Have a clear plan for your life
Year is about to end and many people are excited.
There is a certain joy that comes with a new year. At some point in life, I used to think that the new year comes with new things that automatically make everyone successful and happy. Little did I understand that a new year is just a change in numbers from one to another.
It then takes people’s efforts to make the new year count.
The coming of a new year can be a blessing or a curse, good or bad, exciting or distressing, all depending on how you plan for it. We do not just become in life. It takes a clear plan on what you want to become and how you want to get where you desire.
Sadly, some people just move like wind in life.
They wake up from any direction that fate would have taken them. Interestingly, you can actually hear them complaining that things are not where they want, yet they do not have a plan for life.
Organisational status
The challenge in many organisations is having teams that do not know what they want in life. A good number of teams are in transit to where no one knows.
For some reason, they do not settle, even after finding a good job. One day, I asked a group of employees on what they really wanted, and they did not know.
They had approached me with their resumes, looking for jobs.
When I looked at their current jobs and packages, I thought it was a good deal, hence I was amazed, wondering what they wanted.
They confessed that it is a norm to keep looking for better opportunities. Truth is they did not realise that they had arrived at better opportunities and all they needed now was to maximise their current potential.
When you know what you want in life, you will surely know when to stop searching, in order to focus on building.
People are motivated by different things in the workplace.
For some, the remuneration and benefits do the trick. For others, it is the ambiance of the workplace itself.
We also have others who get motivated by being able to make a social impact, and yet others enjoy being part of building startups.
The list is endless; however, the bottom line is that of knowing what you want.
It is, therefore, not wise to just follow what others are doing without understanding why they are doing what they are doing.
I know of many people who went out of the country without a clear plan and some of them ended up coming back worse off than they were before going. I also know of some who are stuck in certain places, failing to afford coming back, because things did not go well for them.
Even though things might not go as planned, you still need to have a well-defined plan for your life.
What is your work plan for the coming year?
My advice to those who plan to move from their current organisations is, have a plan first in terms of what you want. You need to know the kind of organisation you want to join so that you send your applications accordingly.
It is not attractive in the human resources (HR) industry to have resumes for people who look for jobs from anywhere and everywhere. For instance, you may see one person applying for 10 different jobs from different industries like sales and marketing, HR, accounts, administration or media relations.
Ignorantly, a number of employees display confusion that hinders them from finding better opportunities. Know what you want before applying for jobs.
General facts
Clear planning comes with many benefits in every aspect of life. It minimises uncertainties and facilitates coordination.
You cannot be everything and anything at a given time. Once you decide to go north, you cannot move south at the same time.
Failure to have a clear path may see you spending another full year at the same place, if not worse off.
Planning sounds like a simple thing, yet it is a bit more complex.
You need to be deliberate about planning. You need to put your plans down in order to follow them without diverting. It is better to plan ahead. If you do not know where you are going, you may end up in unpleasant places.
Plan for the upcoming year before you get into it.
Plan for the upcoming month, week or even day before you get into it.
Waking up without a plan is dangerous. You risk doing things you may regret in future. An author (anonymous) once said, “planning is bringing the future into present so that you do something about it now”.
Many people spend time thinking about what they should have done, instead of focusing on what they will do.
Be careful to get paralysed in the past, instead of moving into the future.
Be challenged to utilise the remaining days of 2023 to plan for 2024 if you had not yet done so.
Even if you plan for January alone or the first quarter only, it is better than not planning at all.
Be encouraged and inspired to be intentional about your life. Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and happy holidays.
◆ Rutendo Gwatidzo is the managing consultant at The Consultancy. She is HUB HR a multi-award-winning leader, consultant, speaker and coach. She is also an author of two books: “Born to Fight” and “Breaking the Silence”. Contact detail: 0714575805/ winningstrategy.2020@gmail.com/ Rutendo Gwatidzo_Official public page FB