Planning for Greatness?
Successful people don’t just set goals for their lives; They take the steps needed to attain them! Every young person has an idea, dream, or goal of what they want their life to be like. Some of them will go on to attain those dreams and some will not. What seems to make the difference?
When I was in the 7th grade, I told my friends that I would be a millionaire by the time I was 20. Sounded great, right? The only problem was I had no plan. Later on in high school when I was making five bucks an hour, I realized I probably wasn’t going to make it. At that rate it would have taken me over 150 years. Maybe my goal should have been to be a “hundredaire” instead. Maybe I could have made that one come true.
The point is the problem most people have is not creating a goal or dream for their lives, but the planning required to get them there. Think about it, you can set a goal in seconds but it could take weeks, months, years or even a lifetime to accomplish it. The bottom line is that having a goal without commitment, consistency, and discipline is actually not a goal but a fantasy. A whole lot of teenagers and adults live in that fantasy world. In order to get your dreams out of the fantasy world into reality it is going to take careful planning.
Planning is essential to bring about the achievement of your goals. Two types of planning are needed. One is defensive and the other is offensive. I know all the guys out there just yelled “Yeah! He’s talking about football.” Well, sorry girls, but football is actually a good analogy here.
A football team has a goal in mind, and that is to get to the goal line. They must try to move the ball towards that goal. That’s offense. However, they must also keep the other team from pressing them backwards. That’s defense. In order to achieve your goals, you must not only plan how to get to your goal, but you must plan on how not to get pushed back.
In other words as you set your eyes on having a high quality future you must develop not only your list of “dos,” but also your list of “do not’s.” Not only do you need to determine what steps need to be taken to achieve your goals, but some serious thinking needs to be done to avoid setbacks.
We are always under pressure to conform to the social norms around us, and most of the time that’s not good. If you want to live a life of excellence, and have a wonderful future, set your standards high as you establish your goals, make consistent steps to get there, and avoid the pitfalls all around you. Make every decision one that is going to keep you moving forward!
