When you fail to plan, you plan to fail! Whaaat?

When you don’t know where you are going, you will never get there!  So: what do you really want? Where do you want to be? Who do you want to become? Simply put; what is the vision you have for yourself; starting here and starting now?

Meaning you must start with the end in mind. It really all starts with a desired outcome and a do-able plan! And a smack of courage and bold audacity to stretch yourself outside your comfort zone. The vision or desired outcome alone with no actionable plan is just a daydream!

In order for you to reach a goal, a vision, or desired outcome, it is necessary to have a strategic mission-to- accomplish plan. Taking more time to formulate your plan makes it easier to activate it and catapult you to manifest the vision. For example you want to drive 300 miles from point A to point B. The best thing to do is plan first. Get the car checked out (tires, oil, gas etc.) to ensure that it is roadworthy and will carry you safely to destination B. Once that is done, driving (action) becomes simple. If you do encounter any challenges along the way, they will be easier to address due to the initial planning.

Abraham Lincoln the 16th president of the USA once said this about planning: “give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four hours sharpening the axe.”

This is perfectly profound for making a strategic and solid plan to achieve your desired outcome. So again, when we fail to make a clear plan, the likelihood of achieving our goals diminishes greatly!

Take away from this is:

when your plan is SMART, it must contain these five characteristics which have been used in many strategic planning sessions all over the world. The likelihood of one reaching their desired goal is to have a S= specific desired outcome, M= measurable mileposts, A= achievable action steps that are, R= relevant to progression closer to goal, T= time bound in that there is a deadline of accomplishing the steps.

Nothing in life is perfect; however planning strategically significantly increase the chances of us achieving our life goals than not.