There's the tendency to see the time taken to craft a plan as a waste and most times, we want to dive right into action and get things done. As much as getting stuff done is very desirable, taking time out to craft a plan almost always pay off.
If you're a dreamer or you've got something you're looking forward to doing or achieving, most times this thing always tends to appear bigger than us and we often get intimidated by the sheer size of the task. But what happens when we take a few steps back to analyze the whole thing and break it down into smaller bits? That action is called planning.
According to Wikipedia,
A plan is typically any diagram or list of steps with timing and resources, used to achieve an objective to do something. ... It is commonly understood as a temporal set of intended actions through which one expects to achieve a goal
"We can never defeat the enemy. It's just not possible!"
"Yes we can! We just need to infiltrate their camp."
"How can we infiltrate enemy camp?"
"We could win the trust of the gatekeeper?"
"Yeah! Even though that might take a while."
"Exactly. And once we do that, we plant ourselves in their midst."
"And we take them down!"
"Yay!"
"But hold on, how do we win the gatekeeper's trust?"
Err... all of a sudden, taking down the enemy isn't all that impossible anymore.
The same process applies to any other goal we might have in life. Planning won't take out the need for you to work hard, but it'll make the whole task a lot easier to conquer than when it was just a big monster standing in your way. Winning the trust of the gatekeeper won't be an easy feat but you're rest assured than once that is done, you'll be a lot closer to your goal of infiltrating the enemy camp and eventually taking them down. Instead of just barging into the enemy territory guns blazing!
Planning helps you take calculated risks with an idea of what the next few steps would be. You shouldn't be too much in a hurry that you gloss over this phase. Even when it comes to writing, having a layout before hand helps make the writing process flow a lot more smoothly. You have a general idea in your head and then you plot the steps you want your readers to follow in order to help them arrive at the destination you prepared for them.
A plan doesn't always have to be written down although it's said that the faintest pen is better than the sharpest memory. If your plan is a long term one, then it's advisable to pen it down somewhere you can always refer to as time goes on.
Did you know that? 🤔
Bonus
And... tough decisions are not all that tough to make once you have a reason.
