Four Reasons Why Planning Doesn’t Seem to Work and How to Resolve Them
I meet so many business owners who need to fill their programs, find referral partners and make more money at the last minute. Cash flow has run short and they need money yesterday.
Can you relate to this scenario?
Perhaps it shows up in your life as feeling out of control, or in your business as feeling afraid and worried about making enough money each month.
Many of you don’t have a 6 or 12 month plan. And without this plan you’ll continue to struggle. You won’t be able to plan ahead. You’ll always be working at the last minute to move your business forward and you’ll have no time to course correct if things don’t go as planned. Every successful business owner follows a plan – it’s essential to creating big breakthroughs.
The truth is that many of you, my smart and capable readers probably know a thing or two about planning.
The problem is that you are afraid to actually create and stick to a plan. Here’s what could be holding you back, and four ways to move yourself forward:
1. Creating a plan requires you to make decisions and that can feel restrictive and scary. In order to say Yes to one project, you have to say No to three other projects. For you Creatives out there, this can feel like cutting one of your arms off – very restrictive. Remember that you aren’t saying No to your future projects forever, you are just saying No for now. You should write your other projects on your idea list so that you can pick them back up later.
For others, you are terrified that you might say yes to the wrong project, so you would rather not make a choice. Remember that the universe course corrects for you. But it can only course correct if you are in action. Trust and faith are keys here.
2. Creating a plan seems messy and hard. Your mind just doesn’t think that way. Some of you aren’t linear thinkers and planning just drives you a little mad. For you, it is useful to find someone in your world to help you. It can be a business mentor whom you work with for a day or longer. Or it can just be a friend whom you repay with dinner. Find someone in your world that is willing to sit down with you and listen to all of your ideas and then plot it out in a calendar with you. This person should enjoy the process and be well organized in their thought processes.
You’ll find that once you’ve walked through the planning process with someone, it gets easier and easier to do alone. Don’t give up on your plan, or yourself – just ask for help.
3. You don’t like thinking ahead of time because you don’t know what you’ll be doing in a month, much less six months. Most of the time this feeling comes from a fear of commitment. Look under the surface. What is driving this fear? Is it an experience you had as a child? Is it an example from your parents? What are you afraid will happen? Get real about that fear. Talk to someone about it. Once you become aware of it, you’ll find it easier to let it go.
4. When you create a plan and set goals, it never works out, so you’ve stopped planning. The truth is that a plan is a guideline and it is needs to be constantly monitored and revised. But it also requires a good bit of strategy to make sure you are executing the right activities. If you’ve found that planning didn’t work in the past – it is not the fault of the plan. It’s the strategy that you used to execute your plan.
Make sure that you aren’t doing the same strategy this time around. Pay attention to what worked and didn’t work before and alter the plan. Get help if you need it. But don’t give up on the plan.
Have you identified some of your own blocks to planning in the steps above? Good. Now pick out a day this weekend, get a great glass of wine or cup of coffee and create a plan. Your bank account will thank you.
Please leave me a comment and let me know your plan for 2012.
