Hello Royalty.
Welcome to a new week. Yesterday, I placed a poll on my InstaStory about whether I should or should not share this post. I got most votes in the positive and here you have it!
I remember taking one of those courses during my Bachelor’s. It was called TMC, short for Total Man Concept and one of the recurring inspirational quotes was “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail – Benjamin Franklin” and there was it, spread across the projector like a scene from a blockbuster movie.
Last two weeks, I enrolled in an MOOC on the Management of the Arts and I’ve been loving these two weeks – the second week was focused on long term artistic planning, and although directed to people in the Arts, I realized that it also applies to every other area of our lives, particularly when it comes to reaching goals.
Dr Kaiser says, “Plan some of your art four or five years in advance…more, two or three years in advance”.
What does long-term planning really mean? It means thinking through, making strategic plans, making actual plans and not wishes. An instance is someone who says, “My plan is to become a Nobel Prize winner.” That is not a plan; that is a wish. The plan comes in when you say, “How am I going to do this?”.
I also thought about a lot and I began to question why we end up forgetting or forsaking some ideas. An idea jumps into your head today and you plunge into it without thinking; you might be throwing it away in a few months’ time. All ideas come in the most infant form and some of them grow to become profitable while some do not, either because of our laxity or because they were never meant to.
How to make a long term plan
Take out your board and draw a plan for the next three to five years.
Year One Year Two Year Three
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When you take a look at the above table, the plans for year one are more spelled out and detailed than that of years two and three respectively. What this tells us is that we do not have to have it all figured out, but making a plan for a project three years to come or two years to come gives that project time to develop, to be worked on, to be astonishing and to motivate us today. When you plan towards the future, you are motivated about today because there is something to look forward to. Not only are you anticipating, the people around you are ready to support you because they can see the future through your eyes.
Another thing Kaiser brings to our attention is that your programming plan must reflect your mission – your why, your work, your identity as a person or an organization.
So when you make a plan, you can examine it to see if it falls in line with your life’s mission.
Again, you might ask? But what if A doesn’t lead to B? What if things don’t go that particular way in three years time? I mean we live in a fast-paced world. How do I make my plan relevant in the contemporary society? Dr Kaiser says, “Put down your plan in pencil”. Leave lots of room for innovation. Be ready to change things, erase things etc. and I totally agree with this because not only do you have goals and aspirations for the future, you are flexible enough to know when A would no longer lead to B and when C should jump right in.
How to begin?
Pick a wish or goal of yours – at least one – and stick it five years out or less. Spread a plan for that goal over the next two years and work at it – the resources, the people and everything you would need.
When you begin this way, you’d find out you are excited by this project so much that you want to do more and be more!
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What are your thoughts on long term planning and on this post? Please hit the comment section today! I want to hear from you! Also, please share, share, share and subscribe if you have not.
Thank you! ❤
Goodbye Royalty,
With Overflowing Love,
Alexandra Zion.
This is Really Helpful.
Thank you! I am glad it is.
Thank you.
Thank you for this post. Really helpful.