Believe it or not, these holidays of mine are not only about traveling. They are also a lot about preparing about the MBA. First, I am recharging my batteries, as I will face a very demanding MBA start.

Second, and most important, I am planing what I want to do with the MBA. And I am planning it on several levels. I am trying to apply helicopter personal leadership. Simple enough, the idea is to be able to go up and down in my mind like an helicopter.

First, when I was applying, I went up up up, and got the perspective on my goals and motivations, the why an MBA? and what to do with it? questions. The long term future.
Trouble is that, once into the MBA, I anticipate the social dinamycs to be quite intense. A pound or two of herd thinking: Everyone should do IBanking / PE / VC / Consulting / Join the Rugby team / join the rollerblading team!. You get the idea. And that can be quite a distraction from my high level goals. That is why I need to go to the second level of the helicopter.

From the high altitudes (like now in the Andes), go midlevel, be able to plan for the intermediate steps to get to my goals during these next two years. For example: If I am not going to Consulting, it makes no sense to train a lot for case based interviews. I know that it looks simplistic now, but inside the MBA the herd thinking can hit very strong (ask your MBA graduate friend…).

Third, like an helicopter, land and be on the terrain, walk my talk and talk my walk and get my results deliver. This will happen in (OMG!) a couple of weeks when the MBA starts. Work towards my goals as the way to accomplish my midterm and longterm goals.

That is the basic cycle. I am working on defining midterm goals for my MBA and planning on how to reach them. However, I believe that during the next years conditions and opportunities will change. Therefore make no mistake: I intend to have my mental helicopter well maintained and with a tank full of gas. Anytime I need it, jump on it and soar to the heights, get a fresh perspective on the longterm goals, go a little bit down, get more details on how to reach them, plan next actions, land and keep working.

Like my previous recipe for a succesful move, this one is simple too: Get in the helicopter as much as you needed, get perspective, plan next steps, get them done, and redo as necessary.

Simple, yet it can be quite exhausting at times