Over 49% of the result of a general survey attributed the failure of business, goals, purposes and projects to planning related issues. The result underlines the importance of not just planning, but proper and strategic planning. Successful planning begins with the details and grows from there. Planning is quite different from preparation; one might be prepared for a thing one has not really planned for. Having a strategic plan is an integral and fundamental part of achieving goals and purposes. Planning can be as easy as sitting down and contemplating in expectancy how things will play out.
You don’t want to put yourself in the category of those who plan by mere head thought alone, do you? Like I always say, successful people plan on paper. Planning can also be taken a step further by obtaining, organizing, sorting, brooding, removing, working into a pattern as well as strategizing a model that if achieved would produce the desired success. Enormous care and effort would be required in strategizing a plan for success, in planning you are operating on simulated experience and that underlines the need for creative thinking. This could add up to the reasons why lots of people don’t plan effectively. Where there is a goal there must be a plan. Failure could result not because people deliberately want to fail; they only failed to plan for success.
#1 Prepare your plan outside the situation: Noah did not start building the ark when he encountered the flood. You can’t plan in the situation to succeed, since planning is a simulated experience, it requires learning from anticipated expectations at states other than the present one. You don’t want to commence planning when the situation is upon you. Doing that will defeat the purpose of planning, which includes utilizing time and opportunity to make the most out of resources and ensure success. Have a long term plan. It could be demanding to implement long term plans amidst distractions and other things that require urgent implementation. That is why it’s necessary to have targets worth living for as long term goals. Think of having a purpose worth living for, you would do anything to accomplish it, won’t you?
Such goals create hope; hope urges on and tells us that tomorrow will be better. Preparing your plan outside the situation creates the opportunity for accessing how realistic the plan really is. During this process get the best counsel you can possibly get, for without counsel purposes are disappointed. You don’t want your plan to result to failure and disappointment, do you? How well you strategize your plan determines how confident you are about it. It boosts confidence knowing that what’s coming has already been well planned for. Like you well know, (confidence is key). Know what you want to achieve before planning and work out your strategy to actualize it. Planning outside the situation gains you time and opportunity to familiarize and patter your operation accordingly. Value time in planning and incorporate it wisely because everything hangs on time. A purpose without a plan is as good as a dream.
#2 make your plan fit for you: it is one thing making a plan, it’s another thing adapting to it. Some people make plans that end up countering their efforts as well as drawing them back. Don’t plan because they say it is necessary, plan because you are organized, you know what you are set to achieve and how to get there. That’s what planning is about, knowing what’s coming and strategizing a arrangement to handle it. Since you alone know how best you operate, you can play the role of chief architect in strategizing your plan. Consider your haves: there is need for having a wide variety perspective while planning. It is necessary to plan considering resources already on ground, list out the resources you have that will help and enhance your chances of achieving the purpose.
Consider your “don’t haves”: also listing out what you don’t have will save you the ravage of trying to put a square peg in a round hole. Now you are aware of your haves and don’t haves, you have to find out the resources you need, to implement your plan. You don’t want to make a plan that does not cover the fundamental aspect of implementation. Remember, your plan is your guideline to achieving your goal. So, as much as possible make it adaptable. However, if the adaptability of your plan does not demand discipline and giving your best effort, then it is not worth it. You don’t want to be making another to-do list that you end up ignoring, do you? It is a good way of checking and avoiding unnecessary distractions when you know the things that are needed and those that are not, in the process of achieving your goal.
#3 build on your plan: now that you have made the plan, you want to implement it knowing that by so doing the purpose of the plan will be achieved. It would interest you to notice that step one and two would produce as much of the desired result as a handful, if more of step three is not carried out. Executing the plan is what you want to be doing right now, there is no better way to accomplish a feet than by starting it. Likewise a purpose can’t be achieved if its plan is not executed. There might not be such a thing as a perfect plan; but in doing the right thing, one can strategize a practical plan that if executed would bring forth the expected results. Specifying your roles and goals, incorporating a mission statement and a vision statement in your strategic plan would further enhance it execution. To implement your plan you must strive to execute it. No matter how strategic and well worked out a plan is, it cannot execute itself. You must ACT upon it.
A – Accept it as your guideline when you have thoroughly accessed its potency.
C – Commit to it and comply with it.
T – Take significant, disciplined steps towards its implementation, get the right counsel, build a team to help if need be. Planners know what to do; executors know what to do next. Remember, no matter what you plan for, plan big. Small plans have no capacity to steer people’s souls.