By Tolulope A. Adegoke
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
– Mary Oliver
A goal without a plan is just a wish. Plan your works and work your plans. Overlooking the powerful effect of strategic planning is simply planning to fail. Good planning without good working is nothing but a wild joke! Plan out your life strategically on paper, and decide today to start living intentionally by your heart (true conscience). Spencer W. Kimball reveals that: “To be sure your life will be full and abundant; you must plan your life.”
Dear friends, hear what Jim Rohn wrote: “if you do not design your own life plan, chances are that you will fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Nothing much.” This simply means that, you must start living intentionally, by subjecting your ego, pleasures and weaknesses under the principles of strategic or effective planning toward actualizing purposes and fulfilling your great destiny.
So, what and how do you engage the principles of Effective Planning?
Set a Definite Goals (SDGs)- your goals must be specific.
Decide on deadlines for your goal(s)
Write down your goals- make it plain on paper. Habakkuk 2:2(KJV) reveals that: “And the Lord answered me and said, write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.” Also remember that ‘the faintest ink is better that the sharpest memory.’
Develop steps or strategies towards achieving the goals that you have written.
Determine ‘what’ (the costs or sacrifice) you would give in exchange for your plans to come into reality. We all must remember that sowing comes before reaping, therefore, you must enter into the labour room and process on investments and work out your goals into reality. Pay the prices needed to get the prizes that comes with it. This is simply the law of give and take.
Set career/Mental goals: Refine your talents into skills and business (expertise). Be loaded enough with relevant skills for effective production and great value. Create value on daily basis. Read relevant books, articles and journals to brush up your mental capacity. By so doing, you can identify more of your talents and develop those talents into what is called skills. A skill is a polished, processed or refined endowments (potentials).
Talents has capability to be available. In fact, it makes one available, but skill(s) makes you desirable. The ability to earn from your skill is called expertise-the art of business. It is business that makes you profitable. It is profit that you need! Business is therefore the availability to make profits from your skills.
Set health goals for yourself: your health is the security wall of your skills, do not joke with it! Prevention is better than cure, and obedience is the best form of sacrifice. Suffice to say, follow medical prescriptions, stop self-medication to avoid complications. You must maintain fitness (Mental or psychological and physical fitness).
Build Relationship with God: don’t dare joke with your relationship with God. Do not take it with levity. Daily meditation should be unquestionable. Make your body the temple of the Lord (do not abuse it). Have a secret place of personal communion with God, read more of His Word-the Holy Bible is a high opener of mysteries. Be a kingdom builder, contribute to the growth of the House of God (The Church) through the following means: Evangelism, Sacrificial giving, Tithing among others.
Have Welfare Package(s) for your family: give your family a treat, take them out on vacation, make them smile, laugh and happy. Sweeten the heart of your spouse, stop being too critical, forget her past failures and move on by focusing on her strengths. There are levels of blessings, favour attached to your wife and children; they are created to enjoy the money you make, while you were created to make the money.
Set your Financial Budgets: This has to do with income first. How much comes in and what are the monthly inflow of money into your treasury? How much is your expenditure? You just need to be seriously detailed and strict with your finances. Endeavour to save more. Savings is paramount!
What is a Plan that matters?
A plan is simply a method that is detailed for achieving an end, it the customary method of doing something. Another word for it is procedure.
A plan is also a detailed formulation of a program of action. It is effective plans that separates achievers from ordinary dreamers. It is not what you hear that counts, it is what you do with it what you hear or have heard or read that counts! There are so many people that are carrying exactly what they are crying for! You were born loaded with enviable and unique gifts. You were born with virtually everything you will ever need so that God’s glory would be proclaimed by your evident (empirical) successes or results.
The major assignment man has is simply to make God to be better known to the world through your works, results, greatness or outputs. According to Fela Durotoye, “you are the exact example of the intentions of God! The purpose of creation by God is for Him to reign on Earth through us. We were formed in our mother’s womb because of the assignments we were sent to do (actualize or fulfil), because we all are on mission, here on earth! And if you fail, that means God’s brand has perished, God forbid! Your results have more than your name at stake”.
Promotion does not come by fasting and prayer alone, but by planning and hard work. Your results are tied to the brand of God, because when you were arriving this world (earth), you were given virtually everything you will ever need. So all you need to achieve your purpose, that greatness or successes is by engaging on EFFECTIVE PLANNING. However, if you crave not just to merely exist, but live well and effectively you must always practice and engage the principles of Effective Planning.
In conclusion, I charge you not to pity yourself, stop the blame games! Get to work by stretching the limit of your commitment- embrace excellence in place of mediocrity. It is my sincere desire that young people and adults will heed to the call of excellence, in spite of the prevailing mediocrity around them today, regardless of the culture of underperformance and frivolities that are being celebrated today. We all must work out ourselves for a successful end! Show me a man with good and effective plans, and I will show you a brilliant mind; show me a brilliant mind who is committed effective planning principles and I will show you a limitless man. It is an archaic saying that the sky is the limit. I will gladly tell you this: “there are footprints in the sky, the sky is the starting point; don’t be limited, don’t be intimidated, don’t be lazy, you need to tear up the ceilings of the sky in order to breakthrough into the world beyond it. Guess what, you don’t do that wishing or by guessing. You start by imagination, believing and putting them into writing and running after the vision by hard works and smart moves!”
(The end…)
Thank you all for reading.
Tolulope A. Adegoke is an acclaimed “globalpreneur”, with the mandate to enrich lives and provide the professional, spiritual, academic and leadership empowerment needed to birth, maximize and sustain possibilities in peoples, corporates and nations. He is a prolific writer, frequent keynote speaker and spoken word poet, among others, having written countless articles in diverse reputable fields and honoured many public invitations.
E-mail: adegoketolulope1022@gmail.com
globalstageimpacts@gmail.com
