Are You Missing This Key to Success?
A friend of mine, who I’ve known since college, has always talked a good game. If you were to meet him, you’d undoubtedly be impressed by his stories and his dreams for the future. He always sounds driven, ambitious and progressive.
Now, there’s no denying that he has big goals, such as wanting to set up his own IT consultancy business, live in a detached house overlooking the sea, and retiring with money to spare before he reaches the age of 50.
Sadly though, he lacks one vital trait of successful people… planning.
That’s right, good ideas will just remain ideas without solid plans to turn them into reality.
My friend has failed to achieve his dreams because he never plans a definite route to achieve them. This reminds me of the well-known expression: “Failing to plan — is planning to fail.”
If you’re struggling to achieve your goals, then you probably haven’t put the right plans into place. But don’t worry, as in the next few minutes, I’ll show you exactly how to do that..
Planning for success
If you’re not yet convinced that lack of planning might be holding you back in life, then consider this:
Imagine you wanted or needed to find a new job. With no plan to make this happen, you’d probably just sit at home hoping that one day your phone would ring with a perfect job offer. Chances of this happening? Less than 0.001% I’d think!
However, with the right plan in place, you’d be able to make definite and realistic steps towards your goal. These steps would likely include the following:
- updating your resumé
- upskilling where necessary
- registering with recruitment agencies
- making yourself available for interviews
When you make a definite plan and put it into action, you’ll be giving yourself the best chance of success.
As learning to plan properly is not a widely-taught topic, I want to share with you five of my favorite tips and tricks for making your plans practicable and workable:
#1 Spend time plotting a path to your end goal
For instance, if you have a goal to learn a new language such as French or Italian, then don’t just dream about it — create a plan to make it a reality. My suggestion is to research suitable courses and tutors. Your plan for learning your chosen language could then include: learning the basics from an online course, developing your conversational skills and confidence with a one-to-one tutor, and then visiting a country that speaks your new language, so you can practise and hone your skills.
#2 Break down the required actions into small steps
Continuing the example of learning a new language, think about how you can break down each major step into small, bite-sized chunks. Take learning the basics of your new language, for example. Instead of having one goal to complete say five levels of a comprehensive online course. Make this easier and more attainable by setting a goal to study for at least 30 minutes each day. A second goal could be to complete one level. And the final — and big goal — would be to complete all five levels.To make this plan even more powerful, set yourself dates for when you want to achieve your second and third goals by.
#3 Get started
“Procrastination is one of the most common and deadliest of diseases and its toll on success and happiness is heavy.” Wise words from legendary Canadian ice hockey player Wayne Gretzky. And from my life coaching experience, I’ve also seen that getting started seems to be the hardest part for most people. How to overcome this? Well, have your plan in place (as explained in tip #2), and then do the following: choose the easiest/smallest task and dedicate just 15 minutes to working on it. Do this, and I guarantee you’ll suddenly find the desire and momentum to keep making progress towards your goal.
#4 Stay motivated and on track
Once you’ve got started — the key to success — is to keep going! You can achieve this by following your plan and ticking off each goal as you achieve it. Other things you can do to stay motivated and on track are to: remain positive, keep your eye on the big prize, and to kill off any distractions.
#5 Celebrate your success
Planning for and achieving success are definite reasons to celebrate. At Lifehack — which I’m the CEO of — I always make sure that our team celebrates our successes. Small successes have small celebrations, while big successes have BIG celebrations! I’d strongly recommend you do the same in your life. If you attain one of your minor goals, then make a point to celebrate it — even if it’s just a drink at your local cafe. And when you attain one of your major goals, do something major to celebrate, like having a weekend away with your partner.
Your goals are in your hands
Remember the story I shared at the start of this article about my friend with big dreams but zero plans? Well, let me re-imagine that story now with the power of planning at its heart…
A friend of mine, who I’ve known since college, has always talked a good game. If you were to meet with him, you’d undoubtedly be impressed by his stories and his dreams for the future. He always sounds driven, ambitious and progressive.
Now, there’s no denying that he’s always had big goals, such as wanting to set up his own IT consultancy business, live in a detached house overlooking the sea, and retiring with money to spare before he reaches the age of 50.
Fortunately, my friend possesses a vital trait of successful people… planning.
Because of this, he’s been fabulously successful in all areas of his life — including achieving all of his goals that I’ve mentioned above. He learned early in life that having a plan is essential when it comes to turning ideas into reality.
So how about you? Are you ready to plan your way to success? I hope so!
When you do this, you’ve put a new force behind your actions. You’ll have purpose and direction, and you’ll be fired up with passion and enthusiasm.
Big goals will suddenly seem realistic and achievable. Where before you gave up on promotion at work, you’ll now find a way to make it happen. Where before you gave up on the idea of saving for retirement, you’ll now find many ways to make it happen.
Remember though, that your goals should be holistic if you want to live a balanced, healthy and happy life. At Lifehack, we always refer to the six Life Aspects. These are:
- Physical health — How much more you could achieve in life if you had tons of drive and energy? Simple things like exercising more, improving your diet or learning meditation could lead to significant gains in both your mental and physical health. This would of course inevitably lead to gains in ALL areas of your life.
- Family and relationship fulfillment — Our well-being and success are hugely dependent on our relationships. Because of this, where possible, you should limit the time you spend with negative people and increase the time you spend with creative, enthusiastic and supportive people.
- Work and career prosperity — When you focus on progressing and developing your career, you’ll have definite goals to aim for. And research has shown that striving towards goals makes people happier, so you’ll also have that to look forward to.
- Wealth and money satisfaction — Despite what you may have been taught to believe, money is not the root of all evil. That’s actually the love of money! I suggest you put your focus on offering a service or product to the world. If it’s something that people need, then you should charge fairly for it and enjoy the rewards.
- Spiritual wellness — While I’m predominantly a logical person, I don’t believe that every decision and action has to be based on facts and figures. Sometimes we need to follow our intuition and our heart. Whether you believe there is a power greater than us or not, spiritual practices such as contemplation, breathing exercises and singing can help you to tap into a world beyond logic.
- Mental strength — Like me, I’m sure you find it easy to spot someone with a weak mind. They have little focus, no discipline, and they lack conviction and drive. But have you also noticed how easy it is to spot someone with a strong mind? They act and sound dynamic, purposeful and engaging. They’ll also immediately impress you as someone who likes to “get things done.”
My recommendation is that you take some time to study and think about these six Life Aspects. Once you’ve done this evaluation, you’ll be ready to select areas that you should spend less time on, and areas that you need to put more of your energy and time into. The good news is, once you’ve successfully balanced the six Life Aspects — you’ll be “working smarter” than ever before.
I sincerely hope that this article turns the page on a whole new chapter in your life. A chapter that is full of happiness, progress and achievement. You just need to start the ball rolling by taking action NOW!
If you need help in choosing your goals and making plans, then please check out Lifehack’s 3-Step Guide to Break Free and Design the Life You Want. This free guidebook will help you take immediate charge of your life.
