Has this ever happened to you?

You told your staff, or even your kids, what you wanted them to do.

You told them what you wanted to happen, how you wanted them to do it and when you wanted it done by.

Then you went on your busy way to do the things that they aren’t yet able to accomplish.

You come back and much to your surprise, the whole thing has gotten completely off course – or even worse – NOT DONE AT ALL!

How does that happen?

Most often in the explanation. We so often take for granted that people understand what we are thinking. And even beyond that, we actually think that we know what we are thinking. Huh?

Yep. We often leap before we look and launch off into our future without fully planning the route to get there.

Have you ever given someone what you thought to be clear and concise direction and they asked a half dozen fantastic questions about it? Information you really should have given them to begin with?

And what’s worse… you have to think to come up with the answers because you now realize (on the spot) that you hadn’t thought that part through?

If you think that maybe I’m talking to everyone but you – prove me wrong. Or to explain fully (since this blog is about that) even if you think this is you – pull out your written goals right now.

What? They aren’t written down? Well go back to last week’s blog and do that. Then…

Take some time. Write a plan to get there.

But write it in pencil because the plan may change a dozen times and that is okay!

We need a well thought out plan in order to launch out toward our goals. Then our plans may need adjusted as we walk them out.

We have been building and renovating our new church property. We had detailed architectural plans before we ever broke ground. Those plans change almost weekly.

As I walk through and details slip past me, or as things take shape and we think there is a better way than what is beginning to emerge, we change.

But we could have never started the process, gotten buy-in, developed a timeline, counted the cost or allocated resources without the months of planning.

Now it’s your turn.

In goal-setting we reach for the stars. In planning we try to figure out how to get there. Write down everything you can think about to reach you goal.

A place to start might be…

• Will you need to research?
• Where? For how long?
• Alone? Should you reach out? To whom?

Are there more questions that we should be asking?

Share them here to help the rest of us plan to reach our goals!

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