Why Plans Fail

Have you ever come up with a list of New Year resolutions? Or formulated a five-year plan for your life? Maybe you’ve formed plans for a new business or job. You may have planned out an extensive travel itinerary.

And then, your plans fall through. They don’t work out or they deviate from their original course, taking you down a path you never intended to walk.

Why? You may wonder, especially when big plans slip through the cracks. Why have my plans failed? What should I do with my life now?

The question of how you should redirect your life now is one only you can answer. However, here are five more reasons (find the first five here) why plans fail. If you know why they fail, you will know where to modify them and what track to take, going forward:

1. Lack of Will:

This is the foremost reason for plans failing. You lack the willpower and determination to see things through to the end. If your new year’s resolution was to exercise regularly (say, five times a week) and by Day 10, you are already reluctant to move your body, there’s a problem.

The only solution is to push through, especially on the days when you just don’t want to work out. The less you listen to your mind, the more you can accomplish.

2. No Clarity:

You may have a vague plan in mind but it isn’t concrete. For example, you want to start a new business. You may know what you want your business to be (selling silks or creating an app) but what about the other questions – how, why, where, when.

How are you going to set about doing it and how is it going to help others? Why do you want this particular business in the first place? Where are you going to set it up? When do you want to open the business?

Without a concrete idea to set things in motion, everything will continue to remain as it is. Clarity is paramount to carrying out a successful plan.

3. Shaky Discipline:

You may have the will, you may have the clarity but if you don’t have the discipline to work on what you have planned out, it will be fruitless. Whether it’s a hobby, a career, meditation or exercise, do you have the capacity to keep at your plan, day in and day out? Can you make it your passion, your focus, your single most important priority in that moment?

If you can, there is no doubt that you will succeed.

4. Excuses:

When the mind doesn’t want to do something, it is marvellous at coming up with reasons (read excuses) to not do it – today, you are extremely busy with something else. Tomorrow, it will rain. The day before, you were tired from the previous day’s hard work.

The reason for this is simple – no matter what your plan is, a large part of it will involve grunt work, boring ‘unfun’ work. Maybe it’s paperwork or workout reps or getting past writer’s block or bodily reasons – you are tired, hungry, sleepy and so on.

The fact remains though that no matter how valid your reason may seem, only you can work on your plan and see it through to fruition. Of course, you must rest where needed and take each day as it comes. However, your priority must still be your plan.

Because if it’s not, it’s going to fail.

5. Fillers:

This last reason is the most subtle of the lot. Plans fail because you fill your day with filler work that leaves you with no time to work on what you really need to.

For example, you are writing a book and your plan is to write five hundred words a day. This means that no matter what, every single day, preferably at the same time, you will sit down to write five hundred words and not get up until you are done.

But because something holds you back from fulfilling this commitment (ironically, for most, it’s the fear of failing), you keep filling your time with other work. You need to do laundry, cook a meal, go out grocery shopping, meet a friend - the list of fillers is endless.

Success, however, is certainly not through filler work. The only way is to come up with a plan and stick to it. No. Matter. What.

If you have a clear plan and possess the willpower and discipline to carry it out confidently without allowing your fear and excuses to hold you back, there is only one possibility – success.

The next time you ask yourself, what to do with my life, ask yourself this question - are you up to creating this story for your life? Because if you can, anything is possible.