Creating a Plan that Never Happens!

Is this you? Do you ever create a plan and then never look at it? You gather together the coloured pens and Post-Its, you may even get a new book to write it all in. You sit down and take the time to set your goals for the year full of good intentions and create THE PLAN. But you never really go back and look at it, it gets forgotten. Then you stumble across it at the back of the drawer halfway through the year and you beat yourself up for not actually doing it!

As business owners, we are enthusiastic at the start and create these big plans, with all the things we want to achieve, but end up making them far too complicated. They are not realistic or manageable and then it becomes demoralising thinking about how far off track you are. So you stop looking at the plan and forget about it.

To achieve your goals they need to be realistic and focused. I always recommend starting at the end and working backwards so you can see what the steps might be in between and when you might need to complete them. What does success look like to you at the end of the year? What are you hoping to achieve?

In that way, working backwards, you can work out what you need to do to make your plan happen, plot actions that feel achievable and make sure you allow space for everything else happening in your business and your life. Splitting the plan into quarterly blocks also means you can set actions for 3 months at a time which also feels more attainable.