Gerry Cueto

There’s a funny saying on Jarkko’s blog, “Got to have a plan because having a plan makes it all better,” which is totally true. An effective plan doesn’t need to include every possible misfortune, yet a lot of times my plans are very detailed to the point where I try to be a perfectionist. They plan for every single possible worst-case scenario, and even though I can never have a 100% secure plan, I can be detailed enough to the point that I won’t leave the planning phase until I feel motivated enough to start putting it into action. When I feel the intuitive itch to start doing something, then I know I have a good plan on my shoulders and it’s time to move on.

Start small

Focus on the smallest things instead of just the greater goal at hand. Have a detailed plan that starts you off with the easiest thing you can do to get started. There’s nothing wrong with having a detailed complex plan as long as it contains simple beginnings. Chances are, if it doesn’t, you’re not going to follow through with your goals

When you’re planning a step-by-step process to accomplish goals you’ve never accomplished before, keep in mind that your plan is just an educated guess. So you can’t be dogmatic about it. When you’re finally taking action towards your goal, you want to detach yourself a bit from the plan and flow intuitively, that way you’re more likely to be open to opportunities that will help you reach your goal faster. When it comes to goal-setting, your intuition is far smarter than the detailed plan, so build your plan around it. Do you need to know every step along the way? No, but you should be able to visualize your goal to enhance the accuracy of your hypothesis.

Personal Development Parallels

Sometimes there are concepts in personal development that fit various different scenarios. I’ve had areas in my life where I would simply revisit old journal entries and copy their hypothetical solutions into my new journal entry and realize how they work pretty well together. For instance, I found similarities between dating relationships and business relationships. When I get stumped in a business relationship, sometimes I’ll go back to my dating journals and copy one or 2 paragraphs out of there and rework it for the business relationship. Even though they are completely opposite kinds of relationships, they both involve social dynamics. Make a mental note and write down the actions that worked and refine or throw out the ones that didn’t. If you have the drive and ambition and never give up, you’ll achieve your goals.

When you have a strong personal, emotional connection to a belief and you’ve internalized it, it causes you to focus 100% on goal and not give up, but the question is how do we use self-discipline to keep that strong connection to that goal? You can do it by coming up with new ways to keep the goal psychologically appealing. Personal development should be fun! For instance, if you read my “Having Fun Getting Organized” article, it comes up with some really interesting ideas to make you want to stay organized. The purpose of self-discipline is getting you to WANT to accomplish your goals instead of just needing to do them. Ask yourself how to turn your need into a desire.

Tags: accomplish, goal, law of attraction, planning

This entry was posted on Friday, May 9th, 2008 at 6:54 pm and is filed under Beliefs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.