The Power of a Plan
Success November 2nd, 2009For many people, things they do at work seem to come quite naturally in their work but not so much in their personal lives. Especially when it comes to planning and seeing the power of a plan. There is certainly power in having a plan for yourself, your life, your family, your health, your relationships and the hobbies you take on. Perhaps a plan for the way you are involved with your friends (Joel J Turney LLC), family, neighbors, colleagues. What about using a plan for ensuring you get what is truly most important to you in your life? What about a plan that ensure you stay on track and that your plan is really what you want it to be? Many people I know in my work can easily formulate a plan for some project or set of complex tasks in their job tasks yet they don’t connect the same value when they think about things in their personal lives.
There is More to Life Than Work
Even without getting to the point of how people work too much, I want to highlight the fact that the important things in life include many areas outside your work. I continually hear people say things like work most important since it is a third of your life, which is a HUGE exaggeration! Even working for 50 years in life, a 40 hour work week equates only to a complete total of 12.5 years in an average life of 75 years which is less than 17% of one’s total life. Close to 33% is spent sleeping and so that leaves 50% of life in other areas. Everything else fits in there from birth to death. 50% of all your living hours are up to you and your family for how they are spent and many people don’t think that’s worth planning!! That’s crazy!
Categories for Planning Life
Life has so many areas to explore and those areas deserve the same kind of thoughts and planning as work does. Categories I use to look at specific goal setting and life planning are:
- Relationships
- Spiritual
- Health
- Emotions
- Things
- Financial
- Career
Your categories might be different but ensure you think big picture when your making life plans. Think about everything that you value and what you wouldn’t want to live without and ensure those areas are covered in your plans. Think about what matters if this was your last day on earth or if you knew you had only a week to live. What would you do? With who? How would you want to be remembered? Are these your passions in life now or are you still searching for your purpose and passions in life?
Write it Down
Did you know that only about 4% of people write out their goals and plans for life? Its true and its scary when you think about it. There are so many people living life without a written plan. Are you one of them? Writing down your goals and plans solidifies it, puts added committment to it and makes it something much more real than just a thought or idea. It gives the plan real substance and provides a way to review it and visualize it. The power of a plan extends far beyond work in all areas of life and only if its written down will it have even a chance of being realized.
What’s In A Plan
The content of the plan is where the real thought has to go. You can’t make a plan without some careful time thinking and trying to understand how you want things to proceed. This is true in day to day jobs and its true in life as well. The only thing you can do well without a plan are things you’ve done over and over, and learned to do them naturally. These may be things you need to do but for most people, the natural actions are not the things we wish we were doing in life, or the things we want to change or learn to do. For most people, learning new things is a challenge and we all have ideas of what we wish we were better at, doing more of or doing differently in our lives. This requires change and repeating what we’ve always done (since that is what happens without a plan) definitely won’t lead to that change. Look for the things that matter to you in each of the categories above. Don’t settle for what you have, ask yourself why that matters or what will you ultimately gain if you accomplish it to drive out the real reasons behind each item. You should be able to justify true meaning to all your plans and know that they fit into your life’s purpose. If you don’t know what that is, then clearly you need more planning, not less which unfortunately many people do when first being frustrated about questions of purpose. Look for the things that impact others and how others impact you, that’s an easy place to start because we all form opinions of what that ought to look like.
Let Your Plan Change
Plans are much easier if you leave some room to grow it and change it. Its unlikely that one plan will last many years and you need to adjust it as you learn more about what matters to you. If and how your purpose changes should also spark you to revisit your plan. It is something you need to refer to often and there is nothing wrong with changing it as life changes. The more often you look at a plan and change it the easier you can adjust to new circumstances and still ensure you are ultimately on track with the big picture goals and results for that plan. Also, revisiting a plan lets you avoid complacency as you accomplish the things on it. Don’t stagnate, instead keep pushing yourself and ensure you add to your plan and let it change as you do to keep you driven with purpose and meaning.
My wish is that everyone I know wrote out their goals and made plans for their life with some idea and thinking of what their purpose is with discussions and relationships founded in what is important in each plan. This would bring happiness to many and I know the power of what could be accomplished if this were true. I know I won’t be able to get everyone I know to take this challenge on, but everyone I know who has, has seen great results and now also understands the power of a plan.
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November 2nd, 2009 at 8:25 AM
It is what gets measured gets done? Writing a plan down and then measuring progress against the plan is a vital feedback tool that can help us respond and do what is necessary to get where we want to go.
The fact that only 4% of people write down their goals and plans for life is crazy. Without a plan everything is just vague ideas with no direction. I have a friend who struggles to get anywhere of significance because he can’t bring himself to plan things out. So he flails about going nowhere. Unless of course someone gives him a deadline to do something. Then BAM the work gets done and progress is made. It’s largely a matter of self-discipline.
Stephen
November 2nd, 2009 at 12:25 PM
Mike, I love your article. This is the time of year where I go back and reflect on the year. I use a small book called “Best Year Yet.” It started out as a seminar, but it is now a book, with some great questions that guide you in reflecting over the past year and setting balanced goals that cover all your roles of life over the next year.
November 2nd, 2009 at 1:11 PM
Hi Mike,
I like this idea and use it. What I do is make suggestions or plan B and C just in case plan A changes.
Life is filled with surprises so spending to much time on a backup plan is a waste of time.Spontaneity,can be the way to go.
November 3rd, 2009 at 12:08 AM
Thanks Stephen and yes, it seems crazy to me as well especially considering that most people even know the statistics about the 4% who do write goals. It amazes me that is not enough to motivate people alone!
Steve – Thanks for the comment and suggested book. I never really look at a year at a time since I review my goals and life plans quite often but I’d like to see some of the questions that the book to help guide reflecting on past plans and progress.
Bunny – Great idea with backup plans. I don’t personally do enough in the way of backup plans, either in my work or personal life. I’m usually able to carry through without as much need for spontaneity but there is of course always some degree of that as things change. Thanks for the idea and comment!
November 3rd, 2009 at 3:31 PM
I don’t know if there is any person walking this Earth that in able to embrace all the aspects like Relationships,
Spiritual, Health etc., make them grow continuously and find time to be happy. Or just be which I consider the essence of life.
November 3rd, 2009 at 4:51 PM
I guess this really depends on a person’s perspective then Thomas. I receive great joy and am always happy seeing how my relationships, spiritually and health grow. I guess growth is change and even though each little event is not always for the better, seeing them change, experiencing it first hand and striving to be better with a goal in mind is something I definitely value. I can understand how “being” can be valued as well but it definitely depends on a person’s values and beliefs. Being to me is exactly what I described, change, observing change and driving change. interesting how different perspectives can be. I love it!
November 7th, 2009 at 10:11 PM
I like making plans,do that regularly.In the planned life it is easy to move and see the way to go more clearly.Thanks for interesting read!
November 8th, 2009 at 11:56 PM
I also believe in planing. Before starting and work I a make plan for it and follow it. Its helps me a lot to finish that task in time and easily.
November 9th, 2009 at 1:08 AM
Hi Mike.
There certainly is more to life than that which most would say are the only main components. We have plenty of time to plan and set things straight. The person with a plan completely outdoes the person who keeps losing time due to confusion along the way. The only time someone who plans is behind is right at the beginning, where another person might get a slight head start, but it is not long before the planner catches up and flies ahead.
To those who don’t appreciate the power of a plan, I have yet to see someone set up a serious plan to do something and not get at least one piece of value from it. The process of making it is where the struggle is, and we know that struggle is what we should be facing if we want some sort of change.
Good points about flexibility. I tend to leave almost no flexibility in plans that I have written up, but they could sure use some.
November 19th, 2009 at 1:47 PM
A very good friend of mine is very much into “storytelling” and his version of one’s one story is pretty much telling the story of your plan with the intention of speaking your plan/s into action.
Not having a story is a cardinal sin in his view, and I understand what he is on about. Your perspective of being flexible appeals to me, as it is fun to deviate from the script every now and then 😉
Hmmm, I’ve been struggling to get this comment to post. Our “broadband” has been unusually slow tonight, painfully so in fact…..
December 5th, 2009 at 7:49 PM
You know true this…this really works. And it can come down to anything. Anything written down rather it’s a goal, budget, or even just things to do for that day. When you have it written down and true game plan. It’s so much easier to attack and truly achieve your plan. It’s great to always use baby steps and/or mile markers for big plans so you don’t get discouraged either.
December 7th, 2009 at 8:22 AM
Planning is a real effective way to get things done, especially the long term goals. I get to use my Franklin Planner to make sure I do first things first and not lose focus on the end in mind…
December 13th, 2009 at 8:00 PM
i think.you always must select target. and you must make veryy power plan.thats too important.
December 14th, 2009 at 9:56 AM
You know true this…this really works.
December 20th, 2009 at 10:30 AM
I like making plans,do that regularly.In the planned life it is easy to move and see the way to go more clearly.Thanks for interesting read!
December 20th, 2009 at 1:18 PM
It is what gets measured gets done Mike?
March 15th, 2010 at 4:53 AM
Many people like to make plans and so do I. But the key point is that whether you are going to follow your plan or not. By the way, good tips on “planning” and thanks for sharing.
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