Are you a planner or a doer? Of course, you are both. But what is the balance and what is the right balance?
Do you know this, when you put a lot of effort in planning because you would like to get around the doing part? Sometimes doing can be hard. Planning seems to be more innocent. However, the best plan is nothing without execution.
The Planning
Find your goal, make a plan, then execute, and that’s it? Ideally, yes. But we do not live in an ideal world. Unfortunately, for bigger goals it is a bit more complicated. Especially, if you would like to achieve something very personal, big and unique, chances are that no one ever did this before you. There is no blueprint you can use.
Furthermore, your big goal might be a moving target. That means your goal evolves or even changes over time.
Therefore, the goal-setting process is more of a loop than a straight line. From time to time you need to pause and review. That means, you look back to see what you have achieved and you look ahead to see if you need to adapt and only then you can plan your next actions.
That indicates that you need a simple and flexible plan – flexible, because you might need to be able to adapt it on the way and simple because complicated plans tend to scare us away.
The Doing
Now, that you have a plan you can take action. But where to start? Ideally, you always have an easy-to-accomplish next action available. You can define this next action initially in your plan and then later during your review sessions.
Your next action can be as simple as making a phone call or doing a search on the Internet. However, it is important to have a next action available.
When you take action by action and step by step into the right direction you will inevitably get closer towards your goal.
But, you have to take action. And this can be hard work. Persistence is more important than working day and night and then get burned out.
The Balance between Planning and Doing
So, what is the right balance? Well, it depends. It always depends. You might know yourself and you might already recognize if you are more the over-planner or more the kind of person that takes action without thinking too much about having a plan.
Probable overthinking or over-planning is more common. Just think about it and be honest to yourself. Then just try to invest a bit more time and effort in the part that might need a bit more of your attention.
If you are writing on your business plan for your restaurant for five years without having called some potential properties or talking to your bank, it is definitely time to start the doing part.
On the other side, if you run your restaurant for five years and you can barely survive and you feel stuck, it is time to review and start the planning part again.
The Most Important Part
Both, planning and doing are just a waste of time (life time) and energy without doing the most important tasks first. And this is … drum roll … to find out what you really, really want, to find out what your big goal is and why.
Nothing is more frustrating than working for the wrong goal, or working for a goal that is not yours.
Before starting your plan, before taking action, take your time to think about what your goal (or even your life goal) really is.
If you need some more help with finding and setting your goals, check our our free VidaGoals app or our free goal-setting PDF eBook.
Happy goal setting.