We've Got To Plan

Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.

Alan Lakein

As a young adult growing into a world of responsibilities, the realization that there is a lot of pressure on me to succeed weighs heavily on me. As a child, I was free of expectations, I could choose to be a lawyer one day and a week after become fascinated with the idea of becoming a doctor. One of the advantages of being a child is that feeling of innocence and not having to worry about a thing in the world as everything is being taken care of by the adults.

Sometime last week, I happened to be on a radio programme called Teen’s Time on Inspiration FM. I alongside a couple of friends from a writing club I belong to in school, Weavers Club were to speak on planning. For the first time as we discussed in that studio, I realised I don’t plan much. Wishing for things or saying I am going to do this or that wasn’t really what one can call planning. As I examined my life, I realised though I have ideas about the things I want to be or do in my head, I didn’t necessarily have a clear cut map of how I am going to achieve them. Along the line, some of these things gets forgotten and only by a random stroke of fate do they resurface only for me to realise I had failed to do it.

While living a day to day life without thoughts as to tomorrow may seem like a relatively simple life, there is no saying that it can be quite detrimental to an individual. Without crispy clear plans as to one’s ambition and ways of achieving those goals and dreams then shouldn’t be expecting much success out of life. Like the popular saying by Alan Lakein, “failing to plan is planning to fail.” It is next to impossible to achieve something you didn’t plan on achieving and let not the thoughts of blind luck or a stroke of good fortune deceive you either.

While nobody said it’s going to be an easy thing sticking to plans and actually executing them, it doesn’t hurt to have a small reminder or notebook of your plans. It’s easy to make short term plans and work on them as it makes it easier for you to be able to work on planning for long term goals in the long run. If things aren’t going out as planned then don’t be afraid to be flexible and consider other options that can work out. After all if plan A doesn’t work out, the alphabet has twenty-five other letters.

Keep at it, before long, your plans will become actions and actions, achievements. 

Originally written for 9jeducation

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