When You Fail To Plan; You Plan To Fail!

Above adage might sound hash, but it is the truth about life. You need to plan all your activities to help guide your life, improve performance and quicken success.

First, let me say THANK YOU for all the responses about our January newsletter. I received tremendous respond on Goal Setting regarding drilling it down on the Action Plan and more information on what to do. You have no idea what that meant to me, you just helped me to know that you are enjoying the newsletter as must I do writing it!

By popular demand, this month’s topic is Planning For Success

So let’s get started!

Before you start to do something, and I mean anything that you think worth investing in, the most sensible thing to do first is to PLAN. A plan is when you thought something through and then put it down in writing or draw it out. You should do this first before any real action can take place.

It’s easy to talk about planning; the hard part is to actually do it.

The problem most people run into is they have lot of ideas, lot of information, lot of products and services they’ve purchased but they get overwhelmed due to information overload and confused. The result could be NOT doing anything at all!

What they should have done is to PLAN and map things out.

Having a plan will help them to put all those knowledge into good use when they are able to schedule things to do and follow through with it.

The reason why most of us don’t plan is because it takes time. What we refuse to realize is the cost of lack of planning and what is costing you by not planning.

Taking one action at a time and one project at a time will result into one success after another.

Your worst enemy as an internet entrepreneur is DISTRACTION. I implore you to read my blog post on
Top 10 Reasons Why Business Fail. This article is an eye opener as to what NOT TO DO as an internet business person. With all the gazillion offers coming at you from all angles, you can easily get confused and overwhelmed.

I don’t want you to underestimate the importance of a written down plan. Once you write something down, it clears up a lot of hazy areas and opens aspects that you probably overlooked

One of the main advantages of planning is the ability to focus and get things done on time. It will also help you to have a rough estimate of how much time your course of action would take. Planning is as fundamental to time management as organizing and prioritizing. In my opinion, planning will help you to figure out what you need to organize or prioritize.

So your next action plan would be to map out what you want to do in 2008. Break it down to manageable action plan on a daily, weekly, monthly basis.

Remember, having a manageable To-Do daily, weekly or monthly set of goals will help you to work in the direction of your goals and every time you are able to meet or finish a certain goal will give you the feeling and sense of accomplishment.

Top 6 Advantages Of Planning

1. You will have a better idea about your course of action ? plan how far you want to go into your career or business
2. You will have a rough estimate of time and money required for a project
3. It helps you to reduce information overload when you are able to tackle one major tasks at a time
4. You’ll have a clear idea of what you need to do every day, every week and every month
5. Planning helps avoid duplication of labor and give a clear idea about different role
6. Planning helps you to get prepared for the unforeseen crisis that may arise during the course of your project .

Following is the brief overview of different steps involved in planning.

The 7 Steps In Planning

Step 1  Set objectives

Step 2  Assess your current situation and know what you already have and what you’ll need to take stock

Step 3  Survey your alternatives : see what other things are available that may substitute for what you don’t have

Step 4 Decide your course of action and provide control

Step 5 Plan out your goals  your plan should always be time bound. Estimating your expenses, you must never forget the fact that time means money.

Step 6 Prioritize  set high priority for things that are very basic and less time consuming

Step 7 Remember you don’t have to do everything alone, contract out things that you think others can do better, cheaper and/or faster.

Always review your plans and prepare for contingencies. Remember, your plans are not cast in stone, make changes as you deem fit when those unforeseen events roar their ugly heads

You simply must get a plan, prioritize it and then stick to it . It is your golden rule to succeed with an internet business.

If you find this topic useful, do your friend a favor by sharing it and encouraging them to read my blog post Top 10 Reasons Why Business Fail.

I will send you another newsletter next month.

To your success and happiness.

Abby Lawal