A Natural Plan

trees near body of water

When you have a big goal, the distance from where you are to where you want to be can seem huge. You might be tempted to just push through or plan all the details. Pushing through breaks stuff and too many details mires you. It may be so huge that you won’t know how to start or worry that it can’t be done.

The best way is to follow a natural plan. A natural plan blends what’s good from the “push through” method adds useful detail. A natural plan contains

  • A qualitative description of your overall goal. How will you know that you are done? How will it appear and feel? (Yes, the desired feeling is important.)
  • A set of high-level milestones. From what you can tell right now, what are the major steps or milestones to get to your goal?
  • At least one immediate next doable step. Given the goal and milestones, what is the best next step?

Describe your goal, set some high-level objectives, then get started with whatever next step makes the most sense. Then iterate: take a step, learn, adjust as you go, and repeat.

With a minimum amount of organization and very little stress, a natural plan will help you reach any size goal.

In your corner,

Mike

PS: As you proceed, you may stumble across fear, uncertainty, doubt, worry, anger, regret, or guilt (fudwarg) that derails your progress. If so, remember to use tools like the Dirt-Simple Way Past Obstacles to get you back on track.

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