If you have a vision of your future and goals you want to achieve, you’ll need a strategy that will take you where you want to go. You can’t leave your life up to chance. It’s down to you to make it happen and the best way to do that is by planning for success.
When you make planning for success a priority you’ll give your time purpose, and while you’re using your time more effectively, you’ll progress toward your goal at a faster pace.
Know What You Want
Whenever you plan, it’s important to know what your goals are. The clearer you are about the outcome you want to achieve, the more specific and focused your plan can be. Start by thinking of the result you want. What is it? Why do you want it? Who will benefit from it? Where will it take place? When do you intend to achieve it by?
Consider all your options. What do they look like? Can you envisage yourself at your desired outcome? Can you imagine yourself living as that new version of yourself? How does it feel? Is it as good as expected? Do you feel fulfilled or is there more you need to do now you’ve reached your goal?
Play The Long Game
We often think that planning is easy, but there’s a lot more to planning for success than buying a new diary. Or even crossing items off your to do list. If you’re really going to make an impact with your plan, you need to start embodying each of the steps in your plan. This can be difficult, and it takes time.
When you make each step of your plan a part of your lifestyle, this is when you’ll start to see results. When you live it and breathe it, eventually it will become a part of your identity. This is how you authentically achieve your goals.
Try Again
It’s never too late to start. Do you have aspirations that you’ve put off in the past? Did you get overwhelmed and think it just wasn’t possible? Have you started something and given up because it was too difficult or time consuming? Or were you too scared to even begin?
Don’t let fear or time or previous false starts deter you from realising your dream. You are capable and there’s every reason for you to take a chance and try again. If it’s still on your heart, then it’s there for a reason. Don’t ignore the nudge your higher self is giving you.
Take The First Step
Once you make the decision to start, you’ll find a way to take the first step. And when you take it, the next will be revealed to you. The universe will offer you solutions if you’re willing to commit to figuring it out as you go.
What are the obstacles that are in your way? What is the main difficulty standing between you and making a start on your plan? Write down all the reasons you can think of that you shouldn’t start. Have you waited too long? Do you have the knowledge or equipment required? Have you tried before and failed? What will happen if you don’t try at all?
Don’t Let Fear Stop You
How will you feel if you reach the end of your life, and you never took the opportunity to try and live out your dream? Failure and fear of failure shouldn’t dissuade you from taking the chance and deciding you want more. When you trust yourself enough to plan your future, you’ll be guided every step of the way.
Look at your list of all the reasons not to follow your dreams. Read them out loud to yourself. Imagine it was someone else telling you their fears. What would you say to them? When you listen to your fears from a different perspective, you’ll realise most of them can be discounted. Ask yourself, are you going to let them stand between you and the person you want to be?
Go Deep
If there are any persistent reasons why you can’t change your life for the better, you may need to go deeper into why they are holding you back. Use your journal and free write why you think these reasons have any basis. Do you believe them to be true? Or is it just fear? Can you change this narrative to something more positive? Do you have any reason to carry on believing these stories you’ve been telling yourself? Write yourself a new reality that feels more like the person you want to become. One that gives you the strength to believe in yourself and what you’re capable of.
When you’re feeling confident and ready to take on your new persona, give yourself a deadline of when you hope to complete your plan by. Write down all the steps your plan will require. Next, create a timeline and schedule the steps into that timeline. This will form the framework of your plan. When you can see all the steps laid out in front of you with a definite deadline for completion, you’ll feel ready to take on anything.
Final Thoughts
As you progress through your plan it helps to remain flexible. Sometimes it’s necessary to change your plan and that’s ok. There’s nothing wrong with moving things around to fit in with your life. You may need to change things completely and go with Plan B. When you remain flexible and you’re prepared to go with the flow, you’ll be likely to find that things go smoothly. When you expect it to be easy and you approach your plan with the outlook that it will be easy, it’s more likely to be exactly that.
Planning for success isn’t just about completing your tasks in order and reaching the end point. Planning for success is as much about identifying what is holding you back and ridding yourself of the limiting beliefs so you’re able to move forward with a new mindset conducive to helping you achieve your goals with ease.
When you have new positive beliefs in place, and you expect with certainty that it will be easy and fun, your dreams can grow with you, and you’ll start achieving on a whole new level.
