Best Success Secret I: Planning

A man’s heart plans his ways, but the Lord directs his steps. ­– Solomon David

The quote above outlines what may be the best success secret of all time. It shows two things that will ensure a person achieves his goals; your plan and God’s direction.

A colleague once wrote me a request that he wanted to work with me and help me accomplish the goals I have set. I appreciated his interest in my work but replied that he sends me his personal vision, dreams and goals set. I could have jumped on the opportunity of making my goals more achievable because of his input but I know two things; he would be no good to me if he has no personal goals, and the person who will help you achieve anything worthwhile must first know how to plan his own life.

          A plan is an outline of how a vision will be achieved. It tells, in detail, how a person will get from point A to B. It breaks down goal pursuit into simpler steps. To make effective plans every time you try, ask yourself the following questions:

1.     What do I want to achieve?

2.     Where am I at the moment in reference to my goal?

3.     What resources do I have at my disposal?

4.     Who can help me?

5.     How much time do I have?

6.     What are the small steps I can take today that will move me closer to achieving my goal?

7.     When do I begin?

The answers to these questions are the framework for your plan. As you answer them you begin to see what it will really take to achieve your goal and if you have what it takes at the moment to achieve it. I believe that it doesn’t matter how far a person is from his vision, he can achieve it if he has a plan that clearly tells how to achieve it.

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When you have outlined your plan you step out in faith that your plans will work. It is at this time that the second ingredient to your success recipe – God’s direction gets rolling. We will deal with that in the next article.