Statistics & details, (k) Places of examination Schedule, (l) Number of days of exams & the means to study, stay, plan during the exam schedule, (j) any possible disturbances out of anything on the pre-plan goal, (k) any back-up planning to meet any emergencies, (l) Expected date of declaration of exam, (m) Any interviews or any follow-up after the exam and their details -

Knowing 'WHAT', 'HOW', 'WHERE', 'WHEN', 'WHO' & any other self questionable queries to the Objective

6) Matching the detail chart with self capacity: (a) Physical Health requirement matching with the need, (b) Ability to learn to meet the target within the time slot, (c) Current available resources & help for the goal, (d) Chances of getting through the goal via personal justification - Finding the loopholes on self and the strong points on self with respect to the needs of the goal

7) Learning from the Past - (a) Past similar experience via the past steps used, (b) Any limitations that one had come across & the means to overcome - The way to put lessons learnt from anything in the past i.e. SIMULATIING the problem with things in the past & present

These steps are just a model concept of strategic planning. Each step has to be clearly charted out based on time & conditions. In order to understand the suggested process, let's try to illustrate via giving proper feedbacks.

Objective: To get through the Medical/Engineering Entrance and study MBBS/BE

Scope: To plan from the current date till the end of the Entrance Exam keeping all the needed planning & resources in to consideration.

1) Students should be aware of what is the life-style & professional culture of a doctor or an engineer; and one should tune one's personality toward the goal.

2) Students should be aware of what are the various colleges & places where one can study MBBS/BE and should try to know the cost of living, the cost of education, means of communication, social culture, etc.

3) Students should be aware of various Entrance exams via which one is going to get a seat in the prestigious colleges.

4) Students should be aware of schedule & exam styles of the various Entrance Exams and the suggested ways to read notes & plan till the exam end.

5) Students should be aware of the suggested books & notes and the feasibility to understand those resources via self study with less help from a teacher or a guide.

6) Students should be aware of Number of students to be selected & the cut-off marks and thereby pre-guess the chances of getting through the entrance exam.

7) Students should be aware of any issues & disturbances out of any toward the Entrance exam preparations.

8) Students should NOT depend on any individual even the parents/ guardians for gathering of info and requirements toward passing the Entrance exam.

9) Students should develop faith on self planning and punctually follow the planning.

10) Students should preplan the mode of study side by side while some current study is going on, since most exams are done just after academic studies are over, i.e. there is no break for specialized study.

11) Students should stay tune to newspapers, Internet, and any means of media to gather day-to-day info about the examination, feedbacks of earlier candidates, the changes/modifications on the exam styles, places of resources available, means of getting application forms & all the process till the day of writing exam, matching the exam preparation schedule with current work, etc.

Thus, a properly analyzed planning to achieve a goal can be set if one try to question on self, like how a physiatrist treat a mentally ill patient by simply just asking questions & questions. So, the planning is not just about Engineering or Medical Entrance Exam. The same can be also prepared for prestigious exams like Civil Service Exams, NDA/CDA, IES, IFS, etc.

It is worth to remember - "Where there is a will, There is a way". None can help an individual; less the individual realize the need via self understanding. If one just depends for simple & silly things on parents to gather info or knowledge about exams & colleges to study, then, only God knows how strong the interest is on the goals.

It is suggested to get via self searching & self learning, if someone really desires to realize the dreams on reality, rather than depending on parents or some teachers, or somebody's guides. Life will be miserable, when the guide is lost in one's life though he/she has help in the past incidents.

Thus, we all know that kids are required to be forced via some strict rule to teach in Nurseries. Then, the teacher need to give home-works to students to make them know the studies in schools. Then, the teacher needs to teach in the class so that students can take notes to study in Higher Secondary Schools.

Then, the teacher needs to just guide the students in college to teach them in colleges. Then, the students need to think by self in Universities for studies. The point worth reminding here is that "For learning, one need not to wait for any; what one need is just the simple enthusiastic style of being a kid who is eager to know & who keeps on asking why & what".

Now, it is the time of rule by intelligence & power of knowledge. Things are getting changed being compared to the past. It is the time to change the self mentality & life-style so that we are recognized & understood in the society. Better plan today and get the fruit of success tomorrow.