CONTENTS
1. Finally accomplishing BIG PLANS
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1. finally accomplishing BIG PLANS (by Eric L Farrell)
What’s up Family!
There’s a very simple saying that you may have heard before. Well, I’d like to add my thoughts to it, so that it may help you out a bit with whatever you’re doing in life. The saying goes, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” It can’t get any simpler than that. In fact, the concept is so basic that I’ve heard it over and over, but never gave it any deep thought. I mean, what else is there to think about? Well, I ended up hearing it ONCE AGAIN, but this time I gave more thought and came to a very simple, but important realization. If you’re a person with big plans, you must become a person with small plans. Let me explain.
I’ve always considered myself a man with big plans… “save the world” type of plans. That’s another reason why I never paid that saying much attention. I said to myself, “Self, you don’t have to worry about failing to plan, because you already have plans… BIG PLANS.” Perhaps that’s what you’re saying right now to yourself. But have you ever considered yourself to be a person with small plans? For so long, I hadn’t considered myself a person with small plans (“Small plans? No, I have big plans”). But then I realized that the bigger your plans are, the smaller your plans have to be, or else you too are failing to plan (and planning to fail). When I say small plans, I mean more detailed plans. Let me give you an example.
Since First Grade (after the teacher tried to fail me for having trouble reading), I planned to get those good grades. The A/B Honor Roll at the end of the marking period is big plans for a child. Though I hadn’t realized it, I had also become a child of small plans too. That’s how I repeatedly accomplished my Honor Rolling big plans. Everyday I decided to come home from school and do my homework as soon as I got in the door, ask for help, extra credit, or whatever I could do to enhance my grades (small plans). In a short time, I became one of the best male readers in the class and in the Second Grade I won second place in the Write-A-Thon. In the Third Grade, I won first place for a short book I wrote called “Eating Good Food.”
Halfway through high school, I realized that in order to accomplish my big plan of going to college, I’d need a full academic scholarship. To get that, I’d need to be accepted into the National Honor Society and also be active in extra-curricular activities. Upon doing the math, I figured that in order to get a 3.5 GPA in time to get into the National Honor Society, I’d have to pull straight A’s for the next few marking periods. I thought, “Me? Straight A’s?” I’d never made straight A’s before! I thought that was for super smart kids who didn’t have any friends, lol. Sorry, that’s not funny.
Anyway, my plate became pretty full, again forcing me to make plans that were more detailed (smaller). I was working a part time job almost five days a week and going to Bible study. I also joined the school’s literary arts club (art & poetry), FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America), and tried out for the school basketball team (notice that I just said “tried” out). Instead, I played for the church team (Go Jesus! Go Jesus! Go! Go! Go! Go!). I was even a borderline “cool” kid in school, lol.
Needless to say, with that type of schedule, if I didn’t make smaller plans (a more detailed schedule), my big plans would have failed BIG TIME! (no pun intended). So I made my plans smaller and scrutinized my schedule. In other words, I got a calendar and got supercalifragilisticexpialla petty about how I was using each little bit of my time. But it worked. Eventually, I began busting straight A’s, made that National Honor Society (and Spanish Honor Society), got that college scholarship (well, tuition at least), an FBLA scholarship, and a GTE scholarship (now Verizon), and made my way to college.
By college, my plans got bigger. I went into college with plans to graduate in four years with a 4.0 GPA. So my plans got even smaller, although I still failed to see myself as a man with small plans. “I’m a man with BIG PLANS!” However, I would often plan out each day in half hour blocks, from the time I woke up until the time I went to sleep, and kept a watch or two on my arm. I even went to study at the neighboring college’s library so I wouldn’t bump into people I knew and get distracted.
My small planning worked. Not only did I end my freshman year with straight A’s, I read the Bible in a year (that means every day), finished writing my first book among other accomplishments, and graduated college with a 3.9 GPA (Number six in my class). I didn’t have to be that smart, just smart enough to know what I needed to do for the moment (make small plans). However, I still hadn’t identified myself as a man with small plans, and as a consequence, I failed to realize that small planning is what helped me to accomplish my big plans. So when it was time to execute bigger plans, I didn’t realize what I needed to do. I needed to make smaller plans, but since I failed to plan small, I failed to accomplish a few things ...Continued below advertisement...
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On the streets, they tell you to just “go with the flow.” In the church, they tell you to “let go and let God.”  In the institution (whichever type you may be in), they tell you to “do what you’re told.”  Sure, you may choose your career and what company you apply to work at, but someone else decides where you’re hired and what you spend your time doing while you’re there (Don’t let me get you in trouble with this one). At home, your spouse or parents tell you what you need to do and when (This one either). At best, they all will allow you to say what your five year plan is. However, when it comes down to what your small plans are to accomplish that bigger plan, you are left thinking that your small plans (even your plans for today) are not up to you anyway. In fact, if you ever were to plan out each half hour of your day, someone is going to tell you to loosen up. Plan out each 15 minutes of your day, and show that to someone, and you’re sure to get laughed at or at least looked at funny. They might even say “What are you doing? Dude, relax!”
However, you must realize that we’re surrounded by underachievers who have big plans, but are not planning to accomplish any of those plans. There are others who simply don’t have big plans that are as demanding as yours are, because it’s just not part of their purpose in life. And while it may be fine for some of them to just float with the currents of the wind, or “go with the flow,” as they say, it’s NOT fine for you; not if you actually want to accomplish your big plans. There are PLENTY of people around you with unfulfilled dreams and abandoned plans. The reason for most of that is not because their plans were too big, but because they didn’t make their daily plans small enough or detailed enough to make sure they were able to get the bigger job done. They lost control of their time, because they didn’t have plans for what they were going to do for the hour, but someone else did have plans for them.
I was one of those people until I realized it. As an artist, I did need a little leeway to follow my pen and move by passion a bit, but too often, I’d get distracted. I’d log onto the computer and yahoo had some attractive news articles and took 5 to 10 minutes of my time here and there. YouTube had some pointless videos for me to watch. Hollywood had something for me to watch. Someone would ask “What are you doing?” and if I didn’t have my own plans for that minute, they did. Before I knew it, I had lost an hour or two because I didn’t have small enough plans for my own time (No, I’m not stealing your time here with this note. Well okay, I am stealing your time, but just a little bit, because it’s worth it for you. What you’re reading now is the beginning of your small planning. This is going to save you time later.) But as I was saying, I don’t mind helping others out if they need me, but not because I just don’t know what else to do with myself. I’d rather be in control.
 We must realize that some people don’t care if they don’t accomplish their bigger plans in life (if they have any), but are these the people we should listen to? The bigger your life’s plans are, the smaller and more detailed your day to day plans must be. When they laugh at you for planning out your whole day or every part of every hour, you’ll just have to ask yourself “why should I listen to their judgments?” Do they have it together?
If you’re a Christian (followers of Christ), some people will tell you to “let go and let God.” While I do not disagree with that statement, I will say that it doesn’t mean that you should stop planning or stop trying. Some will use this saying as an excuse to be slackers, lazy, or simply to justify being irresponsible and unproductive. They want you to adopt the same attitude, because if you’re planning and being productive, then it’s going to make them look like the slackers they may be.
Don’t worry, you’re not going to get in God’s way by being diligent with your work and planning out your day. If God tells you to shift directions, and you don’t listen, that’s another story, but that doesn’t mean that you should be going about your day with no direction. Don’t worry about planning small, because God can always plan smaller than you when He needs to in order to have His way with you. If you determine your path, the Lord can still order your steps. If you plan the minutes of your day, He can still plan the seconds (or milliseconds). And I’m sure if He needs to, He can even change the length of those milliseconds. Yes, not only can He think infinitely bigger than you can, but He can think infinitely smaller than you as well. And His works are not only infinitely bigger than your works, but infinitely smaller as well. So you can still invite Him have control over your life without you needing to remain idle.
“A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.” -Proverbs 16:9
“Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, that my feet did not slip.” –Psalm 18:36
“The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way.” –Psalm 37:23
Now if you will please excuse me, I have some planning to do. Let me know how you're doing with this. [please forward this email]
Éric L Farrell
Author of “Seeking Solace: Finding Peace and Comfort in Times of Distress”
www.ericlfarrell.com (www.stagepoet.com)
Eric L Farrell’s books and other products are available at www.wordstage.com | 1-866-567-8999
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