Get a pen and a note pad out.
We need to write some stuff down.
Skip a couple of imaginary lines and on the left hand column begin the writing with the word; PLAN.
Flip the page to page two and also on the left hand column write the word; ORGANIZE.
Flip the page one more time and go to page three and on the left hand column write the word; CONTROL.
Now go back to page one and begin writing to define what you think your five year plan to financially succeed will be. Go ahead, write it down. It ain't easy is it? Too much uncertainty, right? Too much commitment effort to adhere to, right? Too many unknowns, right? Too much control and not enough freedom to do what you want to do, right? Too hard to think about, right? Not enough time to delve into this kind of subject, right? Too much to think about, right?
Which excuse or excuses are in your way? Which ones are you allowing to stop you from planning to win? Do you think winning in business 'just happens?' Do you think because you own a business you should automatically win? Do you think you can win with the 'power' of your own mind and thoughts? Do you think you do not need to develop some kind of plan that helps guide you to the goals you have in mind with your life? Do you think the next five years will unfold as they may regardless of the efforts you sit down to guide them to become? What are you thinking about right now? Is this stuff too hard to do? Is planning too hard to do? Does it feel like you are heading towards some kind of emotional prison to sit down and plan your next five years for success? Do you already have a solid plan? Is your current plan something that you manage 'as it pops up' and makes its way through your life being managed on a daily basis? Do you manage your five year plan with some kind of idea of how you plan to do your work three years from now, four years from now and five years from now? Do you have the steps defined and the process to do those steps written down on paper? Are your plans for success coming from constant and new thoughts in your head instead of plans you have written down? How much thought have you given to making the steps to follow in how your future business will be producing what it does? What the heck is your written plan?
Look behind you. Look at what you have produced. Look at your business life and take a look at where you truly are. Is that where you want to be? Are you going where you want to go with your business life? Are the things you wanted to do in life getting to become a part of what you thought you wanted? Are you doing what you wanted to do? Are you getting what you wanted to get out of life? Are you living in the fashion you want to live. Are you seeing the world the way you wanted to see it? Are you finding the time to enjoy the loves of your life the way you wanted to enjoy them? Look behind you and ask these questions. Are you spending the time with your loved ones they way you always wanted it to be? Look behind you and determine if this is how it has become. Are you satisfying all of these types of questions with your business success? Is your current effort in business management providing these kinds of dreams and successes? If it is, great job! You need to share with millions of people how you did it. Millions of business owners would love to here how you managed to build a business that provides those dreams.
Look behind you. Look at what you have accomplished. Is it where you thought you ought to be?
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| Quit Worrying About It! |
If you are not living in the fashion you thought you ought to be living, your previous plan did not work. The plan you are using is not working. It failed. It will also continue to fail. The hardest part of that assessment is to accept that your plan is failing. Did you know it is never too late to build a winning plan? Did you know the plan can be developed any day? Did you know you can be the one who develops this plan? Did you know the plan is not as tough to make as you might think it is? Did you know you are closer to succeeding than you first thought? You might not believe this, but success is very close to where you are. It is so close to you that it is very difficult to see or feel. All you need to do is make a simple plan.
The trick to making a simple plan is to write it down. Do not try to make some big and complicated essay. All you need to do is determine what two or three things you want to do in business and write them down. That is it. Your plan is completed. Let me give you a few examples.
One, I want to increase my income by $2,000 per month by the end of the next five years. I will introduce a new revenue source for making that goal happen; either by employment work additions, expansion of a current business or building a new business model. I will work on the plan to make that happen at least one day per week. Once I determine how I plan to add $2,000 per month income to my lifestyle, I will search out ideas and help wherever I can find it and begin working to build that plan. I will also pray that it will happen, every day. I will take some current assets to convert them into new revenue sources to accomplish that plan. Those assets can be both physical and emotional, I will apply both. I will begin writing a business plan to help me achieve this goal. I will review the effort to work this plan at the end of every month to see how much I have completed. That is my written plan. That is one way to do it. You do not need to do anymore than that.
Another way to do it is like this. I will take one of my hobbies and write a business plan to turn that hobby into a business source of income. I will spend the next three months taking a look and study of all the people who have done this in their own lives and see how they have done it. I will examine what others have done to convert their hobby into a business. I will make sure my mind is right to do this transfer from hobby to work. I want to make sure I still love the hobby after it becomes a source of activity that drives my life when it becomes my business and income source instead of a place where I go to remove me from the pressures of the working life I live. I will write down why I love this hobby. I will make sure I keep those loves in place as I build this hobby into a business. Once I finish the first three months of research, I will sit down and write a business plan to make this conversion happen. That is it. You are done writing your initial plan. It is done.
When you finish writing in your note pad how you plan to do what you plan to do...go to page two and start to write down some stuff on how you will organize this plan. You are now ready for step two. You need to write down how you expect to organize your plan. You need to figure out what types of things in your life will need to go away in order for you to begin working on your new plan. Will you quit cleaning your house two times per week? Will you turn the television off more often? Will you skip fishing on the weekends? Will you stop writing in your blog? Will you give up gardening? Will you quit going to the club three times per week? Something has to go away in order for you to add something new. I suspect you have already made some of these adjustments. I gave up sleeping longer in the mornings. I already gave that up and am now using that sleep time differently. I also gave up watching some sports on the weekends. I do not watch near as much as I did before. I have not once watched any of the NBA playoffs this year. I always watched several games each week. None this year. I had to give something up. I still peek at a college game or two in baseball. I have not quit watching sports completely, but very close.
Determine how you plan to develop a routine to do this new plan. Get organized. Set times aside to do the work you plan to do. Make sure everyone around you permits you to make this change. Changing your patterns has a tendency to change relationships. Be wary and careful when you organize how you plan to do your plan. The more respect you place on this process the better it will eventually turn out. Do not permit others to hi-jack your plan, however, because they can do so without ever lifting a finger. Emotional robbery is so silent and effective that many great plans never come to the table to be tried and tested. Be aware of this silent plan killer and learn how to manage the respect it deserves. Your success depends upon how well you organize how you manage the plan of work you need to do. Get organized well. Write it down. You have some very nice electronic tools to use. Your computer has some electronic calendars that work well for making a defined schedule to do the work you need to do. It is a great tool for policing that activity. Get organized.
The last step you need to do is to set up time tables and benchmarks. Make check points on a calendar and use those check points to evaluate how well you are progressing in your plan of work. You need to use those check point evaluations to help you to adjust the parts of your plan that need adjustments. You need to control how you are progressing. These checks and balances are designed to help you make all of the necessary adjustments your original plan finds necessary. Nothing ever really goes as planned. You know that. Your controls are put in place to help you not only stick to your plan, but to make sure you recognize where to make necessary adjustments in your plan so it can work better. After you get organized, set up some benchmark controls placed on a calendar for you to use as a way to measure and manage what needs to be done next. This will help you to stay organized and to stay focused on where your plan needs to go.
These are the little things you need to do in order for you to nail your future down! Good luck and happy planning. Organize yourself to win big. Control the obstacles that will get in your way. Enjoy the process.
Until next time...
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