October 8, 2003

Implementing Plans: Easy To Say, Harder To Do
by Marcel Chartier

The title really speaks for itself. Implementing plans can be difficult, but there are ways of making the implementation easier. The first "tip" is make the plan a modest one, don't get ostentatious with your plan, if it requires too much effort to maintain, you will never stick to it. Don't make the problem a mountain when it can easily be a small hill, don't try to move a mountain, move a shovelful at a time.

The key to success is to stick with the plan. This is where most plans fall apart. Most of us have tried to stick to an exercise plan or a diet plan. We stick to it for awhile and then we break away. Then we rationalize since we didn't keep it up then our commitment is "over", and well, "no point I guess" in continuing with that. When actually, if we began again in earnest, our lapse would be just a small pause in the process, not an end to the process. Getting up, dusting off and going should be treated as just an event in the overall process and not an end point. We get too hung up on goals setting than achieving them, and we don't focus enough on the process, or the "process of process". As a result, we perceive stumbles in the process of getting to our goals as failure, when its only a failure if you stop.

Implementing the plan successfully means sometimes you need to change the plan. In some cases you may need to lower goals in order to achieve them. The worst thing one can do is to stop achieving success, be it ever so small. I would rather accomplish something small towards a goal every day than hope to achieve large leaps in a short time. Why? Because I know I can achieve the smaller everyday activity. I don't know if I will ever get to the larger task. Too much time and planning needs to go into the larger task. Too many arrangements and lead time is needed in comparison to the smaller task. That is why one task gets done and the other gets put off. Choose the easily achievable smaller task, it will get done!