absorbed by unimportant aspects of a single project when we’d be better off turning our attention to other things. Having a plan is not just enough.

You need to have a clear idea about your goals. You can’t take action if your ideas are not clear. How can you lord over an idea you don’t understand? The key to achieving your plans objective is to have a clear idea. You need to know where you’re going to. In life if I have an idea of my destination it means I have other route to the same destination but I choose to take the best route and if I did and there is an unforeseen traffic jam either caused by an accident, a road work or anything I still have the choice to make a change of route. When you have a clear idea about your goals no matter the nature of obstacles that is being thrown on you the fact remains that you know how to navigate through and get to your destination. It could now take longer but eventually you will get there.

When planning to achieve your gaols your thought should not be isolated. You need to map out what will happen and have plans in place in dealing with what will happen. I know there could be heavy traffic in the planned route I have decided to take but I have other routes in mind just in case. Some could take me longer but considering the delays I am having in the best route, the longer route could even save me more valuable time and I could save in gas. The longer route may at the end turn out to be the best. With this in mind you should be open to options.

Many people in life run into traffic and because they have no other options or are too scared to leave the traffic jam and find another route they sit there and waste time, they swear and abuse the town planners. Meanwhile they are the ones not bold enough to take risk. They are not willing to go through the unknown.

If you are determined to achieve your plans then be open minded and be ready to take risk. Be ready to drive through the unknown. Be willing to take longer route but at the end when you count your losses and blessings you will be grateful because you arrived at your destination at the end and got the result you wanted. There are far too many things in life we do not anticipate that will try to pull us way from achieving our gaols. For you to achieve your goals you must be very hungry and the hunger will make you very determined to achieve your goals. With this determination nothing can discourage or stop you. You know that the only thing that will be affected is the set time planned but it is very important that at the end you get to your destination.

There are people, events, activities that need to be involved. For me to plan my journey my smartphone comes handy. My smartphone uses APPs created by third parties to give me the information I need. There is a live GPS on my phone that gives, me traffic update along the route am driving so I know that there is traffic on my current route. My smartphone gives me option of other routes and their ETA (estimated time of arrival) as a suggestion. It is down on me to accept anyone of the suggestions and immediately the navigator on my smartphone applies the new direction and start updating my journey planner.

Other people are often needed to help you achieve your long-term and short-term goals. What help do you think you will need and do you already know people who you think might be able to help? If you already know who you’d like to be involved, make sure you ask them early on and get their commitment to helping you. If you don’t know – how will you go about finding the right people? Other people will never be as committed as you are to achieving your goals. They can therefore be one of the biggest risks to a project. So, establish early on if they can help, when they will be available and how long they think they will need to do what you need them to do. You need to plan around their availability.

My smartphone did not come into play when I needed it to just like that. Over time I have downloaded the APPs, done my research to know the best of the APPs needed and configure these APPs to my phone setting. Now the APP is doing the job I want it to do. You need to know people that will help you achieve your plans even before your plans are created. You look at the end and start planning the beginning from the end. You must understand their role and function and know when they are done so you can stay focus.

When I have a journey to make say maybe for an interview or a presentation, I know the time I should be already seated down with those involve but my journey could be an hour so I plan and give myself two hours or more depending on traffic or other relevant conditions that could affect my timing. I have a deadline so I must ensure I plan ahead to meet my deadline. As a matter of fact I want to be there before my deadline.

The same applies when working to actualize your plans. Some dates are immovable and must be met, such as application deadlines. Any short-term plans will therefore need to be built with these deadlines in mind. There will be instances where there are no fixed deadlines. Set the deadlines and give yourself the advantage to succeed. This is very essential if you must achieve your goals.

I know the cost of fuel I need to drive down to this place of interview. Here in the UK I know if there is free parking or paid one so I put everything needed to cost my journey. Base on the cost and time it takes I might decide to go with the train or other cheaper means of public transport.

If there will be costs involved in the project, can you afford them? It may be the case that you will need to apply for funding to help you achieve your goals. If you do, this then becomes a project in itself! What are the deadlines, what do you need to prepare to receive funding, how likely is it that your application will be accepted? This could be an obstacle to getting what you want so try to have a back-up plan in place if you can’t secure funding. Is there a lower-cost alternative that will still get you the result you want?

Focusing on the jobs you need to do today is the only real way that you will make progress. Things will always change and there is nothing wrong with change. You cannot hope to have predicted everything. When you take more of these steps you will be determined not to give up no matter what the challenges are.