Planning is important and I don't think we can dispute that, especially with the way the world is going and how resources are limited. One of the mistakes most people make is that they think prayer is planning. Prayer is not planning and I can tell you that we have countries that don't pray as much as we pray in Nigeria but they are succeeding because they have a structure in place; they have a plan and they are working according to that plan.
If prayer is planning then I can boast that Nigeria should be the most successful country in the world. We pray too much that we have little or no plan on the ground. We keep asking God to give us what He has given us common sense to solve. Don't get me wrong, prayer is important and good but it can never replace the place of adequate planning. Those who fail to plan would surely plan to fail, that's how the adage goes.
With the resources we have in Nigeria, if only we have the right structure and plan in place, we would not have any problem competing with the best in the world. We pray so much but act very little. If only we can act more then the prayer we pray would hold more power because we have a wide range of things to pray about due to the issues we have on the ground and that's why our prayers are lengthy. Someone joked after travelling out of the country that he no longer have to pray for light or good roads and other basic amenities and his prayer has been narrowed down.
Nothing is worth starting without a plan and you need prayer to have the strength and gain the direction you need to go but prayers won't be the one you should substitute for what you need to do. It's like a student hoping to succeed in an examination. If he or she has no plan to study and put in the effort, there is no amount of prayer he or she prays that would work. God is not a magician, He is never dishonest and He understands the process too. When He was creating the earth, there was a plan in place and he followed through with His plans.
Imagine if you decide to build a house without putting a building plan in place. How do you work to perfection when you don't have a structure on how you want things to look? Having a plan is to have a picture of the future that you can work towards. It would also be useless when we don't work in line with the plan. The issue is that we leave a lot to chance in this part of the world. We keep saying what would be would be, forgetting that what would be can be birthed by our intentional actions too. No one ever succeeds by waiting or leaving things to chance. When the chance doesn't come, think on your feet and make a chance happen. God answer prayers, yes but humans answers to planning.
If you want to draw up a good plan you need to be able to reason. Never substitute your ability to reason for prayer. God gave us a mind so we can allow Him to rest. We need to elevate our reasoning ability and God gave us the ability to reason for a reason (see what I did there? Hahaha).
You can't draw up a good plan if you lack access to information. We all need to develop a hunger for success and we can't reason more than the knowledge we have at our disposal. You can't plan more than the information you have at your disposal so we need to thirst for knowledge...seek information so you can draw up better plans.
We need to trade available time for knowledge and resources. You will get more value for your time by reading. Investment in knowledge means you are paying yourself for the future but the sad reality is most people won't even read. They want to eat their cake and have it but the world doesn't work that way.
There would always be distractions but we need to learn how to separate ourselves from the crowd. Spending time alone to reflect helps a great deal and allows us to make informed decisions. Success is a matter of luck if only you ask the failure.
Most people won't plan because they are always waiting for others to help them. They keep thinking and living in fear of where support would come from rather than trying. Regardless of who you know and who you don't know, still, plan. Most people don't have the needed mentality to go through with their plans. Just as we have those with a weak mentality, we also have those who are lazy to do anything and they would rather compare themselves to others.
Stop comparing yourself with others. Look at your own life and start planning. Lazy people miss a great flight in their lives. Everything is the fault of others but they won't take responsibility for their actions. If we lack value for time we cannot plan. We have to learn how to redeem the time and make every moment count. Those who waste an hour in the morning might search for it the whole day and not find it.
Discipline is everything in life and a lack of discipline to go through with your plans would make your plans fail.
This post also appeared here and it's my original work on my blog on Read.Cash. You will find this post later (after posting it here) on my Whaleshares, Steemit, Blurt, Tipestry, Torum, UHive and Serey account, all with the same username; Olawalium.
Thank you for your time.
My pen doesn't bleed, it speaks, with speed and ease.
Still me,
My tongue is like the pen of a ready writer.
Olawalium; (Love's chemical content, in human form). Take a dose today: doctor's order.