PLAN YOUR WORK, WORK YOUR PLAN! Where do you want to go in life?

Plan Your Work,
Work Your Plan
Where do you want to go in life?

James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D.

© August 2006

If you are not organized, you will get somewhere, but not necessarily where you would like to go. Ask yourself, “Am I in the pilot’s chair on in a passenger’s seat?” You don’t have to be a captain of industry, only the captain of your own destiny.

Be patient and it will be returned tenfold. Don’t be taken in by the tough exteriors of others. We all walk this earth with great vulnerability.

When we think of planning, we often think of something written in concrete. That is not the case. Planning is not absolute but rather the unfolding of life’s journey.

A well-planned life is an exploration of our unique character. The two defining parts: essence and personality. These must be in balance to prosper in life.

Personality is the acquired self—the many masks we wear in public. There is a time when personality is assertive; other times conciliatory. When the display is inappropriate, a person can be perceived as a tick out of sync. There are behavioral expectations that make some comfortable with us, and others not; a person desperate to be as expected is always uptight.

Essence is that sleeping talent crying out to be expressed. It is never the talent of another person. So, comparing and competing will be a disappointment at the expense of that talent.

It takes awareness and risks to put talent to use. This begins with a test as we often discover our talent by accident, or in play.

We may be doodling and discover we can draw; organizing a neighborhood spoof and feel a passion for drama; humming a song and find we can carry a tune; tinkering with a radio and discover a fascination with electronics; recalling something we read and discover an eidetic memory; reciting in class and find we have command presence; doing a science project and discover a facility for explaining complex ideas in simple terms; daydreaming and imagine stories already in print.

High achievers confess the accidental discovery of talent. While everyone is gifted, few run far and hard and long as these people. Most need someone to point out their gifts to them.

There are many talents: athletics, music, writing, painting, learning foreign languages, mathematics, science, conceptual thinking. Talent cannot be developed if it is not recognized. Once recognized, the risk factor enters. The talent must be disciplined to perfect it as something special and useful to others. Life is a series of wins, losses and lessons. Talent is never enough. You must embrace failure to succeed.

Mentors recognize something in a person, and then assist in developing of it. It is never too late for one’s essence to bloom. As long as the mind is alive and the body healthy, it is possible to do what you have been postponing.

The Mind’s Plan Set Free

Many factors go into a life’s plan. Often they are composed of what we should do. It is counterintuitive to think that the best plan is a plan that allows essence to rise to the occasion when it is ready, and not before.

Nothing we learn is ever lost. Everything is integrated into our life as we venture forward. The road may prove bumpy, but in the counterintuitive world, the mind is always free to venture into new and surprising territory.

Confident thinking planning is a learning process in constant motion, a journey of surprises and happenstances fueled by the effective utilization of one’s inherent ability.

Obstacles placed in the way challenge passion, test resolve, and congeal character. We are in the learning business from start to finish. Little successes build to greater successes, which encourages us to seek new challenges and higher expectations.

It is almost as if there is an secret plan inside our mind waiting to unfold, a plan of many junctions, and timetable as to when best to take one or another road, while making it clear you can always double back. The sign ahead may indicate the best possibility consistent with logic, but it may not be the best road for you.

Society gets better one person at a time. To be useful to others, you must first be useful to yourself. To be comfortable with others, you first must be comfortable with yourself. This means you must accept yourself as you are and others as you find them.

A person who plans his work only in the context of his colored perspective—without correction and compromise—will never find satisfaction.

Nothing is ever wasted. No matter how many turns you make you are picking up valuable material along the way. No one escapes the impact of culture. It dominates when you believe you are operating with free will unencumbered with social convention. It is in recognizing cultural constraint that suitable choices will surface with a natural confluence of essence and personality.

So often planning is a maddening quest for consistency as if a puppet on a string. More real is that you may tire of your initial plans and decide do something entirely different. That is not being indecisive. That is being open to life.

The Prudence of Destiny

Confident thinking is not about impressing. It is about being useful. If a plan doesn’t have a social payoff than it is an immature plan. A plan should mold your personality to fit your essence in service to others.

Our life has a plan, and since we don’t know the plan, we don’t always pick up the gauntlet. Thinking about my own career, a professor at university introduced me to my writing self, but I backed away from that introduction to become a chemist. Was this vanity? Yes. I was vain to taking the low risk road. But I was vain to keep my mind and body disciplined to avoid lifestyle excesses. I was also vain to husband my talents and master my skills so as not to be a passenger in someone else’s vehicle.

People always looking for the lucky break seldom get off their duff. They are looking for answers in all the wrong places. When not found, they collapse into self-pity and fold into bitterness. You don’t seek a career. You create a career. Asked what they want to do, they answer flippantly, “Certainly not what I’m doing now.” They are in a cage of their own making.

The confident thinker recognizes success is a journey, not an end. Little triumphs segue to larger ones, always with the recognition that setbacks and detours are part of the course, and that a plan acquires greater clarity with persistence.

You can start at any time to reboot your plan. One of my blessings was I never came from money; never had a parachute to break my fall. If I didn’t come up with a winning strategy to move forward, then I took a “time out.” Can you imagine the power I have had to control my destiny? You become enterprising knowing failure is your constant companion and have no option but to succeed.

So, what is the right age to become a confident thinking planner? There is no right age. People have turned hobbies into livelihoods after they have retired.

Nor is there a limit to the talent that lies right under your nose. It could be painting, writing, inventing, or homemaking. Ordinary people have always changed the way we think, and what we appreciate. They find their niche when they don’t ignore the itch.

Article is an excerpt from Dr. Fisher’s next book Ten Steps to Confident Thinking. Visit www.fisherofideas.com