Planning for Success

Planning is the direction we set to achieve our objectives. Architects plan before they hire someone to build a house. They design blueprints that illustrate step-by-step tasks that the contractor must undertake to build the dream house for the buyer. Contractors could build a house without a blueprint. But what would the final product look like? Possibly a structure unlike what the buyer envisions and desires.

This example also applies for all goals. The planning phase becomes our architectural blueprints that detail in a step-by-step fashion the tasks to achieve a desired effect or outcome. We begin by segmenting the planning ingredient into three phases:

• Planning Phase (1): Forethought of our objective or life achievement.
• Planning Phase (2): The plan of action - goals, benchmarks, and tasks - that we must undertake to achieve the objective.
• Planning Phase (3): Recognition of benefits.