7 Ways You Can Do When Things Don’t Go As Planned
Dear My Friend and Reader,
Following our dreams and goals can be overwhelming. Time will come when frustration will hit you very hard with no reason at all. You are doing your usual routine then suddenly you felt tired. You feel the nothingness. What am I keep doing this? What am I after? Is this the price I need to pay? Well, I can’t argue with that. If you have invested your time, effort and money and still didn’t the result, sure it sucks. That’s why it is important to take a step back and re-evaluate all the things you planned.
Planning is our best guesstimate. Meaning, no matter how perfect our plan is, there are still things beyond our control. The key here is how to respond when such things arrived. It may take a change in course of plan or shift in mindset. If you experiencing any of these obstacles, then you might consider this advice.
1. Lower Your Standards
We thought that procrastination is the enemy but it is not. Perfection is the real culprit. Procrastination is the by-product of making sure everything is fine and smooth. As much as we want it the way we want it to be many factors will affect the desired results.
Common mistake people make is when we mix up the creative stage and editing stage of any product creation. When trying to come up with perfect ideas at the beginning stage of any project, our creativity suffers. It is like someone is judging the quality of your work even if you are not yet finished doing it.
At the early stage of the project, forget about editing and refining. Instead, focus on creating and crafting ideas.
If you are a writer, start by writing Two Crappy Pages A Day (idea from Tim Ferris). Lower your expectations. Free up yourself from the pressure of coming up with great ideas. Instead, allow yourself to make mistakes. Produce free-flowing of ideas. Write without judgment. Done is better than perfect.
2. Instead of Hitting Milestone, Try Grabbing Inch Pebbles
When we are in the planning stage of our project, our excitement is way up high. Our motivation to start and finish is too extreme that we want to hit our first milestone. Strike while the iron is hot, right? There’s is nothing with this. When the emotion is high, the creativity is at its peak. Everyone should take advantage when that state arrives. But as soon as the emotion and the hype subsides, hitting milestone became a struggle. Day will come that you feel you don’t have the drive to do something. The high energy you feel is slowing dissipating. Every milestone dates become harder to achieve.
To recover from this state, instead of hitting milestone, try grabbing inch pebbles.
Inch pebbles are the miniature milestones. Start small. Start building parts by parts. As soon as you get near to your milestone, your inch pebbles start to build up. Breaking up your tasks into smaller components. Set up yourself for small wins. Soon, this small wins will help you ramp up your dissipated confidence.
3. Think Like A Scientist
One advice I’ve learned is to treat every project like a scientist doing an experiment. A scientist will gather information. Test his ideas and experiment what is working or not. It is a continuous trial and error process. When you are thinking like a scientist, a failure is valuable as success. It is a matter of mindset. When a reporter interviewed Thomas Edison, “ How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?” Edison replied,
“I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.”
When a scientist is discovering something, he records everything. He treats success and failure as data points. Both valuable. You will never know how important the things you will discover along the way no matter, how small or big it is. One failure can lead to another opportunity. So keep the records.
4. Tackle One Problem at A Time
I am an electrical engineer by profession and has for work in construction. I was to handle contractors of a different trade. I have to be honest, it is not an easy job. It is a crazy workload! One problem after another. Having a mindset to solve them at once before it gets worse, I try to handle them all at once. I shift from one problem to another depending on the urgency. One time, I talk to my manager on how to work things out. And he said to me,
“Let us the problem one by one.”
When we focus on everything, we are losing everything. Same with the challenges. One step at a time. Never mix up things up. Stop worrying about how to do step 5 when you haven’t finish doing step 1. It is a go- practice to expect obstacles in the future. But it is better to handle first what is upfront.
5. Keep Moving
It is easy to do things when you are full of energy. When you fired up. That’s why, when you are in the zone, do much as you can to take advantage of it. Strike while the iron is hot. Write as much as you can. Build as much as you can. Create anything. Squeeze it out as soon as the fire ceases.
But what if you wake up the wrong side of the bed? What if no matter how you pushed yourself, nothing comes out of your brain? What if you feel heavy and you cannot finish your target goal for your project?
When we plan, we want it to move as smooth as possible it can be. But we forget that there will obstacles along the way. When that day comes, my advice, keep moving.
In one of his letters to his son, Kevin, Gary Halbert shares one of the best lessons about feeling stuck.
“When you get or emotionally jammed up one of the ways to get yourself unclogged and flowing is just to keep moving. Run.Walk.Jog.Write.Do the dishes. Or whatever. But don’t sit around waiting for a flash from Heaven. It doesn’t work that way. Not often anyway. The key is movement!”
When motivated, it is easy to start. When it feels heavy, it is hard to move. When this time comes, always go back to your BIG WHY. Ask yourself, Why do I even start doing this? Why is this important to me? Why I should keep moving? Soon, you will realize that what you are feeling right now is part of the process.
6. Create a Bad Day Action Plan
When you only act in motivation, it will lead to Inactivity. If not tackled, the Inactivity can lead to procrastination which we want to avoid. That is why we need to have a plan on what to do during those days that feel stuck. I call it the Bad Day Action Plan. When you planning for your bad day, it is a fact that you are expecting things will not always go your way. The reality we want to be aware of.
By following the previous advice, you can create your Bad Day Action Plan. Start by grabbing inch pebbles. Set your working time to lesser time. If you work for One Hour in Your Project every day, set yourself for 30 minutes. Second, lower your standards and reduce your target amount of work. This time, your goal is to keep the momentum going, not the quantity.
Example, my goal is to write 1000 words in One Hour per day. If I am in the mood or motivated, I can reach my target and sometimes goes beyond. That’s my Good Day Action Plan. When I am uninspired in whatever reason, my Bad Day Action Plan is to write Two sentences. Just two-sentence! Nothing more, nothing less. The key is movement! You may feel slow but the good thing is you are moving forward.
7. Have Faith
Whatever you do, believe that you can become the person you want to be. Faith first, facts second. Facts change without your permission but your faith only changes with your permission. Decide on the person you want to be. It all starts from there. It all starts with you. Focus on the thoughts that will help you build yourself not on the things that will ruin you. It can be hard at first especially if you hear those things that bring you down. But why worry about what they say?
“No One Can Make You Feel Inferior Without Your Consent.” -Eleanor Roosevelt.
Guard the gates of your thoughts and beliefs. If you feel you are powerless and don’t have control, remember this advice. “If you have time to worry about things you can’t control, why not spend that time on things that you have control?”
Believe that God has provided us with what we need to be successful in life. But contrary to what we expect, God gives us seeds, not fruits. If you want better fruits, you have to plant the seed in good soil. Nurture it and protect it until it grows, blooms and bear fruits. It requires hard work. It requires patience.
Final Thoughts
If there is one final advice I want to share with you, it is to have faith in your capacity to make things happen. All advice no matter how simple or complex will not benefit you if you don’t believe in yourself. Tough times will come. But it won’t last. If you fail, then make hail. You are one step closer to your success. If you lose hope because you keep on failing, here’s an advice from Mark Cuban.
“It doesn’t matter how many times you fail. Each time only makes you better, stronger, smarter and you only have to be right once. Just once. Then everyone calls you an overnight success and you feel lucky. I still feel that way “
If you are not convinced, then I will let The G.O.A.T. Michael Jordan tell his story.
“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
If others can, so you can.
Sincerely,
Brian Dela Cruz
P. S. This was originally published at https://www.briandelacruz.net on August 10, 2019. If you have comments or suggestions, please do share your thoughts below.
