IMPORTANCE OF A PLAN

In addition to being necessary for success, a plan offers structure, predictability, and accountability. You know what to do and what not to do in advance. You have no excuses. A plan makes you accountable for the outcomes and serves as a map for achieving your goals. Without a plan, you will meander through the fog, not knowing where you are going or how to get there.

When working with my clients, some people resist establishing definable objectives or creating a plan to get there. It seems that some people would rather do just about anything other than sit down and define their goals and plans. I will tell you right now, without a plan, you have a 0% chance of succeeding at losing weight or getting fit.

If you wanted to start a business and needed money from a bank, you’d have to provide documentation about the type of business you intended to establish, its potential, and what kind of a payoff could be expected. The same holds true for achieving your goals. Only in this case, the business is YOU. Ask yourself:

• Where are you now?
• What do you want to achieve?
• How are you going to get there?
• What’s the return (happiness, fitness, weight loss) on your investment (commitment, time, effort)?

It is as simple as needing a well-thought-out plan. In fact, a plan is the most important reason why 80% of my clients keep their weight off long-term, versus the 1% of people using different, ineffectual methods.

Why Do I Need a Plan? The Rest of My Life Is Fine!

I have heard many clients say, in one form or another:

“I am so great in every other area of my life. I have a successful career, I am responsible, I am admired, I am in control…well, except when it comes to eating. It is the one thing I cannot control.”

For some people who are high achievers and have all the details of their life under wraps, eating becomes a safety valve – a way to deal with the stresses that come from such an orderly, controlled life. Overeating is the symptom, showing us the person is not in control, does not have a handle on things, and it is all an illusion. Overeating becomes a message for someone to examine his or her entire life, not just this one aspect.

A plan allows you to take a deep look at what you are really about and create a reasonable, doable plan for becoming the person in body, mind, and spirit that you have always wanted to be.

THE PLAN HELPS YOU SELF-COACH

This goes back to self-coaching: how you want to be coached. You create the plan and coach yourself by making sure you stay on course. Like anything any of us do, you will not be perfect. You will have small failures along the way. But with a plan in place, you can quickly get back on course. If you do not have a plan, you will see a small failure as an overall failure and quit because you have nothing to fall back on. If you do have a plan, you know exactly what your goals are and how you are going to achieve them…no matter what.

CREATING A SUCCESS PLAN

Your odds of succeeding improve when you create a success plan. The definition of “planning” states that it is a detailed proposal for doing or achieving something. If you think about it, this could mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. To me, it means direction. It means identifying what I have to get done.

You have to have a plan! How many times have you heard that before? Now, don’t make a plan just for the sake of making a plan. You make a plan to focus you, to move you forward. Your plan has to contain action to be any good; otherwise, you’ll just have analysis paralysis.

To be successful, you need to know what your next step is. It should be a clearly defined process. It all comes down to your plan. Success is created by making plans for the future, then acting on that plan every day. If you have clarity, then you can move faster. This doesn’t mean that things won’t disrupt your plan or make you change them. Your plan is your guide, your blueprint.

Reasons why you need a plan

1. Gives you clear direction
2. Eliminates distractions
3. Prevents scatterbrain
4. Allows you to keep yourself accountable so you are moving in the direction of your goals

As you formulate your plan, ask yourself what are your non-negotiables. What do you stand for? The actions you take on a daily and long-term basis should reflect what you value. It seems simple enough, but people can act in direct opposition to what they believe in.

THE BATTLE PLAN

“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.” ⎯ Friedrich Nietzsche

Imagine if an army went to war without a battle plan in place. You would expect failure, right? Failure wouldn’t just be probable; it would be definite. The same holds for a business, and the same holds for you. If you do not have a solid plan that you can follow to ensure your success, you will ultimately fail. You may have some successes along the way, but in the end, the weight will come back, and you will be back exactly where you started. I have learned this the hard way in terms of my weight loss, fitness goals, and my business.

THE LIFE PLAN

Your overall purpose and goals in life. This is a big, macro look at what you want out of life. What do you want in your career? For your family? For your life? For your health? This is the plan that gets you closer to a completed cycle of action. Goals, targets, dreams. The thoughts you think control everything, and you need to focus on them. One little shift in your thinking can create a mental trigger that drives new actions. Affirming what is possible daily creates the motivation to act.

THE DAILY PLAN

What do you need to do every day to create your life and sales plan? What are you going to do today? Write it down. Every time you write out your day, you’ll have more direction and certainty. Planning your day gives you control over it. This leads to control over your customers or contacts, which equals income. And this strengthens your sales plan.

If you can’t exert control, you can’t make a prediction. You have to take responsibility for your life by controlling it. Using these three plans will create certainty in your life, which leads to more confidence. When you are confident, you feel motivated – that’s when you stop thinking and take action. Success is a process. Follow the steps and put in the work.

(https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/314959) By Grant Cardone

The “Oh Shit Factor”

Below create an Oh Shit Weight (OSW). This is the point after you have reached your goal or lost a ton of weight. It is the point in which you have gained back 5-10 pounds. When you have set an OSW and the plan for that kicks in, it is reached.