I don’t know if this is normal to any of you that are reading this but my wife wakes up at arbitrary times of the morning and decides that it is time to bake! To top it all, I must now get up and help slice the biscuits, or in this morning’s case, slice the custard slices. So at 03:00 this morning I staggered out of bed, not sure what was awaiting me, but help I must.
At around 04:30 I was “requested” to cut the custard slices and I have developed quite a skill at cutting biscuits and custard slices and the like. I mark the start point and then the end point. Using a straight edge on a hot pan has serious consequences, both to the straight edge and my hands, so I have developed a method of marking both ends of the pan. I then start cutting from the first mark and, keeping the end point in view, I cut to the end. I have managed to develop this to the point where there is very little deviation from the desired path between the two points.
Now this might sound strange, but at 04:30 it dawned on me that cutting custard slices was very much like everything we do in life, Including life itself. If you don’t know where you are starting from and where you are going to, you have very little chance of getting it right.
Without conscious decisions about where you are starting and where you are going, you have very little chance at succeeding in your (non-existent) plan. You might succeed in something per chance, but not by plan. As Jim Rohn said “If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are, you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much”.
But being human, we can always find an excuse as to why we did not succeed, the government (always a good one), the big boys blocking you out, unlucky and the list goes on but, WE are never on that list.
- The truth is that we should truly head the list. We are usually the greatest problem and should be addressed first.
- How many of us have a plan for our life? Not that mental wish list, but a written plan where we sit and make considered choices
- Do we plan where we want to be at age 60yrs?
- How do we get to that point?
- Do we have a 5yr, 10yr and 20yr plan?
Without these plans for our lives, our families and our businesses, we are like a boat on the water without a rudder, going as the wind takes us. The thing is, we cannot blame the government, or the lack of opportunities (the wind) for us not succeeding.
And to quote the late Jim Rohn again, “It is the set of the sails, not the direction of the wind that determines which way we will go”.
