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The Plan 

“There are two pains in life. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment.  If you can handle the pain of discipline, then you’ll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment.” – Nick Saban

Passion drives the vision, Position directs it and Peculiarity determines ownership, with the vision in place we are now enabled to move into the action.  This is the Plan.  Remember, a vision without a plan is merely a wish…  Countless individuals have had greater and broader visions than others, yet it was the failure to execute the vision within a plan in which becomes their demise.  

Maybe you have a vision to improve your fitness level or better manage your finances and time.  These are wonderful ideas, but sitting around talking about them will not bring success.  I have heard numerous men and women tell me how they ‘need’ to make healthier choices, ‘need’ to cut back on spending and ‘need’ to tighten up their schedule.  All the while they are eating a donut, scrolling through Amazon for a new top to add to the already twenty they don’t wear, at the same time bouncing back and forth on social media.  We’ve all heard the saying ‘talk is cheap’ which is incredibly true; but the cost is high.  We use the word ‘need’ today without consequence, what we need is to breath, drink water and eat food.  What we desire is better health, finances and more time.  Well, if you are willing to develop a disciplined mindset in your vision, it will require a suitable plan to execute, which can be broken down into three segments.

Plan – Purpose

Purpose is defined as “the reason for which something exists or is done, made, used, etc.”.  One of the first questions we must ask ourselves when designing a plan is: “what is the purpose?”.  In all fairness, if this question cannot be answered rather quickly, one must stop, rethink the element in which is truly driving their vision.  Faulty visions will fuel a fire of failure quicker than anything.

Here is an example, someone wants to lose ten pounds, this would be the vision.  In order to execute this vision, they must be passionate about losing the weight, have the position in their daily schedule to perform the required exercise to do so and the desire to lose the weight must be for themselves (it must be peculiar or personal for them, not another’s).  So, again, what’s the purpose?  The answer is to lose ten pounds correct?  Yes, but to drop weight for ‘kicks and giggles’ is not a purpose, neither is “because my buddy wants to”.  

Learning to be disciplined in order to execute the vision outlined in a plan first requires purpose.  In our given scenario, someone wants to lose ten pounds; herein is the vision.  The plan is to do so by taking the needed steps in healthy choices, increasing their level of fitness and maintaining the proper food and water intake.  Now purpose kicks in, meaning when all the dust settles and the new wears off, there is a fire from within pushing this person to walk past the junk food isle, get into the gym when it is cold outside and take the time to prep meals the night before.  PURPOSE! The reason for which something exists or is done!  Some good examples of purpose in our example would be, better fitting clothes, improved movements on the rig, lower blood pressure or in many cases the difference between certain diagnoses which are directly associated to being over weight.  A plan is a necessity, without a plan goals are only words written on paper which worth less than the ink it is written with.  

So, today, search your heart, what is the purpose of your vision?  You already have the image in your mind of what you want to become or achieve.  Are you ready to make the choices today in order to attain such vision thus fulfilling your heart’s desire?  If so, your plan is beginning, find the purpose and drive onward and upward.

“Anyone can say they want success, but the one with a disciplined mindset will see it come to pass.”