One of the simplest yet single most important disciplines you can develop is planning. Yet, over the years, as I have taught leadership and management skills to corporations, I consistently found that more people don’t plan than do.
I’m not referring to planning inside of the job or workplace. Most companies incorporate some measure of planning into their training, systems, and workflow. I’m talking about planning as a general practice overall…outside of the job. The majority of your life, including building your home business, is outside of the workplace.
The old adage is that if you “Fail to Plan you Plan to Fail.” One of the primary reasons this is so true is because….
If You Don’t Have a Plan, Someone Has One for You
Without a plan, you essentially live in reaction. Reaction in general means that you are essentially dealing with what comes at you instead of being purposeful about what you take action on. This is especially true when it relates to your home life. If you don’t have a plan, you will come home from work and be immediately pulled into everything that is going on. This is not good for working on your own dream, because day after day, you will look up at the end of the day and wonder how the time got away from you and you didn’t get to work on your business.
I Was Once Highly Undisciplined…
Now the people closest to me think I am one of the most disciplined people they know. Self-discipline is a key success factor in all the most important things in life, from health, to relationships, to business. So how did I change this huge negative into a positive?
It all started with planning. Planning as a skill is not taught in the traditional education system…at least it wasn’t when I went through it. I had to study it and implement it. When I say study, that might sound daunting to you. But it doesn’t have to be. Planning is something that doesn’t need to take more than 15 minutes per day when you first start, and only 5-10 minutes per day once you get the hang of it.
I started by disciplining myself to plan everyday. Pretty soon it became a habit. A habit that yielded great results in every area I planned in. A better part of creating success in life is showing up everyday, and by planning you can ensure that you show up!
One Successful Discipline Builds the Muscle
This single discipline showed me I could be disciplined. It began to build my discipline muscles and also my commitment muscles! I learned that if I planned, I would execute the plan, which gave me confidence to commit to things and also gave me an understanding of when to say no to things.
Ultimately I developed a process for Life Management that I teach in my first book Live Full, Live Well. Eventually everything that mattered to me in my life did better, and that has been true for many people I have mentored over the years.
In my book The Process 2 I give a lot of planning and time utilization tips for building your business. For now I will give you 5 Crucial Tips that can be Game Changers for you if you invest the few minutes per day.
- Plan in Your Whole Life– Your life is bigger than your job and business. Failing to plan in any area of importance will lead to problems in that area which will affect your ability to build your business.
- Plan Your Work Time– Set the times each day you will work on YOUR business. Maybe it’s 7-9 at night, or your lunch hour. Whatever it is, plan it into your day. And then show up just like you would if you were working a part time job.
- Plan Your Activities in Your Business-Know what you will do when you start to work. Always start with new contacts. There are some exceptions to this, but as a general rule, this is the first thing you should do.
- Execute Your Plan-It’s like a map. Do the plan.
- Be Patient and Consistent-You will not see big fruit right away. But you will over time. Keep planning and showing up!
I hope this is helpful for you. I give you a bit more detail in the video.
Was this helpful for you? Please let me know in the comments below and feel free to share with your team or on Social Media.
Many Blessings,
Todd
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