The roadmap to success is simple. Follow the plan.
This is a very obvious but important statement that has taken four decades for me to fully realize. Success in every aspect of your life is directly related to getting out of your own way and following and executing a plan. Plain and simple. Boom. It’s that easy.
But is it? Why don’t we finish the plans that will contribute towards our success? What stops us?
I have come to realize that we have access to roadmaps to achieve success in any area of our lives. We can connect with others who have trodden the path before us, we can look at success stories, we can ask experts, we can Google it. In this modern age we have all the information literally at our fingertips — the blueprints to success.
Case in point. I have always told myself I am not a runner, but I try and keep relatively active. During COVID-19 I got to a point where all exercise facilities closed. The gym which had been my anchor for mental wellness shut and for a few weeks I was a bit lost. I took it as an invitation to sit on the couch and eat chocolate. When I started to get back pain from the couch surfing, I decided this was not sustainable and looked up what other exercise I could do. The only thing I could come up with was running. Still mildly traumatized by high school cross country runs, I groaned internally. I begrudgingly made a plan to run and enlisted a friend to help. We decided to run together doing a couch to 5km nine-week plan. This seemed legit as I was literally on the couch. 5km however non-stop running seemed undoable — like a lifetime away.
We put a plan together — found an old UK NHS Couch to 5km training plan online and followed it three times a week — rain or shine. We kept each other accountable and rewarded ourselves afterwards with a coffee and good conversation. We felt like giving up a few times, and although sometimes a struggle, we kept with it and followed the plan. The struggle was mostly mental we discovered. There were a few physical ailments here and there — tight calves…my old knee injury was tweaked — but mostly we were battling our own will. Our own minds. Our bodies were more than capable taking us through the program step by step. Thousands had already done it and our bodies were not special. They could also do it. Our minds though gave us 1,000 excuses about why it was better to stay cozy in bed, that we weren’t strong enough, energetic enough, fit enough, we didn’t have enough time, hadn’t eaten enough, had better things to do, had a slight headache. And so the list goes on. Despite this, we kept with the plan.
The nine-week program ended last week and now we are extending it. Running longer. Last week I ran 15km in a week. Did I tell you I am not a runner? I am still in shock at the simplicity of it. The simplicity of getting out of my own way and following a plan.
The idea of getting out of your own mind to execute a plan can apply to anything in life. Want to write a book? Make a plan. Want to revamp your diet and get healthy? Pick a plan and do it. Want to redecorate a bathroom? Make a plan.
The fact that I had a plan to run and didn’t have to think about it, was key. I made the decision and then stuck to it. I didn’t have to keep ruminating about it, debating it. I just had to do it, whether I wanted to or not. Bit by bit. Until the end of the plan. No room for questioning, no doubt. Just small action steps until my goal.
This I found really liberating and it saved so much wasted mental energy.
Then I thought about what other aspects of life I could apply this to, and the list seems endless.
Following a plan can also apply to following your intuition, which I have been trying to do more of lately. The idea of training your mind to debate and discern at the beginning of a project, and then committing to get out of the way during the process, I think is a valuable skill. If we have chosen to embark on a particular path — mine is writing a book — then just make a plan and write the darn book! There is so much energy wasted in getting in our own way second-guessing, ruminating and doubting when a decision has been made. Instead, make a plan, chart the steps, get an accountability buddy if you need to, and move along bit by bit until you have reached your goal. That is how success is made — by taking small action steps consistently towards your dreams.
So whatever dream you have, big or small, make a plan. Commit to debating the pros and cons of it at the start and then try to silence the critic in the execution phase. When the critic pops up you can gently remind it that you have made a decision (with its help) and now you are fulfilling a promise to yourself to keep the plan and achieve your dreams.
