27/12/2024
HOW TO PLAN FOR 2025
Everybody is a planner. And before you tell me that you don't know how to plan, then I may have to ask you why you set an alarm to wake up this early morning, or why you joined the staff bus instead of missing it and taking a public transport. The fact that you caught up with your staff bus means that you didn't just have a plan to catch the bus, your plan worked out perfectly.
There's really nothing we do on a daily basis that didn't require a plan. If you went to church yesterday, then it was a plan until it was executed. The cloth and shoes you'd wear, the car you'd drive, the places you'd visit after service or the things you'd do. Most likely, you even fixed timings and schedules for all of them. If you ate yesterday, then you planned it.
The only reason why it didn't appear to you as though you planned was because each of those activities were passively planned in your mind. You really need to know that the most experienced planner in the world is your mind. That's right! Every human being is a planning machine because of his mind. As long as you have a brain, then expect your mind to brilliantly create process, at least basic process that get you going on a daily basis. It's impossible to do anything meaning of your mind isn't planning.
The mind does not work spontaneously like many people think, it's just a very swift and creative planner. So you may be suddenly called to do something you never planned for, and to your amazement, you'd start getting ideas little by little. You may not start at your best, but you'd certainly get better as you progress. That's because the moment the call was made, your brain began to plan, even without your permission. All of a sudden, the things to do or say will start flowing through your mind.
Although the planning process in your mind may seem simple and random, but a series of complex steps has to occur before your mind can make anything happen physically. To be precise, your mind goes through five steps to accomplish virtually any task. Let me share them with you.
When a task comes to your mind, your mind immediately:
1. Defines purpose and principles
2. Envision outcomes
3. Brainstorm
4. Organize
5. Identify next actions
Let me try to explain all of them in one scenario. The last time you took your family on a treat, what initially causedyou to think about doing it? It could have been anything; the desire to bond with your family, socialize with
friends, celebrate a special occasion, or relief your spouse of stress. As soon as any of these turned into areal inclination that you wanted to move on with, you startedplanning. Your intention was your purpose, and it automatically triggered your internal planning process.
Your principles created the boundaries of your plan. You
probably didn’t consciously think about your principles
regarding going out for a treat, but you thought within them. For example, you considered the
standards of food and service, affordability, convenience,
and comfort. Because your kids would be joining the treat, you didn't even consider a place where alcohol would be on the menu or would be served to any of the guests. Yourpurpose and principles were the defining factors for the boundaries of your planning.
Once you decided to fulfill your purpose, what were your first five substantive thoughts? It was probably not to travel abroad to eat McDonald's, it could have just been to visit a city mall close to you and book a table in one of the restaurants. You thought a city mall would have good views, so that as you eat, your eyes would also be filled with lovely expressions from different people. That was outcome envisioning.
Once your naturally mind accepts the vision, the next thing that begins to happen is brainstorming. "What time should we go?, Is it going to be open?, Will it be crowded?, What's the weather like?, Should we wear special clothes just in case we meet great people?, Is there fuel in the car?" Whenever you commit your mind to an outcome that hasn't happened yet, your mind would begin to brainstorm in this manner. Once your mind notices a gap between what you are looking forward to doing and where you actually are, it will begin to resolve that cognitive dissonance by trying to fill in the blanks.
Once you have generated a sufficient number of ideas and details, your mind would start organizing them. You may have thought or said "First, we need to find out if the restaurant is open", "Let's call our neighbours to see if they'd like to join us", "Let's check the fuel level". Organizing the ideas also involves sorting the components into priorities; logistics, people, location, sequence, and so on.
Finally, once you're done organizing, and you're comfortable with it, you'd physically begin to take actions. Remember that all of these happen in your mind even without you realizing it. Now, insteading of passively allowing your brain to plan out your 2025, why not do a conscious plan using the same process? Believe me, 2025 will be a great year if you plan it with this process.
I hope this has brought enlightenment to someone.
Remain ever blessed, in Jesus precious name!
Copied
