I believe that deep down all of us have goals or dreams that we want to realize. Perhaps we’ve been told that we can’t achieve them and we’ve started to accept that and have forgotten about them. But we all have them.
And if you’re honest to yourself, how far are you in achieving your goals and dreams? I know that I haven’t reached them all. And I can give the excuse that I’ve just become a father, and I want to spend as much time with my son as possible, which I do. But I don’t think that’s the real reason. I think the real reason is, that I’ve let life change my game plan.
Have you ever wondered why some people are so immensely successful, happy, wealthy, or healthy while others are struggling to get by?
Are they smarter? Were they born in a silver cradle? Do they have better ideas? Do they have more time? Do they have blue blood? Breathe different air?
I think a crucial reason is that these people have a better game plan for life. If you’re someone who doesn’t have a game plan for life, it’s likely you’re working on other people’s game plan. And I know I don’t know you personally, but whatever goals or dreams you have, I hope that these simple ideas will help you to empower yourself in achieving your goals and dreams.
Game Plan
I don’t know if you’re into competitive sports. But what fascinates me is that competitive sports are a simplification of achieving your goals. There’s an objective, which is “winning the game.” There are rules the sport provide you with. And to “win the game” there are multiple strategies that you can choose to win the game. If you’re just playing for fun, your strategy of choice is luck. If you have a more refined and well-applied strategy, your odds of winning are usually much higher.
And while you might have a strategy for winning in sports, do you also have a game plan for succeeding in your life? Is the game plan you’re applying working for you? Is it bringing you the results that you want? If not, then it might be a good idea to revise them.
If I look back at my life, and what has brought me the successes that I’ve achieved. One of the strategies within my game plan has always been “self-empowerment”: to improve myself a little bit daily and to enable myself by building more resources every day. Resources like: more knowledge, health, energy, experiences, better philosophies, relationships, friends, family, intelligence, wealth, character, skills, capabilities, etc.
While I’m not saying I’m following this game plan perfectly (there’s definitely room for improvement), having more resources allows you and enables you to achieve more.
A quote (from Jim Rohn) that really resonates with me: to HAVE more, you have to BE more. What I believe is also: The successes that you have “on the outside,” are a reflection of how well things are “on the inside.” Having a game plan that works for you can help you with that.
Habits
But having a game plan is not enough. The key to making this game plan work is to stick with it. You might have a great plan, but if you don’t follow through, it won’t make a difference.
When you look at people who attend seminars, typically 70% of the people are inspired at the moment. But when they get back to their normal life, the seminar was just a spike of inspiration, and then life turns back to how it used to be. For 10% of people nothing happens, the seminar did not affect their life at all.
Then there are 20% who get a spike of inspiration at the seminar, and after they return to their daily life change has taken place.
The difference between the 70% of people who got the “high” and 20% of people who experience a lasting change, is the routines they’ve implemented into their lives. Only when you’ve made changes in your daily routines, change takes place, and you’ll get different results. Acting out on these daily routines will require some willpower when you start, but when these daily routines become habits, it will be more natural to act them out than not.
Imagine the following scenario’s:
• Imagine how much money you would have saved if you saved 1 dollar a day from the age of 10 until now?
• Imagine how your life would be like, if you started to eat healthily, exercised daily from the age of 10 until now. How healthy, energized and fit would you be?
• Or, imagine how much knowledge would you have gained if you read a book for 30 minutes every day, starting from 10 years old till now.
Imagine if you’ve started including these habits into your life, how would your life be like now if you made these decisions early in life?
When you start at day 1 the first 1% improvement doesn’t seem like much. It’s not even much after 10 days of 1% improvement daily. But compound that 1% of improvement daily over 10 years, and it leads to incredible results. Whether it’s health, wealth, skills, better philosophy, or whatever your goal may be: success doesn’t happen overnight. Success is a good decision that you’ve made and consistently acted upon it. That’s why it’s so important to have a game plan and to be strategic with your life. Find ways to include these success habits into your daily life, so they become part of who you are. Then this “game plan,” is just part of your life.
Improve
So when you have a game plan that you’ve turned into habits, the next step is to reflect on them and improve upon them regularly. How are you doing? Are you still on track? Are they still the right things? How can you make your game plan and your daily habits better? More efficient? More effective? How can you refine them? Can you do it in another way or a more impactful way?
So there you have it. Start with your designing your game plan, turn your game plan into habits, and improve upon them. If you don’t have a game plan yet, you create one now. It’s better to start late than never.
If you need help with designing your game plan to get started, download this template here.
