unanticipated events as they occur. Having your planned activi-
ties laid out all the way to the fruition of your goal aids you in fo-
cusing on the task at hand; writing your plan frees you from
having to remember all the steps involved.
Planning is easy because everyone has a natural ability to do it.
Earlier we mentioned that feelings are an increase in physical en-
ergy in response to a challenge. Your body automatically provides
the energy you need to deal with any challenge. Similarly, a plan re-
sults from the natural increase in mentalenergy in response to a
challenge. Whenever you are confronted with a challenging prob-
lem, your mind naturally begins to figure out and evaluate various
solutions. The planning method you will learn in this chapter
builds on your mind’s natural ability.
For example, if you are driving to work and a tire on your
car goes flat, your mind immediately begins to make a plan to
minimize the lateness of your arrival. You may consider abandon-
ing the car and taking a taxi, changing the tire yourself, or tele-
phoning for a repair service to help you. None of these
alternatives is perfect. Each has different disadvantages. There is
no ideal solution. The best choice depends on your personal val-
ues about punctuality and money, as well as the resources avail-
able to you.
Written plans are not required even for complicated tasks if you
have done them before. The first time you give a formal dinner
party for 10 guests, you would want to plan it out in detail and write
your plans down to ensure that you remember everything. After giv-
ing a few successful dinner parties, you wouldn’t need the written
plan anymore. At this point your plan might consist only of a guest
list and a menu.
A written plan is required to accomplish any significant goal
that is new to you. The bigger the project, the more you need a
plan. The more people involved, the more you need a plan. The
length of the plan depends on the complexity of the job. The plan
of the Apollo project to send men to the Moon and return them
safely filled many, many thick books.
Go back to the SMART goals you made in Chapter 8 and choose
one of these to make your plan. You will miss the very important
emotional involvement if you don’t pick a goal that matters to you.
The challenge of the plan is to create a map or a path from where
you are now to the destination you desire.250 Putting It All Together into a Plan