HAVE A PLAN

An intelligent plan is the first step to success. The man who plans knows where he is going, knows what progress he is making and has a pretty good idea when he will arrive.
Basil S. Walsh

Always have a plan, and believe in it. Nothing happens by accident.
Chuck Knox

I will come to America, which is the country for me. Once there, I will become the greatest bodybuilder in history.......... I will go into movies as an actor, producer and eventually director. By the time I am 30 I will have starred in first movie and I will be a millionaire...... I will collect houses, art and automobiles. I will marry a glamorous and intelligent wife. By 32, I will have been invited to the White House.
Attributed to Arnold Schwarzenegger who was elected Governor of the State of California in 2003.

We all have the potential to achieve great things because each of us has different talents and different abilities. Therefore, living your life intentionally through planning is not about being the best, but rather about being the best YOU can personally become. When you are focused on your goals and work hard, you can and will succeed in whatever you will. And if it turns out your best was not good enough then at least you tried and will have no regrets and no wonders of ‘what could have been.’ Your Future is in your eyes to see.
We do not all succeed because we give up easily at the first challenge we meet. It is not enough to have a vision or a dream; you must also have a plan on how you are going to achieve your dream. Having high aspirations taught me that the question is rarely what you can or cannot accomplish, but merely how badly you wish to achieve your goals. It forced me to decide for myself what was important for me, and strive to make my goals a reality. In that same vein, nothing you set out to achieve is beyond your abilities, as long as you desire to make them happen. This is my vision for you. You can make it become a reality by practicing the principles below.
Planning is one of the greatest secrets of success in any area of life. When you do not plan you plan to fail. A plan therefore, is a road map that determines where you are going, how you are going to get there, when you want to get there and how you will know if you have gotten there or not. Planning could be goal or issue based. However your plan must be realistic and attainable, so that you do not become distracted.

The following, are the consequences of not planning:
• Your dreams will not become a reality. There is an old saying that, “Those who fail to plan, plan to fail”. A lack of planning and preparation lead to failure. You will give up easily.
• A plan gives you a sense of direction and purpose. You know exactly where you are going to and this will also give you confidence. According to Yogi Berra, “If you don’t know where you are going to, you will end up some-place else”.
• People will find it difficult to assist you, if you cannot tell them precisely how you want them to help you.

BENEFITS OF PLANNING
• Helps you to define what you want to do and how you want to do it.
• It gives you a sense of direction.
• Helps you to assess your strengths, weakness, challenges and opportunities.
• Enables you to maximize your strengths and opportunities.
• It helps you to focus on improving your weaknesses and tackling your challenges.
• Enables you to prioritize.
• Helps you to measure your progress in life.
• Enables you to cultivate the right relationships.
• The challenges you face while trying to implement your plan, stimulates change in your life and enables you to form habits that will assist you in achieving your vision.
• Planning motivates you to achieve your dreams.
• Helps you to choose where you want to go to in life.
• It gives you long and short term motivation.
• Helps you to make the best use of your time.
• It builds your confidence, when you begin to achieve your goals.

GOALS

For you to be able to accomplish your dream through planning, you must break down your dreams into actions or goals. Goals are specific short or long term time based actions or measures to be achieved, the implementation of which leads to the eventual fulfillment of your dream or vision.

QUESTIONS THAT WILL HELP YOU TO SET YOUR GOALS
• What will I look like in ten years time?
• Where will I be?
• What will I be doing?
• What do I want to achieve in life?
• What do I want to study?
• Where would I like to work or do?
• Do I want to get married and have children?
• What kind of person would my spouse be?
• What kind of parent do I want to be?
• How can I prepare myself for marriage?
• Do I have any talents I want to develop?
• Do I have any habit I want to change?
• How do I want to live my life?
• If I could change something in my country or the world, what would it be?
• How do I plan to make the world a better place?
• What are the things that will distract me?
• What are the challenges that I will encounter?
• How do I plan to achieve my dream?

Take your time and answer the above questions truthfully and then you can write down your goals.

STEPS ON HOW TO SET YOUR GOALS
• Define or describe what you want to do with your life in great details in the next maybe ten years.
• Break this down to smaller targets with timelines (five years, one year, one month, one week and today).
• Write down your goals and paste them where you can see them on a daily basis.
• Start working towards your goals now.

TIPS THAT WILL HELP YOU ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS
• Consult with people who are where you want to go. This involves getting a mentor or getting information from books or going to certain institutions to find out their requirements.
• You must have a daily to do list; that is things that you will do daily that will help you realize your long term goals. For example as a student who wants to go into the University to study Education to become a Lecturer; you must pass your NECO or WAEC and JAMB exams. You can start by drawing up a personal study time table, of the subjects that you must study daily.
• You should update your to do list, if your circumstance changes, for example if you read for four hours a day and during your Mock examination you were not happy with your grades; you might have to increase the number of hours that you read.
• Your goals must be specific, meaningful, action-oriented, rewarding and time bound. For instance, instead of writing; I will pass my NECO exams, it is better to write; I will have 5As and 3Cs in the June NECO exam, this will make me eligible to apply for admission in the Faculty of Education in the University of Lagos. I will score 260 in the April JAMB exam. My score in Economics will 60, English 70, Literature will be 65 and French will be 55. The combination of these two results will grant me admission into the Faculty of Education in University of Lagos to study Languages, in September 2011.
• Find out what you require to fulfill your dream and add it to your goal.
• Make friends with fellow students and people that will encourage you.
• Work hard and be willing to make sacrifices.
• Learn to use your time wisely, do what you need to do at the right time and do not procrastinate.
• In the event of failure, make an honest assessment of why you failed, learn from your mistakes and continue with your goals.
• Stays focused and always remind yourself of your dream.
• Learn to have fun and as you achieve you goals.
• Celebrate your milestones.