RE: Is it possible for someone to have a plan and not have one at the same time?
February 28, 2019 at 6:04 pm
(This post was last modified: February 28, 2019 at 6:24 pm by bennyboy.)
I realized a long time ago that if you're of normal intelligence, the best path to success is:
(1) analyze you current state
(2) decide how you want to change it
(3) make steps to do it
(4) do them
(5) repeat 1-4
In my experience, there are a lot of things that can go wrong along the way.
You might find that on paper, certain steps are obvious, but in practice, they are so abhorrent to you that you must struggle internally to go through with them. For example, your goal might be to make X$ / year, and you know that lawyers on average make that much. But to get into law, you need a Bachelor's Degree, so you enroll in university. Then you find yourself falling asleep in class because it's all just so damned boring. Now, you've got $50k in debt and you'd rather slit your wrists than attend another Legal Ethics class or whatever. Bad situation to be in. You made a mistake-- not considering the kind of life you want WHILE chasing that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
You might find that intermediary goals are necessary, and get so entrenched in mastering them than you never get on to the next step. For example, before going to school, you need to save say $100k. You decide to save $12k / year for 8 years. But in doing that, you realize that to save that much you'll need a small business of some kind, so you invest a few thousand in renting a small food truck. Then 5 years later, you have your food truck business going pretty well, but you can't bring yourself to step away and restart as a college student.
But for me, by far (like a million times), the biggest problem is procrastination. Believe me, Godot never comes. If you aren't excited about jumping out of bed and taking the first step on your path in life today, right here, right now, you won't. "The new school year starts next September, so I think I'll start researching after Easter" or whatever is fail; the correct time to start is always right now. The solution for this, by the way, is not to save up your psychic energy until you can trigger a major event-- it's to make very small and achievable goals every day. If you really have nothing going on, start with making your bed as soon as you get out of it every day, and visiting a new cafe for your morning coffee. Then add new little goals. It doesn't take long to get the ball rolling and feel "Hey. . . now I have some good momentum, I think I'm ready to tackle that bigger job."
One hint: a great way to learn what you need to do is to ask someone. People will often answer questions that they aren't technically required to answer-- but they will VERY often answer them anyway, or put you in touch with someone who can. For example, when you go in to get your first student loan payment, ask your banker "What steps do you think I need to take to get to a place where I can make $100k / year?" You might be surprised to find that the banker herself does, and that she can recommend a more realistic or more enjoyable path than the one you had in mind. She might also look at your financials and have some little-known bursaries or scholarships that she can recommend you apply for. Really, it's amazing how much you can learn if you just ask people to give you information.
Or, when you meet your new teacher on their first day of class: "What will I need to do in your class to get an A? If I slip up on a couple tests, is there anything I might do for extra credit? I REALLY want an A, can I visit your office every week to get your advice?"
Or, better yet, BEFORE you apply at a school, go in and ask professors at the school exactly what you can do to maximize your chances of acceptance. How much do they weight extra-curriculars vs. grades? And GET NAMES of professors, so during your application interview, you can say, "I talked to Professor Brady, and she was so nice that I've already read her book. I hope that I'll be able to take her classes when I get to 2nd year." You'd be surprised how often human relationships can trump little things like a B average
--edit--
Holy crap, I just realized I'm writing my next book!
(1) analyze you current state
(2) decide how you want to change it
(3) make steps to do it
(4) do them
(5) repeat 1-4
In my experience, there are a lot of things that can go wrong along the way.
You might find that on paper, certain steps are obvious, but in practice, they are so abhorrent to you that you must struggle internally to go through with them. For example, your goal might be to make X$ / year, and you know that lawyers on average make that much. But to get into law, you need a Bachelor's Degree, so you enroll in university. Then you find yourself falling asleep in class because it's all just so damned boring. Now, you've got $50k in debt and you'd rather slit your wrists than attend another Legal Ethics class or whatever. Bad situation to be in. You made a mistake-- not considering the kind of life you want WHILE chasing that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
You might find that intermediary goals are necessary, and get so entrenched in mastering them than you never get on to the next step. For example, before going to school, you need to save say $100k. You decide to save $12k / year for 8 years. But in doing that, you realize that to save that much you'll need a small business of some kind, so you invest a few thousand in renting a small food truck. Then 5 years later, you have your food truck business going pretty well, but you can't bring yourself to step away and restart as a college student.
But for me, by far (like a million times), the biggest problem is procrastination. Believe me, Godot never comes. If you aren't excited about jumping out of bed and taking the first step on your path in life today, right here, right now, you won't. "The new school year starts next September, so I think I'll start researching after Easter" or whatever is fail; the correct time to start is always right now. The solution for this, by the way, is not to save up your psychic energy until you can trigger a major event-- it's to make very small and achievable goals every day. If you really have nothing going on, start with making your bed as soon as you get out of it every day, and visiting a new cafe for your morning coffee. Then add new little goals. It doesn't take long to get the ball rolling and feel "Hey. . . now I have some good momentum, I think I'm ready to tackle that bigger job."
One hint: a great way to learn what you need to do is to ask someone. People will often answer questions that they aren't technically required to answer-- but they will VERY often answer them anyway, or put you in touch with someone who can. For example, when you go in to get your first student loan payment, ask your banker "What steps do you think I need to take to get to a place where I can make $100k / year?" You might be surprised to find that the banker herself does, and that she can recommend a more realistic or more enjoyable path than the one you had in mind. She might also look at your financials and have some little-known bursaries or scholarships that she can recommend you apply for. Really, it's amazing how much you can learn if you just ask people to give you information.
Or, when you meet your new teacher on their first day of class: "What will I need to do in your class to get an A? If I slip up on a couple tests, is there anything I might do for extra credit? I REALLY want an A, can I visit your office every week to get your advice?"
Or, better yet, BEFORE you apply at a school, go in and ask professors at the school exactly what you can do to maximize your chances of acceptance. How much do they weight extra-curriculars vs. grades? And GET NAMES of professors, so during your application interview, you can say, "I talked to Professor Brady, and she was so nice that I've already read her book. I hope that I'll be able to take her classes when I get to 2nd year." You'd be surprised how often human relationships can trump little things like a B average
--edit--
Holy crap, I just realized I'm writing my next book!
