Strategic Planning - Project Plan - Planning
Can you imagine talking to Neil Armstrong and saying, “Neil, you’re the first man to set foot on the moon. How did you do it?”
Imagine if Neil replied, “Well, I happened to be in Florida for a holiday with the family and I saw a rocket sitting on the launch pad, so I jumped in.
I pressed a little red button and before I knew it, there I was standing on the moon!”
This sounds a bit funny because we all know that large goals can only be achieved via the achievement of a series of smaller ones first.
The number 1
cause for failure:
The inability to organise details.
- Napoleon Hill
Chunking It Down
Before a builder goes to work on a new house, an architect creates plans.
The blueprint gives the builder a series of logical steps to follow.
Likewise, to achieve your goals you first need a plan - a bridge to your goals
It’s so easy to fall into the activity trap - mistaking activity for achievement but action alone is not the key. Your activities must be directed into the right things and in the right sequence starting with the first thing first before you take action.
Inch by inch anything’s a synch
Here’s how to break a few goals down into sub goals.
The 20 kilos you want to lose.
You can’t lose 20 kilos in one day. What can you do?
You can easily and almost effortlessly achieve it in 20 weeks by achieving 20 one kilo a week sub goals.
The $25,000 you want to save.
Let’s look at this over 12 months.
It’s actually $480 a week.
Looking at this goal from a micro perspective, you can begin to see that it’s within reach. How? That’s the right question to ask.
The book you want to write.
Let’s say it’s a 180-page book. You only need to write one page a day for 26 weeks.
It’s not that hard to do. All it takes is a plan and the magic d-word discipline.
My point here is that goals need to be chunked goals down into a series of sub goals before you take action. This will temper your hard work with smart work.
The bottom line is goals can’t be achieved on an adlib basis.
Be totally planned.
Don’t start your year until you’ve finished it.
Don’t start your month until you’ve finished it.
Don’t start your week until you’ve finished it and don’t start your day until you’ve finished it.
Get grubby with details - plan your work and then work your plan.