Planning versus procrastination

Imagine planning your life like planning a trip. You start by entering an address/desired goal into your own personal Navman. You get to plan life just the way you want it to be. Your life does not just happen to you. You do get to design it.

You pull out your device, look at the maps, enter the coordinates and decide where you want to go and when. You get to choose what mode of transport you will take, which root you will take and how long you will stop at each stop. It is totally up to you how far you want to go and whom you want to go. This is YOUR life, after all. You get to plan ALL of it.

I believe most people understand this on an intellectual level. However, just because you know it intellectually doesn't mean doing it. Often people like the idea that we 'happen' to our lives and our lives don't happen to us. On the contrary, planning your life is a conscious choice.
The first step is to make an honest decision about what you want to do with your life. Then, if you are the one who is solemnly responsible for planning your life, you have to decide to take control, prepare your life, and take responsibility for it. Then once you have made the BIG decision, you have to now make many, many, many little decisions within that big decision to do it.

Get ready to be uncomfortable. Planning something to the level you need to execute your goal/change/life is tedious.

So how do you do this?

Start by planning for your desired outcome by writing it down. Next, break it into steps or manageable chunks. Next, list the order to proceed and schedule it. Then, write down possible obstacles you anticipate and why you can't achieve those things. You then turn all those potential obstacles into to-do items. Finally, each day you schedule and execute each step no matter what. These are non-negotiable.

Excess energy drain comes from indecision and lack of planning. Making a decision provides so much-needed relief. However, being indecisive creates unrequired agitation, anxiousness and all sorts of negative emotions and actions. When we don't make a decision or plan of action, the indecision itself drains more and more of our energy.

Relief comes soon as you make a plan and you know what exactly to do. Once you see it in your calendar, the decision is made, and progress begins. You no longer are consumed with overwhelming or head fog as your calendar has outlined the precise steps required and the exact time to do whatever it takes to create the result you are after. That's what planning can do for you.

Too often, we don't decide because we think we're not sure what to do. We believe we require more time, information or other people's opinion to make the decision. Indecision pretends to be responsible, but really, it's just procrastination. All it does is burn you out and wear you down, and then when you finally make the decision, it's usually the decision you wanted to make in the very beginning.

So I guess there is only one more decision to make. Has the time come to plan the rest of your life and achieve the results you have always longed for?