Map Out Your Plan

Map out your Plan – Know the Why, Who, What, When, Where, and How.

What does a homebuilder, chef, and steel drum instrument, a.k.a., “pan” builder have in common?

They all have a plan.

Homebuilders use a blueprint to build a house. They don’t just go out to the job site and start hammering – they create a plan before they begin work.

Chefs use tried and true recipes to prepare delicious meals. They may vary the spices or switch up some of the ingredients now and then, but they still create a plan (base recipe) before cooking.

Builders of steel drum instruments use a set of custom-made, oval and circle-shaped stencils of various sizes to trace the notes onto the face of a stretched barrelhead. I call this process “mapping” the notes. The stenciled notes provide the builder with a “map” (plan) to follow during the building process.

To build a happy life, you need a plan. Just like a homebuilder’s blueprint, a chef’s recipe, or a pan builder’s map, you need a well thought out foundation from which to start building. But there are three things to keep in mind while putting your plan together.

1. Write it Down

Keeping it all in your head might sound easier, but in reality, it isn’t, especially if your plan has any real meat to it. You won’t be able to remember all the moving parts without referring to a written document. It’s worth the time and effort to write your plan down.

Writing it down also helps you clarify your thinking, identify your priorities, be much more efficient, and hold yourself accountable. It’s hard to argue with a written document.

2. Take Your Time, but Keep It Simple

Quality planning takes time. It takes thought. So be patient with yourself. Don’t rush through it, but don’t overthink it either.

My experience has been that you will burn out on the planning process itself if you overthink your plan during the early planning stages. Besides, you won’t have all of the answers at first, so permit yourself to sketch out each step of your plan in one or two sentences at most. Bullet points are even better.

You can and should add more specifics later in the process, but only after you have mapped out an outline of your entire plan, reviewed it, and made adjustments as necessary for any obvious weaknesses and/or omissions.

3.Plan for All Areas of Your Life

Make sure that you plan for all areas of your life. There is no such thing as a separate “work-life” and “personal life.” There is only one You. And since each area of your life impacts your life’s other areas, you need to create a comprehensive plan.

As a writer about building a happy life, I use the happiest sounding instrument in the world – the steel drum “pan” – as a metaphor for life and happiness. As explained in my post, “The Notes of Your Life,” the steel drum represents You, and the individual notes on the pan represent the significant areas of your life.

Here are the notes on my pan:

Spirit (spiritual health)
Mind (emotional health)
Body (physical health)
Learning
Relationships
Work
Wealth & Abundance
Play

You may have different notes than I, and that’s fine. What’s important is to incorporate them all into your plan.

All Plans Come Down to This

Once you have determined what you want to build (see “See the Possibilities“), and you’ve stretched your barrelhead (see “Inside-out Personal Growth“), you are ready to create your plan.

There are many planning tools in the world, some of which are very complex and expensive, with lots of steps and accountability features. I’ve tried a few of these methods over the years, in both my professional and personal life. Still, I keep coming back to an inexpensive, straightforward method, which I outline below.

Answer the following questions for each note on your pan:

Why? You might be tempted to skip this question – don’t. If you can’t clearly answer Why you are doing each of the Whats in your plan, then maybe you need to rethink the What – is it even necessary?

Who? List yourself and anyone else who will be helping you.

What? Describe in a few words exactly What you are going to do.

When? This is very important! Give yourself a realistic deadline. For each “What,” assign a date by which you will have completed it. If it’s a large task, break it down into smaller tasks, assigning a deadline for completing each subtask. Otherwise, you know you’ll procrastinate. (Yes… I’m talking to You!)

Where? Location isn’t always a factor, but it does apply in some cases. If so, list Where each task will take place.

How? This is where many people tend to start writing a novel. It’s easy to do. Don’t spell out in great detail every step and sub-step of your plan. As noted above, provide a few keywords, phrases, or bullet points for each How. Specifics can be added later.

There’s No Such Thing as the Perfect Plan

When you have completed the above process for each of the significant areas of your life, pat yourself on the back. You’ve just completed a major step towards achieving your dreams.

Put it aside for a couple of days and then return to it with a fresh mind. Go back through it slowly, looking for obvious errors, weak logic, redundancy, etc. Fix the problems and add in more detail where needed.

Keep in mind – you will never have the “perfect plan.” And if you let it, the planning process will go on and on. So, do the best job you can with the information and resources you have and then move on to implementation.

Periodically Review Your Plan

I suggest reviewing your plan once a month. If needed, you can look at it more often, but don’t obsess over it – remember, it’s just a tool.

I also suggest doing a major, annual update to your plan.

My annual update occurs the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. I review my previous year’s plan and ask myself four questions:

What worked?
What didn’t work?
Why didn’t it work?
How can I do it better this year?

I look at my life from a new perspective. After all, I’m a year older and wiser – I’ve gained new insights that can be applied to my plan for the coming year.

Now for some tough love…

Let’s be honest – if you don’t take the time to map out your plan for each of the notes in your life, your dreams will probably remain just that – dreams. The act of writing down your plan provides you with clarity and focus, and it’s also a strong indicator of your level of commitment to “get ‘er done,” as Larry the Cable Guy would say.

If you won’t take the time to write your plan down, how committed are you really?

No wrong notes,

Mike

I hope that you have received something of value from this post. If so, check out “The Heat of Adversity.“

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