Do you find difficulty in planning and setting your goals? Ever wondered how, or where to start? Do the various categories and planning styles confuse you?
I can understand your pain, because I’ve been there. So if you do want to know a way of planning and goal-setting, continue reading the rest of this article.
Two Ways To Reach Your Goals
Once you’ve created your Life Plan, Defined your Vision, it’s time to start drawing up the “How” you’re going to get there.
There are a few ways in which this could happen:
- Just do it, and hope for the best that somehow you’ll stumble, fumble and crawl your way to the realization of your vision. When your Vision is strong and clear, you will reach there sooner or later. Or…
- Do a little planning ahead, and create a road map so you at least have some idea of what to expect, and what you have to accomplish in order to realize your dream. It’s like creating smaller mental images that support the creation of your bigger Vision.
While I’m quite sure that if you have a strong enough desire and clear enough vision, you’ll eventually manifest what you want into reality, I prefer to at least have a handle on what to expect and knowing what has to be done.
The Planning Trap
In the planning and goal-setting process, there’s one thing that I’ve learnt about plans. No matter how much you plan, or how detailed you get, there always has to be room to account for changes both in yourself and in your environment. Businesses which have succeeded rarely have reality turn out the way they planned. They had to adapt in order to succeed as new information about changes came to them.
And in the process of planning, remember, eventually you will have to take action. Otherwise, you’ll be caught in the “planning trap” and never get out of the starting blocks! So while you plan, keep your eye on your Vision so that when the way forward becomes clear to you, you can take action as necessary.
Why It Makes Sense To Stay Nimble and Flexible
We all start with imperfect knowledge because our understanding of ourselves and the environment usually has gaps in it. Sometimes the gaps in knowledge can be huge, sometimes it can be small. But no one begins knowing everything, and it’s highly unlikely that anyone will ever know everything.
- Having Loads of Experience
The advantage of having experience and exposure in a certain industry or area helps you in having smaller knowledge gaps, but the disadvantage is that when one has too much experience, the “I know it all” attitude can set in and create a rigid, closed mind that can’t see changes that are happening.
- Not Having Any
On the other hand, the advantage of not having loads of experience and exposure is that you get to learn everything without a biased perspective of “It’s always been done this way!” attitude. Of course, the disadvantage is that you have a lot more ground to cover in terms of knowledge acquisition and gaining the right experience.
“The One Constant In Life Is Change.”
People who have accomplished their goals know what worked for them, and can share their experience. While there can be and usually are similarities, no two people’s journey through life will be exactly the same. So while you read and learn from others, remember that you are unique and special.
“Timeless Principles and Truths Provide You A Rock-Solid Foundation for Success.”
What you do have to know are the timeless principles and truths on which all success, accomplishment and abundant life are based on. These will form your foundation and guide for navigating your journey, and lead you to where you want to be.
Naturally, the best position to be in is to have sufficient knowledge (which can be gained), and maintain an open, flexible and creative mind. But no matter where or who you are, success is possible when you are fully committed towards the realization of your vision.
The Importance of Having Your Vision
Having your Vision is crucial for your success, because not only is it the template on which all your goals and activities are based, it also helps when …
- You are “lost”: Reviewing and Developing Clarity in your Vision will bring you back on track.
- You are low on energy and in need of self-motivation: Reviewing your Vision renews your vigor and refreshes the reasons why you started in the first place.
- You don’t know how to do something: Reviewing your Vision allows you to create and come up with different solutions to creating the same end result that you want.
When Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, he had to go through a thousand ways or more before finding the final solution. The key thing is that he had the idea of what he wanted in his mind, and he stuck to it until he finally got it.
How To Start The Goal Setting Process
My experience of the goal-setting process is that it starts off being disorganized and messy. The setting of Long, Medium and Short Term goals don’t flow out nicely and ordered in the way I would want them to, which means that I have to organize them into something that makes sense.
Have You Ever Wished For A Simple Perspective To Understand Planning and Goal-Setting?
I know that I did. I couldn’t find a holistic and robust paradigm to approach planning that was simple yet clear in helping me plan intelligently.
But as I’ve said before, relax. 
“Simplicity is The Maturity of Complexity.”
I’ll provide you a way of viewing and understanding the goal-setting process that can help make things as simple as possible, while helping you understand the main concepts and principles.
But first, you can start the goal planning process by:
- Take out blank pieces of paper.
(preferably recycled or scrap paper, since you’re using it for rough work) - Write down your life vision in terms of the end result of what you want.
- Select a category from the six in “Create A Powerful Life Plan” that you want to work on.
- Write down the details related to that category that you’ve selected.
- The clearer and more specific the end result you want, the easier it will be to create your road map for success.
- If it’s not as clear as you want it to be yet, use the Defining and Feeling Questions in “Defining Your Vision”.
In the next article, I’ll share how I approach the goal-setting and planning process that makes it simpler and easier. You might want to start on setting the groundwork for your planning and goal-setting before I publish the next article.
The details mentioned in this article can be found in:
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