Stop Planning and Start Acting
Why Spending Time on Planning Can Work Against You
Hello My Friend and Reader,
We, humans, are naturally wired to conserve resources whether it is food, money or energy. We want to make sure everything falls into place before we start taking action. This is where planning comes into place.
Planning is important. It is finding the best approach. With planning, you will know what to do and what to do next.
It is good advice. Everyone will tell you that you need to create an action plan, battle plan, strategies or look ahead schedule, whatever you want to call it.
But if I ask you, “How much time do you need to spend on planning?” Would you believe me that finding the “best approach” can be detrimental to your success?
We plan because as much as possible we want to avoid failure. Whether unconsciously or consciously, we consider the risk of failing.
Or more specific to say, we are afraid of losing. So we plan. And plan. And plan. And Plan. We revise, and revise, and revise, and revise.
You’ve read all the books your coach recommended. Attended different seminars. Enrolled in different online courses. One after another.
You keep doing those things because you want to be ready. You want everything in alignment with your plan.
But here’s the problem, you will never be ready. And the worst can happen is, the more information you get, the more you get confused. The more you plan on what to do, the more time is wasted.
I am not saying that planning is not relevant or you just jump into the water without even knowing how deep the ocean is. Over-planning is.
Always remember, planning is our best guesstimate. Meaning, no matter how perfect our plan is, there are still things beyond our control. If you spend too much time on planning and aiming the target, you will never hit the target.
The time spent on too much planning is the same time spent in learning while taking action. So why choose to make the plan perfect, when you can adjust along the way. We must learn to learn in the process.
So what do you need to do instead?
Plan your plan to start. This time I would like Jeff Olsen, author of The Slight Edge to explain this further. Jeff take it away!
"You need a first plan so you can get to your second plan, so you can get to your third plan, so you can get to your fourth plan.
Your starting plan is not the plan that will ultimately get you there but you need it so you can have a plan to start."
Make sense, right?
Have a hard time deciding on what to choose, especially between two good options? Here's some advice from my long-distance mentor, Brian Tracy,
"Decide what’s right before you decide what is possible. Decide what is ideal before you decide what is affordable!"
Okay, I hear you! What if you still fail despite planning or following the advice? It is surely painful, right? If you have invested your time, effort and money and still didn't get the result you want, sure it sucks!
But since we have become a master planner and mediocre action taker (from time to time.) And since you become an information junkie, why not treat those failures as lessons.
Stuart Wilde once said, "The name of the game is to see your defeats as seminars you paid to attend to learn the game of life" (Isn't that line pretty relatable?)
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, planning is still important. We just need to make sure that we avoid overstaying on that stage.
Planning and execution go hand in hand. If you don't plan, your goals will not be set. If you don't execute, your goal will just sit.
If you ever fail, and we will be, always keep in mind that failure comes first before success. Even in the dictionary, failure is listed first before success.No one is exempted. Everyone will. It is the default.
Don't even try delaying your action to wait for the perfect time. Don't prolong your agony. If you delay your failure, you delay your success.
Plan.Do.Check.Act. Repeat the cycle.
Sincerely,
Brian
