Why you should always stick to your plan to ensure results

Stick to your plan and 2019 will be your best year ever

It’s quite a frequent saying that you should “stick to your plan,” but why is it that important? Today I’ll give you a personal example of the importance to stick to the plan.

First thing first, let’s define what a plan is and what it should contain. Two days after New Year’s Eve, when millions of people established their new year’s resolutions, it could be of good help to go through the topic. One reason could be to avoid that you will belong to the 80%-something group that will fail with their resolutions already in February.

There are thousands of different methods on how to set goals, but whatever method you’re using, the following two ingredients must be considered in one way or another.

Desires And Wishes, Part Of Your Goal-Setting Process

All goals start with a wish, and before put down to a goal, it turns into a desire. For example, the problem with many new year’s resolutions is that they stayed as wishes. You can never stick to your plan if you only have a dream as a base. People who live their lives with simple wishes and even build up a lifestyle around all their wishes are called daydreamers.

Is nothing wrong with being a daydreamer…sometimes, daydreaming can be an excellent source to create ideas. Studies even show that daydreamers can be more creative and more efficient.

The problem with daydreaming is that dreams never turn into a desire to make things happen.

Once the desire is there, it’s time to start formulating a goal. Before setting your goal, it’s important to test if your goal is based on a desire or only a wish. An excellent way to do this is to be crystal clear on your “why.” The good thing by knowing your “why” is that almost automatically your “how” and “what” will appear.

How to make it happen, or in other words, how are you going to achieve your goal?

What to do to achieve your goal. This is the real start of building a sustainable plan

Stick to your plan when you have your “why,” “how” and “what” well defined.

Stick To Your Plan Even Without Getting Immediate Results

All goals have a long-term characteristic, even if they are short-term goals. What do I mean by that?

Take an airplane pilot as an example. The pilot, or the flight deck crew, plans a long-haul flight crossing the Atlantic Ocean in detail. Once in the air, they stick to their plan during the entire flight. Image if they should start to make improvisations during the flight. At least, I wouldn’t like to be on board.

During the flight, the pilot relies entirely on all the tools available to safely navigate the airplane to the final destination. When you stick to your plan, you must trust what you have planned. Therefore, your “why,” “how,” and “what” must be there.

Now, let’s take a short flight of, let’s say, an hour. Do you think there is any different way of planning the flight compared to the long-haul flight? Of course not!

A plan is always done in the same manner, no matter if a short- or long-term goal.

Personal example No. 1

As a passionate runner, I used to plan for two to three marathon races every year. To that, I used to add three to four half marathons and four to five 10k races. An average, I used to have one race per month during the year.

The core of my running is the marathons. All training is planned according to those two or three marathons. Using the previous terminology, you can say that the marathon races represent my “why.”

For different reasons, I could not make all the races I have planned for 2018. Instead of 12 races, the year ended with only 6.

This is a typical example of what will happen to everyone. You make a plan, but for different reasons, and you must make corrections that change the final results. In my case, I ran fewer races, but I never lost focus on my “final destination”; my two marathon races.

The same thing happens to an airplane pilot. The plan could suffer changes due to, for example, weather conditions, but the final destination remains the same. Maybe the changes made during the journey will result in a delayed arrival, but you will arrive.

Personal example No. 2

The way I run my Internet business follows precisely the same procedure. The yearly plan, which by the way, was settled two days ago, has a structure where my “why,” “how,” and “what” will help to set the right goals.

In the same way that running is becoming more accessible for typical amateurs, like myself, with better running shoes in the market, also online businesses are now available for “normal” people like you and me.

Thanks to the system to which I’m connected, I can now live a life that was limited to a wish for many years. If you connect to the right network and platform, you’ll get all the tools you need to succeed. It’s like being coached by Eliud Kipchoge (the fastest marathon runner in the world), getting the best running shoes available in the market, and running the whole race with a tailwind.

Today everything is easier. You can get almost everything tailormade for you and served on a silver plate. However, there is one thing no one can do for you, and where you must do your homework: Stick to your plan!

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