What does it take to plan like a champion? Well lets take a look into our minds a little bit to answer this question. For these next questions, I need you to be extremely honest with yourself. No need to lie, no one else but you will know the answers. 1) Are you afraid to fail your plan? 2) Do you regularly plan ahead? 3) Does your plans involve EVERYTHING you ever wanted? 4) Do you plan ahead with your business and family in mind? 5) Do you visualize your plan being achieved? 6) ** How far ahead do you actually plan??? ========================= That wasn't so bad was it??? It's important to always ask yourself these questions. Doing so will ultimately lay out what it is that you want in life. Business & Family should always be considered together. ========================= So let's take a look at why all these questions help you to determine what it is in life and how it will affect you forever... 1) Are you afraid to fail your plan? Beating The Failure Blues: Failure... ooooooo no one wants to fail. Unfortunately for many of us, we tend think of failing when we write out our business plans. The reason we do this is because we've all failed at something before. Everything we do starts with a plan. Most daily plans are sub-consciously planned out before they are executed. This process only takes a fraction of a second. The ones we tend to remember are plans that we've "consciously" created. Most of these are ideas we've never finished, and projects that never even got a change to start. They key to beating the "failure blues" is simply to train your mind to visualize everything you want from your plans. Viewing something you want should always resemble a movie clip full with: sensory rich images, along with sounds, smells, and sense of touch. This combination is what make visualization a success. This is true because our minds think in images. Visualizing your plans consciously will better help your sub-conscious mind to remember what it is that you want to accomplish. This also tells your sub-conscious mind you serious about this one. 1) Do you regularly plan ahead? Come-on, be honest, do you actually sit there and make a good attempt to plan out your future, every single day? NO? Why not? Is it not that important to you? Failing to plan is the same as planning to fail! Planning everyday may seem like a lot of work to do but in actual reality, once it becomes a habit, it becomes second nature. Study shows that it takes an average of 21 times for something to become a habit. For example, once you've driven your car 21 times +/- it becomes 2nd nature to you. Your sub-conscious mind takes over and drives for you Your "conscious mind" is the captain of your ship (the brain). If you don't consciously make a direct command to your "sub-conscious" (the crew), nothing will ever get done. You must be strict with the crew for 21 days to make sure they will do their duties on a daily basis. After time, the crew will automatically know their own task by heart and carry them out for you. Planning out everyday will better define to your "Crew" what it is they are required to accomplish. It builds unity within your mind. This unity will ultimately be the staging point to reaching your goals. 2) Does your plans involve everything you wanted? When I say everything, I mean everything. I have this little special note pad that stays on my desk at all times. Within it are countless ideas of everything I ever wanted at that very moment. At that very moment meaning, whatever it was that I wanted to have in my life "at that moment" that would make me happier. Doesn't matter what it is. For you, exactly what right now would make you happy? A nicer car? $5,000 in your bank account? More clients? Better search engine ranks? Writing exactly what it is that you want will give your mind a "TO DO LIST". Once your mind has its "TO DO LIST", your sub-conscious will search through your memory banks for an example of how to accomplish your "to do list". If your mind doesn't find anything within your memory banks, it will eventually start shooting out ideas and tips for your conscious mind to complete. I should also note that writing down something is like etching it right into stone when it comes to your mind. It's like your mind is the piece of paper, you need to write something down in order for it to come back later and revise what it is that you wrote down. 3) Do you plan ahead for your business and family? Well why wouldn't you? When I think about my business, I think of what it will do for me, my friends, and my family in the future. At the moment, I am currently not married nor do I have any children but that doesn't mean that I am not thinking about the future with a family in it. Always consider business & family the same. They are a both part of yours and the their future. 4) Do you visualize your plan being achieved? Visualization is the fruit of success. Do you ever find yourself visualizing yourself in that car you always wanted? Who visualizes you and your family on some beach in Mexico somewhere? Who visualizes you winning the "entrepreneur of the year award"? ....YOU DO! In order to be happier and more successful, you need to get better, you need to get better. I repeat, you need to get better. Visualization should be a daily event. Take a moment everyday, even for 30 seconds and visualize all the sights, sounds, smells, and feelings of everything involved with your daily plans. For example, lets pretend that you have a presentation to do and like most people who have done a presentation, you are extremely nervous. Take a moment about an hour before the presentation. Visualize yourself walking into the meeting feeling great, confident, and relaxed. Hear the people having a good time, see them smiling and paying attention to you. Try to smell a nice cologne within the room that makes you smile when taken in. Last but not least, see all the people around you congratulating you on a job well done after the presentation. See yourself having a nice, warm, rich tasting coffee while discussing your successful presentation with your boss, employees or even your potential clients. I guarantee you that if you make it a habit to prepare yourself with visualization in that fashion before any presentation, you will have better, more vibrant feelings afterwards. This very same technique applies for your goals. You must see yourself driving that car, the way the air feels in your hair, maybe the way the engine sounds. Whatever you can think of that will let your mind wander into your goals and dreams, use it! 5) ** How far ahead do you actually plan??? This is by far the most important. The most important only because it takes a little from all the above questions I've talked about. What is the furthest you've ever planned ahead? I'll put money on the fact that it's not far enough. Dare to be bold, be strong in your convictions. Don't be afraid to think outside the box. So how far do I allow myself to plan ahead??? 200 Years! No joke, my goals have included a timeline of around 231 years ahead in the future. See I don't only think about how I want to improve my life, I concentrate on something higher than life. I concentrate on my family history that is yet to be written. We all would like to leave a family dinesty to our future family members. Well, why aren't you planning ahead for it??? Don't be shy, afraid, uncertain or embarrassed, just do it. Keep doing it within your note pad that you write in. Keep thinking about your children, their children, your great, great, great grand children to be. Think about them. Wouldn't it be nice if they could look back and say wow, my great, great, great grand father had the vision, the dedication and the will to think of me. Think of the impact you could have on those to be. Even go as far as writing a letter to the individuals who will be in your families future. Tell them what you have planned and why. What if what you do now, affects someone 4 generations down the line in such a positive way that they feel the need to pick up were you left off? If it wasn't for your vision, it would of never happened. Better yet, it hasn't happened yet, so how about you pick up that pen and start your future right now, this very moment. On that note, I won't keep you from writing your future. Good luck & remember to see everything happen the way you want it to happen!
