Arguably, this year is already gone. Within a short time, we will be standing at the end of the year and looking back at 2012. Right now, the twelve months look like a lot of time but that’s not so. If you are not careful, you will be caught still trying to start 2012 when it is already over.
To The Future
If you want to make 2012 worthwhile, then it is time to enter a time machine and zoom to December 31, 2012. Now think, how do you want your life to be like on that day? What things do you hope to have achieved? What kind of person will you be? What level of joy and happiness do you want to experience? Now that you have a picture of your ideal year, let’s come back to this time level.
A Good Plan
Now that you have a destination, it’s time to make a plan.
“I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” – Jeremiah 29:11
Even God has a plan for you so why not also have a plan for yourself. Plans are indispensable to success. Failure to plan is planning to fail. Planning gives your life an overall direction. They act like maps to lead you to your destination. Unfortunately, most of us live life without a plan yet we are shocked at the results we get.
“Good plans shape good decisions. That’s why good planning helps to make elusive dreams come true”
There are several resources on how to make plans but I will just share a few simple tips here.
1. Be clear about what you want. This is why we needed to time-travel to the end of the year to view what your ideal year will be like. To make this easier, you might want to partition your life into sections, e.g. finances, career, family, business, health, etc.
2. Write it down in your journal. I don’t how this works but I found out that writing down what I want makes it alive somehow. You may even want to print it out on a sheet and paste it on the wall of your room.
3. Write out how you are going to get these things. This is actually the planning process. It will involve a lot of thinking and meditation. Ask yourself questions and write down the answers. You may have several plans to get a particular thing, that doesn’t matter. Just make sure your plans are not pipe dreams.
4. Pray about your plans. This is an all important step, involving God in your plans.
“Share your plans with the LORD, and you will succeed” – Prov 16:3 (CEV)
Final Note
While plans are indispensable, plans can also fail. You should be flexible enough to change your plans when they seem not to be working. These are the words of a former President of United States and a one-time general of the US Army responsible for planning and supervising the invasion of France and Germany during the second world war. He said:
“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable” – Dwight David Eisenhower
