Have you ever made a plan — start eating healthy, exercise every day, get more consistent with bizdev or content creation — starting March 1st… and then the plan didn't work? Or you didn't work for the plan. Life got in the way. Stuff happened.
Most of my clients have been there many times before our work together.
Heck, I've been there many times myself.
And here's what we now do differently that sets the plan for success every time.
First, we don't stop at planning. We go straight into prepping for the plan.
Think about it: imagine Navy SEALs heading into a mission with zero prep, just a goal, an intention, winging it when they wake up Monday morning. Sounds ridiculous, right? We'd never accept that for a high-stakes mission with a team. But when it comes to our own goals, the things we're doing solo for our own stakes, that's exactly what most of us do - winging the plan. And it's exactly why we fail.
This step-by-step process below, that I use with my clients will make your follow-through as reliable as a Navy SEALs mission:
Intention: Why are we doing this? What's the goal? How will you know you're doing it? What's a movie of you doing it, so detailed that I can see it in my own head?
Plan: What's the exact step-by-step, from prep all the way to full execution?
Prep [where most plans go to die]: What needs to be in place so that when the day comes, execution just falls into place? Just slides into your unfolding day effortlessly?
Let's say your plan is to improve your eating starting March 1st. Before we begin, we walk through everything:
What exactly are you going to eat? When? Where will you get the food? When? How will you prep it, and when will you cook and prep it for easy eating even if it's on the go, so that on March 1st all you have to do is eat it? What happens on your busy mornings? What do you eat when you're out? When you're running late and have to sprint to a meeting or catch a bus? What are your go-to emergency snacks? What do you order when you're at a restaurant?...
We poke as many holes in the plan as possible before we start, so that just like a Navy SEAL, no matter what life throws at you, you're prepared to keep going.
Accountability: Who's going to keep an eye on you? Who can you "enroll" to help you execute, so you don't feel like you're on this mission alone?
People show up differently, and do a lot more when the right accountability is in place.
Research from the NIH shows:
“Accountability significantly increases adherence (e.g., in health treatments, it has been shown to increase adherence by over 100% in some cases)”
Measure / Track / Reflect / Adjust… and keep going.
Life won't follow your plan.
Some things you were sure would work won't.
Some things won't give you the result you expected.
And that's okay.
You learn. You adjust. You prep again. You do better. You repeat.
And eventually - you get what you want.
Over to you, dear reader,
As we're heading into March and you're doing some new season planning, ask yourself: what step might I be skipping that's making my plans fail more than they could?
PS If you lead a team or a family unit and want to help them succeed with their plans, take a look at whether you have a similar process in place for them. Help set them up for success.