Make A Plan

Most people allow their lives to simply happen to them.  They react to situations and wait, instead of being proactive and moving forward with their lives.  And over time, they look back and a large portion of their life has passed and they look back and realize that they should have been more proactive and strategic with their goals and dreams they wanted to accomplish.

While this may or may not be true for you, I want to encourage everyone to stretch themselves further than what they seem possible and develop a stronger sense of urgency and a proactive mindset.  As you plan and develop strategies to create those relationships you want to have in business and life, I want to share with you some of the things I have learned that has helped me stretch myself in the process.

1.       Life is very simple, but keeping it that way depends on your approach in the present moment.

a.       Despite what people say, I believe that life is simple.  It's a matter of know your core values, who you are as a person, and then making decisions and managing those decisions with consistent actions day to day. The knowledge and experience gained as we grow it should make it easier but we usually get in our own way and make things more complicated so here are some questions you can ask yourself when you have a plan and you plan to make it work.

                                                   i.       Can I apply the knowledge I’ve learned?

                                                 ii.       Can I repeat the process and share it with others and empower them with my vision to help me accomplish my goal?

                                               iii.      Can it be duplicated in my business as it grows without me?

These questions will help you as you grow your business from part time to full time, and as you expand your vision by empowering others to grow your business, freeing you to visualize your business and where you want the direction of your business to go as a LEADER with a business, but not IN the business.

2.       Design your life around your business, not your business around your life

a.        Many people worry and spend so much time trying to growth their business that they spend half that energy managing their own personal relationships they keep with themselves, and their family, friends, or significant others.  Make your life the best it can be by making your relationships outside of your passion or business the best it can be.  The rest will work itself out.

b.      Designing your life is about finding yourself, knowing WHO you are, and then maximizing own your own core values to your benefit and growth.  Once you are able to manage who you are, then you can apply it to your passion or business.

3.       This is YOUR life, make the BEST of it!

a.       You only get one chance at this life, yet many people seem to treat as if they are practicing for the next time.  Each one of us through our experiences learn and grow and have to figure out life as we go along.  Things can get hectic, crazy even.  We will FAIL, We will make mistakes, but we still need to give it our BEST shot.

b.      We can do that be doing our best in the present moment, and learning from others that have went before us and were successful.  That alone should be inspiration for us to plan the best we can and give it our ALL.  Jermaine McIver once said, "When you're gone, you're gone forever. you only live once. Live exactly how you want to be remembered."

4.       MAKE it a DOUBLE

a.       Being an optimistic person, I sometimes place unrealistic expectations on myself.  Over time and through trial and error, I've learned that the important things we want in life usually take longer than we expect.  I learned this while teaching real estate and in my own personal growth.  So what do you do?  I learned this teaching real estate that the numbers never lie and when I am working the rehab cost I double up.  Meaning that if I think the rehab will cost me $10k to complete I set aside $20k.  Now how does that translate in me making a plan?  If it will take me an hour to complete a project I usually add an extra hour.  I took my daily to do list and made it a weekly to do list.  I'm not saying that double up is gonna make everything work perfectly, I am saying that it works for me.  Find what works for you and add time to whatever plan you have make it realistic for you so it is doable.

b.      Now that doesn't mean that you put in half the effort and energy.  You have to double up on your energy and efforts to make this happen as well. Be realistic in your plans and allow yourself to grow and change with the plan. A plan after all is a guideline the way you want things to go, but plans change so you have to GO and GROW with your plan.   And as you GROW with your plan, you'll find that the resources and the time you need will come on time and allow you to use your energy for growth and will keep you from becoming discouraged and giving up too soon.

Most accomplishments in life come easily if you approach them with a plan, and plan for growth and change in the plan.  Rarely does an off the cuff approach to anything succeeds, and putting in just enough energy in your goal or endeavors rarely brings them to fruition.

We plan for vacations and other social events in our life, but rarely plan our life.  Planning is the best way to stretch your life and relationships to new levels, but without a plan even the most successful people find it harder to achieve even ordinary results.  Jim Rohn said it best when he said, "If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan.  And guess what they may have planned for you? Not much."