Why Long Term Planning Sucks ...

...trust your subconscious - stop thinking so much...

First of all - lets look at how we drive our cars and use our GPS...

Strange I know - but go with me here, it will make sense...

Let's suppose that I want to drive from Monaco to London. I enter the destination into the GPS and it will calculate a route for me.

It may ask a few questions about avoiding toll roads and ferries, but once it knows where I want to go and how I want to get there, it can give me the advice I need..

Some things that our GPS doesn't do...

1. Check Your Past - it doesn't say "well you were in Berlin yesterday, so you can't be in Monaco now..." or "You haven't been to Italy yet so you can't go to London..." - these are ridiculous questions and totally irrelevant to the journey. 

In Life and Business, however, when we set our Goals and Objectives, sometimes we let a voice in side our head tell us that we are not "ready" or "worthy" yet - or we convince ourselves that because we don't have a Degree, MBA or the right connections we cannot start the journey at all.

2. Check Your Future - it doesn't say "oooohhh, you don't want to go there..." or "are you sure, wouldn't you rather go to Paris...?" The GPS believes what you tell it to be true and behaves accordingly and without question.

Our Subconscious is the same - whatever we tell it, it takes as being true. So whether we tell it positive, negative, inspiring or limiting facts and phrases; it takes them as truth and guides us. It is non-judgemental...

3. Show a Picture of your Destination - the GPS does not focus you on the destination. It focuses you on the immediate future and present. The screen image gives you around 200 metres of the road ahead and guides you turn by turn.

Essentially, we have to trust that the GPS will make the right choices for us. If we have to divert off course or avoid an accident or roadworks that it doesn't know about, it will simply re calculate and get us back on track.

This is how our subconscious works too - once we tell it where we want to go, it will guide our actions and decisions to take us there - we have to stop planning so much and start trusting our instinct to make the right choices.

4. Give In or Tell You Off - your GPS never gives in, no matter how many times you go off track, make a wrong turn or ignore the instructions, it is there to serve you and look after your interests - same as your subconscious.

I have tested this out and if I continually ignore the instructions the voice never says "for #%$@ sake, do what I tell you or else..." or "you're an idiot and cant't drive anyway..." it is non judgemental and consistent in it's manner and emotional state.

Your subconscious is the same, it doesn't matter how many mistakes you make, or how skilled you are - it will still guide you...

If you feel like giving in, or listening to other people telling you off, it just means you haven't arrived yet, ignore them and trust your instinct.

5. Distract You - once the destination is set, your GPS will only give you instructions that you need, it will go quiet while the road is straight; sometimes no news is good news and it simply means that you are on track, silence is not an opportunity to change direction.

When we lived in Nevada we could drive across the Desert for hours and not see a soul, the GPS would be silent. Even the view on the screen would be a single vertical blue line through the wilderness - we had to let it do it's job.

A friend had an App that would chirp in if the GPS was silent, stating for example "I'm wearing black underwear...." or "would you like to do something naughty...?" - in Life and Business we need to make sure we are not distracted and stay on course...

Applying the Rules to Business and Life...

I have rarely seen a Business Plan that works - what I mean is that usually something happens that wasn't predicted. The biggest challenges and opportunities are those we don't predict - and yet we keep Planning the details and get frustrated when we don't hit the targets...

Stop It...

Here's how to stop Planning and start Achieving...

1. Set the Objective - the destination, refer to it often but don't keep it as your only focus, the focus has to be the Present, dealing with both the planned and unpredictable as they occur.

2. Ignore the Past - your history need not define your future, unless you let it. If you think you don't deserve, are too young / old, not clever enough - then you are right.

3. Get Moving - if you don't move you will not get anywhere. Procrastinating and Thinking about what to do is the best way of achieving nothing, get on with it and let your instinct guide you. 

I had a message from someone who said that they "had been thinking seriously about working with a Coach for the last three months..." - not sure what "serious thinking" actually is, but I guarantee it is not helping...

4. Trust - your instinct. Once you have chosen where to go and how to get there, allow your subconscious to do its work; it may seem odd occasionally but it will be right in the end ans get you to your destination safely.

As with the GPS, your journey may be a long one, but your attention should be on the immediate adjustments and turns you make on the way. Essentially it is possible to drive from Monaco to London in steps of 200 metres, that is as far ahead as you need to see.

We always had a Dream of living in rural France, but we had n clue how to make it happen. Our Business took us all over the UK and we eventually ended up living and working out of Las Vegas in the USA; we didn't seem to be getting any closer to our Dream, in fact we were 5,000 miles further away than we were when we started.

However, it was the move to the USA that actually created the opportunity for us to be based out of France - where we are now - joining the dots backwards it all makes sense, at the time, however, it seemed slightly crazy...

We trusted our instincts not our logic - that's what gets results...

So it is with Business and Life; 

Long Term Intention + Short Term Attention = Results

Because as we know Results Rules OK..

PS - If you want to give God a good laugh - tell her your plans...

Have a great week...