Plan your work then work your plan

Hopefully we all surprise ourselves from time to time with our achievements, regardless of how big or small they may be.

I’m in a place that I just could not see myself some twenty years ago. Hoped and deeply wished, yes. But to actually get there… Here! A bit mind blown.

All my life my excuses trumped my actionables. Overthinking has always been a part of my daily life and boy has it been so exhausting.

It’s taken a very long time and an array of actionables to get to where I am today. Nevertheless, so worth the uncertain journey.

I think we can all relate to overthinking, even when you may not think you’re guilty of it. I remember reading about overthinking and I would shrug at myself and not pay much mind to it. However, one thing I’ve learned from my brother is that sometimes we need to let that wine marinate in our mouth for a bit before we make a judgement call. Indeed I found that my definition of overthinking was just not on point.

We all want to be healthy right? Eat better, jog, go to the gym, quit bad habits, and the list goes on and on. But just the thought of it makes us exhausted. Once we make it to the gym we are generally so productive and feel great about working out. But, man it’s so hard to get to that gym door. What about going for that healthy jog? Your brain just seems to throw nothing but excuses at you instead of giving you energy to go. Eating healthy? Nah, too much work, too much money, change just isn’t fun. And so on and so on and so on.

Our brains don’t like change or pain. Regardless of the benefits. Our minds are extremely powerful and more likely than not our minds will win the battle against actionables.

As I’ve gotten older I’ve come to the conclusion that progress equals happiness to me. Progress is forward movement so to me this also means change and we know how much our brains enjoy this.

I’ve managed to work out my progress muscle now for quite a number of years. From little wins to bigger ones.

Although I have a pretty clear picture of what I want for my future, I’m not sure there’s a clear destination. Nevertheless, I feel I am closer than ever now.

I believe the more I progress, the luckier I seem to get. I think there are many ways to get to becoming successful and happy. Obviously life is also about definitions. Success to me is reached when you are truly proud of yourself.

My method has been fairly simple. Create change over and over until I feel I need it in order to move forward rather than fight it because I hate it. So I planned my work. I wanted to master adapting to change. So I changed myself drastically. One change after the next and when I got in a rut and fell stagnant I called myself out, picked myself up and continued to work my plan.

Plan your work and work your plan right? Some things were easier than others but in the end, all of it was Much easier than I thought it was going to be. Maybe it was a combination of reasons for this but overall I believe it was because we overthink everything that brings change and pain regardless of the benefits it may bring.

Two things I made sure I didn’t put in-between the planning and the working were overthinking and excuses. Do I catch myself doing these at times? Absolutely but then I have to remember one of my favorite mantras, “If I know better, why am I not doing better?”

It’s all about execution. Execute the plan. My plan was change and change I did. From small to drastic. Whatever it takes. Ideas are great but without execution they are nothing.

At some point I realized that tomorrow I’m likely going to be tired.

I’m going to be tired even if I sleep all day today.

I’m definitely going to be tired if I wake up early today, work out, go for a run and go to work.

But what am I going to be proud of tomorrow? The latter for sure.

If success to me is progress and to be proud of myself, I am pretty freaking successful right now.

Stop overthinking and making excuses. Plan the work you need to do on you. Then execute it with full force. Trust me, tomorrow you’ll be proud of yourself and nothing beats that feeling on a daily.

Cheers,

Live responsibly!