What Is The Plan?

Congratulations if you managed to write down your goals or you defined what success means to you. I am sure you read my yesterday's article where I talked about mentally preparing yourself for the tasks ahead. Its important to acknowledge that the road to success is not easy, however that said your determination to make it and your unrelenting focus on what you want to achieve will provide you comfort on the road ahead. The next part is formulating a plan, its pointless to write the goals down and to even have the right mental attitude if there is no plan. The next biggest question is how will you achieve your goals? The fact that you want what you want badly is not enough, you need a detailed plan on how you will achieve your goals. Without a plan your goals will not achieve itself just because you have written it down.

A plan is set of actions that you will undertake in order to achieve your goals. If you like it is a set of instructions that will produce your goal. It is not anything complicated planning is a process which will help you to focus your ideas and to decide what steps you need to take to achieve your goals in a given set of time. Start with what you will do NOW. There is no point in having an action plan that will start in six months time. Define clearly the steps you will take. ("How do I get there?’’) Think of all the possible things you could do to take you closer to achieving your goal, no matter how small. Break down any large steps into smaller components, so it doesn’t seem so difficult to achieve. What is the biggest obstacle? What could go wrong?
Identify the end point of each step. You will also need to arrange the steps in a logical, chronological order and put a date by which you will start each step. Put these dates into your diary or onto a calendar. Try to set yourself weekly goals: what research you will do into jobs, what skills you will concentrate on learning etc. It’s also a good idea to get into the habit of planning a timetable each evening listing your tasks for the next day or two. Action generates the impetus for further action: if you want something done quickly, give it to a busy person. The best time to do something is NOW! Do not procrastinate as they say the procrastination is the thief of time.

An example of a action plan will be as follows:

Objective: To loose weight
Specifics: To shed 10 kilos
Time: 3 months
Actions:
Exercises:
1. 0500-0530 - Early Morning jog around the park.
2. 1700-1800 - Cardio-Vascular exercise at the gym a) 20 mins on the treadmill
b) 20 mins on the elliptical machine
c) 20 mins in the aerobics class
Diet & Nutrition:
1) Breakfast Day 1
Low calorie muesli no sugar
2) Lunch Day 1
Fruit Salad
3) Supper Day 1
Steamed fish with lots of vegetables

Substitute loosing weight with whatever your goal is, write a specific plan within a time frame that you have given yourself to achieve your goal. Do not procrastinate the time to take action is now.