How To Effectively Plan To Win in 2021.
Did I put off setting writing goals during the months we were in lockdown? Yes, I did. My mind was too busy worrying about my family, worrying about catching the coronavirus, worried about my health and panicking whenever I hear of any younger person that didn’t make it out alive after getting infected.
In 2020, the entire world was working mostly from home. The streets of Lagos eerily empty. People lost their jobs, loved ones, some also lost their minds. Of course, I had a good reason to just drift, and not plan not it took a while to catch up when I decided to wake up.
My family and I attended crossover service and prayed for a smooth year, we didn't see imagine there was going to be a coronavirus and the way it would send all our plans belly up, or an #ENDSARS protest that changed our lives in Nigeria. So a change in plans is bound to happen, wit hall the upheavals.
We are learning to live with the reality of coronavirus, so no excuse to not create a solid plan to effectively win in 2021. A plan that will be disaster-proof and help you achieve your goals for the coming year.
To plan is to have positive self-direction, to have a game plan, to be purpose-oriented, to seek goals.
Failing to plan is the mindset of a person who intends to drift for a long time. I t is also an inability to decide on a goal. When we don’t plan we are afraid of the commitment that planning imposes on us.
These are actionable ways you effectively plan to win in 2021.
Have a winner’s mindset
Winners are that one in a million people who are courageous enough to plan their actions, they know where they are going every day, day by day. In the past.
A winner is aware that it takes boldness to tell yourself what to do every day. Instead of letting the day decide. A winner takes charge; is accountable enough to set daily goals. This way you win, you pace your progress because self-direction is the surest path to progress.
2. Set Realistic Goals
Sometimes, from the start, we deliberately set goals that are unrealistic and hence easy to abandon. A friend once calls me to discuss a project that would cost almost 50 million nairas in its first phase. She was optimistic and told me we should partner. I looked at the feasibility of raising 50 million nairas in 6 weeks and told her we didn’t have to start big. What about exploring distributorship or dealership options or importing from china through manufacturers? She said that path will take too long. I asked how much of this startup cost did she have? and she said she relied on my fundraising abilities. Haha!
We were both inexperienced, how do we just dive headlong into the murky waters of the Nigerian human hair business without only our dreams and the much-dreaded # other peoples money? I am not being a pessimist here, but i told her we needed to a strategy to match our motivation.
3. Constantly monitor self-talk
When planning your life, it is important to know that the way you talk to yourself when you are alone is important. Do you tell yourself that you lack what it takes to succeed? Are you a harsh critic of your efforts? When you speak positive things to yourself, you are more empathetic, present and able to communicate positivity to those around, this attracts progress. Being too hard on yourself also makes you hard on those around you. Speak like ‘ I am resourceful’, ‘tomorrow is another day, I will try again’, ‘I will not give up’. It is also important to not only reward yourself for results but also reward yourself for effort, for ideas and your grit.
4. Have a financial game plan
Drafting a financial game plan can daunt because it can reveal how unprepared. If you plan to win, find time to do this task. In your personal finance plan, set income goals at retirement and factor in inflation.
How much do you have to save or investment that will help cushion your retirement years? Create a contingency savings plan and budget your spending to avoid impulse shopping. For instance, going grocery shopping without a list leaves you overwhelmed with the goals you did not set. You buy things you neither need nor want.
5. Avoid setting vague goals
The mind does not respond well to vague or too broad instructions. It won’t respond to general terms like ‘happiness’, ‘wealth’, ‘health’. These are nice-sounding dreams everyone has, but to set your mind to work you have to narrow things down to direct phrases like $10k per month, 5000 organic Instagram followers by the end of the year, a desired weight of 70kg by the end of the quarter. The secret to planning to win is establishing a clearly defined goal, writing it down and working towards it all day and night.
According to Dr Denis Waitley in the book the Psychology of winning your robot self-image cannot tell the difference between something that is rehearsed and something that is real and so you will move toward your goals, whatever it is, as though it were a part of your life. We do become what we think the most about, and no wind blows in favour of a ship without direction.
To get ahead, plan the work and work the plan, see yourself planning to win. We all can make actionable plans, force your goals into your subconscious, with unrelenting practice and see yourself achieving all your goals one after another, see yourself winning, big!
