How to Plan Effectively

Dear friend,
This post is a bit different from my other posts because it’s a bit long and detailed. I don’t want to break it into to parts. I have promised myself to always write quality contents that you will find useful and valuable –something you can put to work immediately in your daily life. To enjoy the full benefit of this post, I strongly advise you print it out or bookmark this site for future reference. Now let’s go to the real meat of the issue.

Planning is the key to success. It is organized thinking. Everything in this world right from the government, family, organization, to human life involves planning. Lack of planning is the major reason for most failures. Brain Tracy once said that most people fail, not because they plan to fail but because they fail to plan.

Organizations fail because they lack business plans. Human beings run bankrupt because they lack a financial plan put in place to check reckless spending. The poor get poorer because they don’t have an investment plan for their future. A life without a plan is a disaster going somewhere to happen. When you work very hard without a plan, you lose direction like a ship on the high see without a compass. A plan defines your destination and direction in life

Life is an undeclared battle field. You need to plan your life like a military commandant who is out there to win a war, because there is an enemy against you. It is not necessarily the size of the army that wins a war. It is usually the superiority of strategy. Careful planning guarantees victory, because wisdom is better than might and it is profitable to direct.

You need to pay attention to details. Everything matters. You do not make much progress in life if you do not have mastery of details. If in the past one-week; you do not have on record how you spent your money, it may be part of the reasons you are not making headway with your finances. You must have a plan. It is not just enough to say next year; I’ll achieve this or that. The big question is how? You must sit down to map out a clear strategy of how that is going to happen.

6 Steps to Planning

Step One: Decide on what you want. The starting point of planning is decision. You have to decided exactly what it is you want to achieve in life. It may be getting a new job; starting a dream business; taking an MBA; or making your first million… Whatever it is, decide on a definite goal.

Step Two: Attach a deadline to your plan. Nothing becomes dynamic until it becomes specific. As long as you are vague, unstable and unsure of exactly when you want to get it, you will not get it. Life seems to cooperate with the person whose mind is made up. So decide on what it is, and give it a deadline.

Step Three: Write down your goals. Every week I have goals written down, and the result is visible; am living a fulfilled and fabulous life. Without goals, success is impossible. Can you imagine a driver on a trip going to no where? You may be the fastest and best driver in the world; if there is no destination in view, then you can not arrive where you are going. Your journey will be a frustrating experience. Without well spelt out goals, life will be frustrating, and you may never discover the secrets of happiness. Outside of goals and definite plans to achieve them, you may not experience fulfillment in life. Write down your short-term, medium-term and long-term goals

Step Four: Develop a detailed plan for the achievement of your goals. You may not hit them dead on target always; sometimes you achieve more than you have written down, and at other times you achieve a little less. Of a truth, once you have a detailed plan set out ahead of time, there is a force that takes you from where you are towards your set goals.

Let me break it down a little bit. How do you raise $10,000 for your business? If you can get ten people to give you one thousand dollars each, you have your $10,000. If you could get twenty people to give you $500 each, you have your seed capital to start your business. If you could get forty people to give you a $250 each, you have the deed done. You can then pick some one, some of five hundred, and some of two-fifty till you make up the full sum.

Step Five: Decide the services and product you will give in exchange for what you want. This is very important. You do not get something for nothing in life. You do not get by being a go-getter; you get by being a go-giver. Decide what to give to get what you want. And if you do not have the required skill to match your expected level of success, decide on how to acquire that skill. Attend a course, become an apprentice or go for training.

Step Six: Dream about your goals everyday. Keep those pictures at the top of your mind. See your dream as a miracle about to happen. As he thinks in his heart, so is he. Above all take consistent daily action towards the realization of your dreams. One single action is better than a thousand intentions.

Follow the steps clearly outlined above and success in any venture can be predictable. Don’t make life hard for yourself by going against principles. Planning is a principle so please align yourself with it.

Cheers