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Plan 

“Plans are not a promise, they are protection in the midst of preparation.” – (BJS)

The Plan… sounds simple… and in reality it is very simple.  You either have a plan or you do not, however, simple things are quite often not easy things.  This is a great misconception in life, assuming simplicity is equivalent to ease, when in fact, they typically hail from opposite corners.  Within the discipline mindset, one will develop a plan with great intention on executing the vision.  Success is determined by the execution, not the vision or even the plan.  This is why and where the difficulty arises.  Take diets for example, (I really do not like the word ‘diet’, mainly because when someone hears the word it has temporary connotation, but in truth, diet refers to the daily or regular intake of nutrients), according to the Annual Diet and Healthy-Eating Report, the average dieter follows 55 fad diets during their lifetime at a staggering cost of £30,000, which is enough money to put a deposit down on a first home.  Sadly, only one in three people will actually lose weight and just one in five feel better from the new regimes.  

Why?  Because their vision was not OWNED by themselves, therefore the plan was faulty at the first.  Herein, is where CHANGE must take place, a renewed mind; with a mindset of discipline taking ownership and responsibility for our life, understanding the personal choices made are OUR decisions and not another’s.  Just because someone around us has made bad choices in their life does not mean we have to follow suit.  We can and must break the mould and move onward to a bigger and brighter future.  We are responsible for our own decisions and must hold ourselves accountable for poor choices as well as wise ones (yes, you can reward yourself for doing right).

How?

Plan – Preeminence

Preeminence is defined as “the state or character of being preeminent” with preeminent meaning “eminent above or before others; superior; surpassing”.  In other words, if something is preeminent in one’s life it takes priority above and beyond other things.  It will out shine and stand out in our hearts and mind thus influencing us to make wise decisions in life.  This is true in our dieting (daily and regular intake of nutrients), time management, financial budgeting, relationships etc.  Making wise decisions based upon a vision within an established plan with purpose must take preeminence in our life in order for success to be prevalent.  

This is how new behaviour is established, by making planned choices, which in turn develops into a habit.  We have often heard it takes 21 days to develop a new habit, however, there are flaws in this statement and science has proven so.  First off, many of the self help gurus in the world have taken such information by partially portraying the statement of Dr. Maxwell Maltz, a plastic surgeon in the 1950s.  He began to find in many of his patients, it took “a minimum of 21 days” to adjust to their new image.  The ‘Tony Robbins’ of our day removed “a minimum of” and ran with the  ’21 day’ promise, giving people the sense of assurance they would be a new person in less than a month.  It is quite possible for this to work with certain folks.  However, if this was a definitive truth, we would not have ‘dieters’ jumping on and off 50 different fad-diets in their lifetime.  More recent studies have revealed it takes more than 2 months before a new behaviour becomes automatic, 66 days to be exact and in a more comprehensive research we found it has taken anywhere from 18 to 254 days for people to form a new habit.  

What does this mean for us?  It means new behaviour and the developing of positive habits are dependent upon a person who has more than a desire for change, but rather a drive.  A drive to fulfil a plan with a purpose, based upon a realistic vision, placing it at the forefront of their day, thus making choices giving it preeminence in their life.

“If it was easy, everyone would do it… Simplicity doesn’t always equal ease and ease quite often isn’t very simple.”