Most people fail before they even start. How? Because they don’t start at all and that starting begins with planning. The gap separating success and failure is so minute most people can’t even see it. Everything starts with a plan. It might be in a form of an idea; whether in the mind or scripted. People want to jump their life, and get to success now. They plant a seed today and within a short time they want a harvest. Life has never been like that.
SUCCESS LIFE: JONAH NYONI
Abraham Lincoln once said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” Planning is one irrefutable law of success. If you don’t plan, you have already failed.
Before you start anything, learn how to finish it first; have the end in mind. If ever you are to build a strong and well structured building, you have to learn the power of planning. Everything is created twice, in the mind (plan) and in the actual sense. Most people go to build before they plan. What comes after that could be disaster.
I usually say you are the architect of your destiny; meaning you are the designer of your destiny. If you don’t plan your life, you might as well spend the rest of your life working on the plans that other people created.
In planning, align your plans to your passions and purpose. If you try to do everything in life, there is a greater possibility of getting nothing out of life. It’s like trying to hit many birds with one stone at the same time. Or scattering your seeds all over and expecting a greater harvest.
In this life, there are a lot of things that do catch our eyes, but truly speaking there are few things that catch our heart. A lot of things are demanding, and screaming for our attention, but not all things deserve our action or energy. As a result, we must plan, so that we are not caught up in the unending web of activities that are not taking us anywhere.
Napoleon Hill, the author of the book Think and Grow Rich, says we should plan what we are going to do and do what we have planned. This pertains to your personal strategic plan. Most people are trapped in a fruitless routine; a road leading to nowhere. Today I want you to re-think of your life. How can you be more effective? How do you grow? Why are others successful and I am not? What makes rich people rich?
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Don’t leave your success to chance. We become successful by choice and not by chance. So, planning makes you take control of your time, life, business and concentrate your energy. A plan makes it easy to measure and evaluate your progress, and identify areas in which you should change. A plan makes you create a balanced lifestyle in all facets such as business, career, family, personal life, spiritual life, money, investments, health, fitness, personal growth, development and social life
The first step probably is to think critically and ask yourself questions. In coaching I use eight questions to create a pragmatic and purposeful personal plan.
Who do I want to be? / What business am I in? (This defines your personality/brand/products/ services] Where do I want to be? (This defines your destiny/ results] Where am I now? (This points out on your current situation- problems/ and identifies critical areas that you should focus on) How will I get there? (Defines your strategy/ plan) Who will help me get there? (This pertains to networks/customers/team work) What do you need to get there (This identifies your resources — money/ information/training/ development) Why do you want to get there? (Motives/ significance) When do you want that to happen? (This sets time lines)
Now, plan
After these questions have been answered, you now need to plan for your success. Brian Tracy once said: “Every minute spent in planning saves 10 minutes.” Planning clarifies and crystallises your thinking. It also increases your productivity. For each day before you are carried by streams of events, know what you are going to do. Run you day and never allow the day to run you. List all things you have to do.
Writing your plans or goals makes you stand in the 3% of the people that are successful. In my seminar surveys, 97% of the people have not written goals for their lives. Most people think their brain is good enough not to forget and as a result they don’t write their goals. Great people carry their dream books; their diaries.
Writing helps you build your road map and road signs to your success. If you don’t have a road map, when you get lost how will you know it? Worse still, if you don’t have road signs how will you know that you are about to fall into a ditch? Write your goals!
Writing makes you remember, crystallise, prioritise, order your list, measure and review your progress. Break your goals into small bites. You will not accomplish everything in one day. However, success is ingrained in those small daily successes. This might look small in the scheme of greatness, but a crucial tool to every person.
Re-arrange your list
Now that the list is here, re-organise it. Which of the things will I do first? What gives me the greatest return? What give me the greatest fulfilment? What gives the greatest reward? Which are the most important things? Which of the things in the list need my immediate and urgent attention? Don’t get busy with things that are sidetracking you from your destiny. John Maxwell’s daily reader says: “When we are busy, we naturally believe that we are achieving. But busyness does not equal productivity. Activity is not necessarily accomplishment.”
Being busy and being productive are not necessarily the same.
Parting point: Put it into action
In my book, The Big You, I point out that a vision without a venture is void. Learn to do what you have planned. Learn to take one step at a time. Learn to do small things in a great way. These small things, through the law of compounded effort, are added into great success.
Jonah Nyoni is an author, success coach and certified leadership/business trainer. He is the author of Inspiration for Success and Success Within Reach. He can be contacted on – Tel: 0772 581 918. Email:[email protected]. Twitter@jonahnyoni.
