Any Plan Beats No Plan

We’ve all heard the expressions, “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail,” or my favorite growing up from dad, “if you don’t have a plan for your life – someone else does and you won’t like it.” 

Nothing could be truer.  Talk to anyone of substance or success in life and you’ll find they have a detailed plan for every area of their lives.  Do you have a plan for your personal and professional life?

Your plans don’t have to be grandiose or beyond your wildest expectations.  But you do have to have results in mind and create actionable and measurable items to achieve your desired outcomes.  What areas should you have plans for at a minimum?  These aren’t the only areas of your life, and they will definitely get you started on the right path.

• Health
• Relationships
• Career development
• Job specific skills

Where are you going to end up if you don’t know where you want to be?  My guess is a life unfulfilled and empty of accomplishment.  So what's the secret to creating a plan.  Simple, write your plans out and review them regularly – not one time.  

Create your grand vision for your life and career and your plan of actionable items to get there.  Break them down by quarter, month, week, and then daily.  Review your objectives monthly and create a plan for each week of the month based on what you know you can manage?  You should.  Then as the weeks come up, take some quiet time on Sunday and plan out your week in more detail.  Then each night, plan out the next day for your daily movement towards your goal.  You'll find your days a whole lot less stressful by simply planning out the night before.

Again, you don’t have to have the perfect plan.  Your plans will get wrenches thrown in them all the time.  Be flexible in your approach, and have a plan though.  Measure and modify as needed.
Again, it’s about having a plan so you’re not living someone else’s.  Any plan beats no plan, and the act of creating one will start to set you free, change your life’s course, and lead to a more fulfilling and profitable future.