Toward the end of last year, I pulled out my 10-year plan that I created when I first moved to Atlanta 5 years ago. Out of the 36 things that I had listed, I was pleasantly surprised, that I had achieved everything that I had listed within 5 years with the exception of 5 things (one of which is to graduate with my MBA - which I will do in five months). I looked at the other for things that I had not achieved (learning to speak Spanish fluently, learning to do various Spanish dances, learning to play golf and tennis well, and having a certain amount in liquid assets), and I realized that the first three were not realistic based on the lack of time I had in relation to obtaining my MBA (something I didn't realize when I made them) and I could've done the fourth if I wasn't educated on all the vehicles that would be a much better use of my savings than immediate liquidity. What I also realized is that many of the 6-10 year goals that I had established for myself were no longer goals, as the way I viewed life had changed to a certain extent. However, this didn't make me think that PLANNING for that part of my life was a waste of time. As a matter of fact, the reason I think I was able to be so successful in hitting most of the goals that I set for myself was based on the fact that I actually had some type of plan in mind, rather than allowing life to come as it so pleased. The benefits of life planning are numerous and, if you're not doing it, you need to start TODAY because no one ever accomplished ANYTHING by procrastinating. The benefits of life planning are simple:
IT WILL GENERALLY PREVENT YOU FROM WASTING TIME
Hopefully, most of us have a plan for the day for what we want to achieve at work. When you have this, there is a little likelihood that you will waste your entire day at the office aimlessly walking around and doing nothing. (For those of you who don't make plans for every day at work, this is something you're going to probably want to start doing). For example, you know you have 10 things that you want to accomplish at work that day, and each of them takes a certain amount of time. Therefore, you are prepared to attack the day with a certain consistency and fervor to make sure you are not wasting any time, so you can leave work feeling accomplished and stress-free. This is the same thing for your life. When you have a general idea in mind of what you want to accomplish overall in life and have consistent plans around how you can achieve those things, the chances of you waking up on a Saturday morning and watching football and drinking all day should decrease greatly, unless you are trying to break some record for football watching and alcohol drinking. I often hear people who don't plan out life say something like, "I'm just going to sit at home in my pajamas all day and be lazy." When you are a planner, thoughts such as this don't even cross your mind. We only have so many precious minutes on this planet, why waste them sitting in your pajamas/boxer vegging out and watching a Big Bang marathon? When you have a plan in place for your life, you should have a sense of urgency and commitment to make the most of each day to make sure you are hitting those goals. Sitting at home doing nothing is not an option.
IT GIVES YOU "GUIDEPOST" ON HOW TO MAKE IMPORTANT DECISIONS
Individuals without a plan will generally allow life to happen TO them, rather than FOR them. This happens when people are put in situations in which they may have to make a difficult decision in life, such as marrying someone, moving to a new location, or making some major financial expenditure. When you don't have a plan in mind, you can drive yourself crazy going through all the pros and cons of the decision. There are so many variables that one has to take into consideration that trying to come up with the best decision can seem impossible because it is so hard to predict the future. When one has a general plan in mind of what she/he wants to accomplish in life, most decisions can be made based on one simple question: Do this increase or decrease the chances of you hitting this goal in life? If it increases it, the answer is clear. If you feel like it decreases it, the answer could be equally clear, but sometimes it can also be based on what percentage this could decrease it. For example, if you desire to get your Master's Degree and tour Europe for a year after college and someone ask you to marry him/her during your senior year, unless they are planning to come to Europe with you, this would greatly decrease your chance of achieving this goal. If they did plan on touring Europe with you, then this could be a possibility (albeit a poor one - read my July 12th, 2014 post on this about Master's Degree vs. Marriage). If you want to have a certain amount in your savings account, but someone wants you to spend a large portion of that taking a trip with them to Vegas for their birthday, you have to make the call of which one is more important to you in relation to YOUR life goals, not your friend's.
IF YOU DON'T PLAN TO BE SOMEWHERE, YOU GENERALLY END UP NOWHERE
This truth is one that many people don't consider when they're younger, as they feel their entire lives are ahead of them, and who wants to plan for everything. The problem with this is that if you don't have a sense of what you desire to accomplish in life, you will not have that "guidepost" to make good decisions. And when you don't have those guideposts to make congruent decisions that are consistently moving your toward one specific goal, you'll end up making decisions that can keep you stagnant in your specific place or move you backwards from where you want to be in life. When you don't have a plan, you may just do things on whims and desires. This can often lead to a little fun, but it more than often leads you to be in a position that isn't adding any specific value to your life and overall hurting your ability to successful. I think back to a lot of people who I know in life who never truly put together a plan. Many of them are doing the same things they were doing 10 years ago with nothing having changed in their lives, with the exception of having kids and maybe being married or divorced. Because they didn't create a road map of steps that would put them on a specific path to achieve certain goals, they lived a fruitless existence of waking, going throughout the day, and then going back to sleep - something that one could argue isn't living at all.
Planning. It can be extremely boring and tedious at times, but it absolutely paramount if you want to achieve almost anything in life. Whether it's a strategy to break a new account in your territory, beating a basketball team at a recreational league, or getting that young lady that you've always liked to go out with you on a date, having a plan is always better than "just winging it" in any situation. Therefore, if there is clearly value in planning for all of these different situations, then why wouldn't you do it for the most important thing you will ever have control over - your life?
Ken Middleton is an Account Manager at TEKsystems that specializes in IT staffing and services. He is a graduate of UNC-Pembroke and current MBA student at Scheller College of Business at Georgia Tech (Graduate in May! - Whoop Whoop!). You can follow his daily quotes of inspiration and motivation on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIN
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