Good day, dear friends!
Today I want to continue the topic about the importance of planning. As we already talked about yesterday,
planning helps us to discover our purpose in life and direct our efforts towards the fulfilment of this purpose.
I would like us to see a few more reasons why success is impossible without a skill to plan success. How does planning benefit us?
- Planning helps to effectively communicate our vision, desires and our expectations to others.
Planning not only gives us a better understanding of the task, it also helps us to effectively pass on our wishes and expectations to others who will team with us to carry out the task. How can you ask for help from others, if you do not have a clear understanding of what you really want to accomplish? During the process of planning, your ideas will become more specific and clearer, and then you can effectively pass them on to others.
- Planning helps us pray for our goal effectively and specifically.
When we have a correct and clear understanding of our task, it is easier for us to pray specifically and practice our faith, because we know what we want or expect. Occasionally our prayers are too general because we do not know ourselves what we want. Planning takes away all the confusions from our minds and makes our prayers effective and active.
- Planning makes us submit ourselves to a definite plan of action.
Planning makes us submit ourselves to a definite plan of action instead of occasionally drifting away from our goals. If you want to be successful, you will have to discipline yourself. But, what does disciplining oneself mean? This means to submit oneself to a definite order and rules. Where there are no rules, discipline is out of the equation. For instance, if I have a rule to get up at 6 o’clock every morning, my discipline is to submit myself to this rule. The same way, by planning, you make an action plan, which forms the platform for discipline.This is what Paul thought about when he wrote:
„Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.” (1Cor 9:25).
All who compete for a prize like sportsmen or athletes put themselves under a definite discipline. Not only do they have a vision about their goals, they also decide for themselves to have training schedules that they submit themselves to later. They deliberately restrict themselves from some things in order to reach their goals. Do you discipline yourself? Are there rules defined in your life that you submit yourself to? Are you reaching the godly aims set before you as a result of these rules?
Do not forget that there will be no success without discipline, but planning helps us become more disciplined.
Planning and success go hand in hand; therefore, whoever does not plan his or her success is automatically planning defeat. Remember: If you do not plan your success, you are still planning something; only in this case, you are planning your defeat!(For more detailed study of this topic, I recommend that you read my book “Too Busy to Live Right”). May the Lord help you enter your godly destiny! Blessings to you from the Lord Jesus Christ! Pastor Rufus Ajiboye
