require a plan so basically most New Year Resolutions lack an actual plan.

A plan is typically any diagram or list of steps with timing and resources, used to achieve an objective. It is commonly understood as a temporal set of intended actions through which one expects to achieve a goal. Strategy is a high level plan to achieve one or more goals under conditions of uncertainty. We are faced with huge uncertainty and unpredictability. Things are not always the way we intended them to be. This is why planning of uncertainty should be part of your tactics in achieving that dream and goal.

Strategic planning is used to set priorities, focus energy and resources, strengthen operations, ensure that the systems you have created to achieve your objective are working toward common goals, established agreement around intended outcomes, results, and give you an assessment so you can adjust your objective to the direction in response to a changing environment. This changing environment is part of the uncertainty. Strategic planning is a disciplined effort that produces fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide what your objectives are, who it serves, what it does, and why it does it, with a focus on the future. Effective strategic planning articulates not only where you’re going and the actions needed to make progress, but also how it will know if it is successful.

This year you don’t want to take anything for granted. If you fail to plan, you’ve planned to fail. This means everyone has a plan either to succeed or to fail. Planning is one of the most important project management and time management techniques. Planning is preparing a sequence of action steps to achieve some specific goal. If you do it effectively, you can reduce much the necessary time and effort of achieving the goal. A plan is like a map. When following a plan, you can always see how much you have progressed towards your project goal and how far you are from your destination. Knowing where you are is essential for making good decisions on where to go or what to do next.

Planning is crucial to meeting your needs. It is important to understand your skills, knowledge and personal qualities so you can match them to jobs you would like to do. This will also help you identify the knowledge and skills you might need to acquire, or the personal qualities you might need, to achieve your goals. Planning is a way of making the best use of your current situation and foreseeable opportunities.

If you don’t have a goal or a dream to achieve you can’t have a plan. A goal is an observable and measurable end result having one or more objective to be achieved within a more or less fixed time frame. A goal is a desired result or possible outcome that a person or a system envisions, plans and commits to achieve. Many people endeavour to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines. Goal setting may involve establishing specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bounded objectives.

Goals despite their size, are the stepping stones to a much happier life. The way you set a goal can make a difference in how you achieve the goal. To have a goal for the things you want to achieve and working towards them is very important. The path towards achieving your goals is not always a smooth run. There will be unusual detours, bumps, potholes, burst and cracks, but having a goal, whether big or small, is part of what makes life good. It gives you a sense of meaning and purpose, it points you in the direction you want to go and gets you interested and engaged, all of which are good for your overall happiness. The end of the journey is what really matters. The road could be rough and you might feel like giving up. There is always a way, you need to look for the way. You don’t have to give up the moment things are not working.

When setting out a goal the first step is to decide what you want to do so you can work towards it. If you decide on something and then change the moment things are not working, it means you will never achieve anything. Dealing with obstacles is part of the objective in achieving your goal so you need to be prepared.

You need to start small and allow it to gain momentum, this will give it its own life and that life will be able to sustain the project when adversity strikes. Writing down your goals increases your chance of sticking with them. Write down how you will know you have reached your goals and when you’d like to have achieved it by. Ask yourself: what it will ‘look’ like and how you will feel when you’ve done it? How does it connect to who or what you value in your life? Describe your goal in specific terms and timescales.

Break your goals down. Think about the smaller goals that are steps on the way to achieving your bigger aim. Sometimes our big goals are a bit vague. Breaking these down helps you to be more specific. An ancient Chinese proverb says that the journey of a thousand miles starts with one step. Thinking about the first step on the way will really help to get you started. Plan your first step and keep going. Working towards your  goals can sometimes be difficult and frustrating, so you need to persevere. If a step you took is not working, think of something else you could try that will move you forward, even if it is tiny. When you reach your goal take time to enjoy it and thank those that helped you.

Focus is power. It’s the ability to say I’m doing THIS and nothing else, and nobody is going to stop me. A focused mind is difficult to stop from doing exactly what it has planned. With constant streams of different activities around you, it is sometimes really tough to stay focused. Our brains are finely attuned to distractions. Today’s digital environment makes it especially hard to focus. Distraction is a signal that something has changed. You must find a way to be focused.

To stay focused on the task of achieving your planned goal you need to get organised, you must manage your time effectively, have time to focus and visualise your goal. When you focus on something you’re pouring all your energy into it and your brain will automatically label it as important. Eliminate any form of distractions. Your focus is like a muscle, keep training it. The fewer things you need to have on your mind, the easier it would be for you to stay focused. Avoid multitasking it’ll somehow kill your power to stay focused.