Do you know what your desired outcome is?

There is a saying, “If you don’t know what road to take, any road will take you there.”  And it’s true.  I’ve experienced it.  Sometimes I just jump in and start something… and then I start again and again when it isn’t working right because I haven’t spent time to do any planning.

Determining what you are doing and why you are doing it—in advance—goes a long way to getting your desired outcome.  Most of my business clients want to make more money.  OK, great, that’s a fabulous outcome.  But when I ask them what they are doing to get more money, they often can’t answer me right away!  They just know on a vague level they want and need to make more money.

So the good news is they know their outcome.  Next they need to break that down to specifics.  Once they are specific it’s easy for them to plan out how they will go about making more money.  Do they need to raise their rates?  Do they need a better way to collect on their invoices?  Do they need to do some inner work on themselves so they stop sabotaging their own efforts?  Do they need money systems and a solid foundation in order to reach their goals (a topic I’ve talked about before)?

Planning is often thought of as boring and so many people skip it.  Yet, planning is an essential part of any success both in business and in personal life.  Planning can be fun, it can be energizing and it can be easy.  Sure it takes time but anything worthwhile does!  Changing a bad habit to a good one, obedience training your dog, and preparing Thanksgiving dinner all take time, but would you not do them simply because you have to put forth some effort?  Of course not!  Not if you want results and success, that is.

Take the time to plan and you will achieve your desired outcome.  There is another saying, “When you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”  I don’t know about you, but I’d rather plan to succeed!