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POWERS OF PRODUCTIVE PLANNING
All the Truths About Planning that Actually Work

A Guide to Succeed in Achieving Your Goals

By Diana Baltrusaityte

A first edition of this book was published in 2017.

Copyright 2017 by Diana Baltrusaityte.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or

reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written
permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied.

For permission requests contact the author.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Diana Baltrusaityte is a certified life and time

management coach seeking to support people in finding
and creating their inner selves. She is an ambassador of
The Gratitude and The Success Journals spreading
gratitude sparks all around Denmark. In addition, Diana is
a healthy lifestyle enthusiast and the founder and organizer
of seminars and workshops of Aarhus Healthy Mindset
Meetup group, which purpose is to discuss the topics of
nutrition, sports and positive mind-set. She is a passionate
environmentalist and nature addict. Diana likes to call
herself a creative life explorer, because she constantly
explores the world with curious eyes and creative heart.
And she would not be able to do it all without powers of
productive planning!
FOR ALL THE SEEKERS AND EXPLORERS,
 CONTENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR 3

CONTENTS 5

FOREWORD 6

PRODUCTIVE PLANNING BENEFITS 9

WHAT CAN PRODUCTIVE PLANNING GIVE ME? 10

WHAT IS PRODUCTIVE PLANNING? 25

YOUR PLANNING BELIEVES 29

BASHING THE BELIEVES THAT STOP YOU 30

BASHING THE MYTHS OF PLANNING 35

MYTHS ARE JUST MYTHS 51

PRODUCTIVE PLANNING STAGES 52

A BROAD PROCESS 53

PRODUCTIVE PLANNING POWERS ERROR!

BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED.
FOREWORD

We all have few people in our lives, who seem to have

certain superpowers by doing, creating, producing,
making, acting, playing and influencing so many things that
we constantly question ourselves if these people come
from the same planet as us. How they are even able to do
this? How can they accomplish any goal they have in mind
so easily? Surprisingly, they do not seem stressed or
depressed. On the contrary, they radiate energy
demonstrating that they do not carry any work overload.
I am talking about people, who do not use the world
busy, because somehow, they still are able to find time.
Likewise, they know HOW and WHEN to relax and they
constantly find new activities, experiences and
unforgettable adventures. From the other side, they are
absolutely busy. Busy with life, achieving their dreams and
stepping out from their comfort zones, trying new things
and constantly self-developing themselves. We all know
how we tend to look at these people, with a presence of
flair of jealousy nodding our heads definitely, they are not
from the same planet. However, we want to be like them
secretly, or at least to obtain few drops of their energy
juices.
 What is their true can-do-it-all secret? The answer, in
fact, is not so alien alike as we might wish it to be. IT IS
THEIR ABILITY TO PLAN PRODUCTIVELY!
While we clink to the believe that planning restricts us,
bores us and tortures us, it creates freedom for these
individuals. It nourishes their souls and bodies. It makes
them grasp and accomplish the so called impossible
portrayed by others.
So, how do they truly do it? What tools do they use?
What things do they do daily? What do they do differently?
What helps them and what makes them THEM? Well,
these people know the differences between non-planning
and planning, but they also know the differences between
planning and productive planning, and they use this type
of planning daily in their lives.
You see, not all kinds of planning tools and techniques
unleash the biggest amount of benefits. And honestly, at
times, even planning can be unproductive, especially if it is
not transformed to action.
Are you ready to gain the same powers that those
people have, the same powers that inspire so many of us?
Are you ready to uncover the powers of productive
planning?
Because now you have a chance to do it! This book will
outline to you all the secrets that these people have
hidden in their sleeves. Truth is, those people are not
born with these superpowers, because ability to plan
productively is obtained through learning. And if it is a
skill, it means that YOU CAN LEARN IT too, just like
any other skill!
Of course, there is one prerequisite you need to be
eager to commit. And if you are, then you can truly change
your life by including productive planning in it. I know it,
because as a constant life explorer and life and time
management coach, I have transformed my own life and
seen many people around me change theirs too by simply
learning, understanding and using the powers of planning.
As long as you keep reading this book and
implementing the tools of productive planning in your life,
I promise that you will feel the satisfaction of
improvement too. You will feel your goals unfolding and
success lurking for you just right on the corner. The
question is: ARE YOU READY TO COMMIT? Because
if you are the beautiful productive planning world awaits
you. If you are not, you are going to miss out on an
opportunity to improve your life and achieve your goals in
a less stressful, enjoyable and creative environment. Be the
kind of person that other people will marvel at by looking
at your results.




CHAPTER 1
PRODUCTIVE PLANNING
BENEFITS
WHAT CAN PRODUCTIVE PLANNING
GIVE ME?

I can assure you that your ability to use productive

planning will create outstanding benefits in your life. In
fact, just the understanding of productive planning powers
can create big transformations of your beliefs, because
once you uncover how good and essential it is your will
start perceiving the world in different colours.
Thats what happens when you change the lenses from
which you perceive the world. Your old lenses do not need
to be your whole life lenses. You can always change the
lenses of your beliefs to new ones.
Some of the benefits you will obtain from productive
planning will be tremendous results that will shift your life
to another dimension, while other benefits might seem
quite small at the start.
You need to be aware of it, because these small benefits
might form into the worthy results in the long run.
Remember, whatever size the benefit is, it is still the benefit
towards your inner growth.
You might be asking yourself what exact benefits can
I get from productive planning?. Well, there is a big list
of benefits that you can obtain by learning the productive
planning powers and this chapter will go through all of
them to help you indulge in the beneficial advantages that
await you.
MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD
We all know that we have 24 hours to manage our day and
we can honestly admit, we often complain that this small
amount of period is not enough for us to do all the tasks
and wishes, especially if we calculate both work related and
personal tasks, including the relaxation phases and those
78 hours of sleep that everyone recommends. It already
gets fuzzy just thinking about it.
So, of course we ask for longer days, complain for our
Mondays and celebrate on Fridays, again starting our
Mondays with our energy reserves not being fully
recharged.
In fact, if we would look how much hours we have left
minimizing the sleep, toilet and eating we might get quite
depressed. Now, take the work hours and few hours in the
gym away, the parties and meetings with friends, and long
times spend in the shower. Well, to say it shortly you do
not really have a lot of time left to make a difference in the
world.
When I say, making a difference in the world, I am
talking about making the difference in YOUR WORLD.
Because the way how you manage your world creates the
light to the other worlds too.
 Either you admit it or not, but the way you live your
life touches others. In the end, we all want to feel
important, we all want to achieve our goals, we all want to
create something bigger, even if sometimes we are unsure
what exactly it is
Productive planning helps you to make a difference in
the world, because within it you do not only plan, but you
also assess yourself and your world around you.

FEELING ENOUGH & HAPPIER

There is one significant thing that we all seek. We want to
feel happy. No surprise that the happiness books and
courses have such a huge success in business and personal
educational industry.
The happiness formula, whatever it might be, definitely
contains US feeling appreciated and invincible, US being
and feeling enough. This is why we adore people with
planning superpowers, even if we have no idea what
superpowers they have. We adore the results they make
and we can almost smell their level of excitement.

Do something today that your future self could thank you for.

We can see their shinny happiness radiating through

them, sometimes brighter than the daily sun. Those are the
people that achieve what they want and it seems like there
is nothing impossible for them. It looks like they know that
everything can be figured out and they go and figure it out.
They are happy with their lives and they do not hide it,
because it is a part of who they are.
Dont you want to feel happy? Imagine achieving your
dreams. Imagine being there at the finish line and holding
the I DID IT flag in your hands.
How would that feel? Wouldnt that be absolutely
magnificent? YOU CAN ABSOLUTELY HAVE IT!
Of course, it does not mean that it will come to you
today or tomorrow, but it will, if you learn how to plan and
use it to improve your life.
Once you reach your goal, you probably will hear
yourself say ow, that actually wasnt so hard. And from
that point on, new bigger adventures will be ready for you
lining in your new list of goals.
Yet, do not forget to celebrate before jumping to your
new goals. Appreciating the moment is also a part of a
productive planning, which is going to be explained more
in this book by discussing Productive Planning Stages.

ACHIEVING YOUR GOALS

Of course, the main benefit of productive planning is quite
clear you will achieve your goals:
the ones you have always wanted to achieve,
the ones you might be dreaming about at nights and days,
 the ones that you visualize in your head before you go to sleep,
the ones that lurk and catch you every time you drift,
the ones you see in the reflection of the mirror.

You will achieve it, besides sitting and complaining

how devastating your unplanned life is, or even
complaining how good it is not to plan. Though, secretly
deep down, you know that you are just kicking yourself in
the butt.
Please, we need to stop that crap. If you are not where
you want yourself to be, there is only one starting point
YOU NEED TO PLAN. And once you start it, make sure
you select the productive planning, not wasting your time
with the planning that might not work, getting yourself
stuck and even more frustrated.

A goal without a plan is just a wish. -Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Achieving THAT BIG GOAL, you always have

wanted to achieve is a highly fulfilling feeling, allowing you
to reach the exponential high level of satisfaction! And
who does not want to be satisfied daily?
In fact, even the small goals increase your level of
satisfaction. Not at the same rate and level, but imagine
combining many of these small goals on top of each other.
Well, that is just as high! Who can say NO to this???
CONTROLING YOUR LIFE
Quite shortly after you start including productive planning
in your life, you will start feeling that you are taking control
of your life in your own hands.
Now, you wont be able to say, I have or I do not have
time, you will say I make time, because time is not
something you have. It is something you make. And you
make all of your final decisions by yourself.
Just an understanding of this concept changes the
perceptions of your beliefs. Imagine, you being the
controller of the time! Doesnt that sound magnificent?
Well, actually you are already in control of your time.
You always have been. Yet, you might have forgotten it,
but productive planning will constantly be near to remind
you that.
I ensure you that the common phrase I have no idea
how fast the time flew will be used by you only to assess
the big level of your own passion and fun you are having,
not as an ultimate excuse and a shock therapy.

MOTIVATION
So, honestly, tell me, are you constantly seeking for
motivation? We sort of all look for it, one way or another.
But there is no need to look further productive planning
includes motivation as a core receipt ingredient.
In other words, if you want to be motivated start
using productive planning. Once you plan and act on your
to do list, every accomplishment gives you a fulfilment
pill aka motivation pill.
How does that work exactly? We always get motivation
from two things: either fulfilment that we obtained by
doing something, or from seeking to be fulfilled. Try to
check the times, when you have had motivation and see
how it fits into these factors. You should see that
everything fits into these two categories.
Clearly, productive planning fits into both of them. It
does, because productive planning is a long process
starting from brainstorming and finishing with wrap-up,
ticking your accomplished goals and celebrating it.
Every small goal achieved will create you the
motivation to go further making you fulfilled. You will get
the feelings of accomplishment and motivation by the
creation of your plan, because it will fulfil you by displaying
that you are able to take steps towards your wishes! Our
eagerness to take action and taken action is the biggest
motivation.

CLARITY AND ORDER

By establishing the direction on where you want to go, you
will start seeing the end image of your dreams more clearly.
Everything in our heads is quite blurry, even if we believe
it to be quite visible.
The more we work with our idea and get more towards
it the less blurry it becomes. Productive planning makes
your dreams clearer by taking the blurry curtains away.
Everything becomes much easier, when you have a direct
path to lean on. It all becomes less messy, muzzy, bushy
and cushy.
Do you know that we have around 40.000 thoughts
daily?! So, imagine how these thoughts are messing in your
head throughout the day. We sometimes might have great
ideas and plans, yet it might get pushed by other thoughts.
Within this big amount of thoughts, it should not be
surprising that we often forget things fast, unless it is very
important to us. At times, we even tend to forget
important things! In fact, we are not able to judge at 100
percent scale what is exactly important to us, especially if
we are not totally sure about our goals and purpose. To be
honest, we will never be 100 % sure about anything,
including our goals and purpose.
So, while we cannot be totally sure about anything, we
need to understand that the journey will lead us to our true
wants and wishes. Yet, we are the ones that choose to go
on that journey or not. We are the ones that take the step
or stop going.
If we have so many thoughts, it is evident that it is
necessary to store them e.g.: to put them on a paper. And
it is very essential to do that as fast as these thoughts arise,
at that specific moment or as soon as possible, later on
choosing to relook and drift more into them by evaluating
and brainstorming.
If you feel that the specific thought creates a big spark
in you, it might be related to your dream. IT MIGHT BE
YOUR DREAM. Imagine that thought drifting apart just
because you are busy and not ready to give it some of
your time. It will find another host, who will be ready to
make that dream come true. Do not let this happen to you!
Be ready to meet it and even plan the meeting, because it
wont be accomplished by the plain action of thinking.
I hope you can see that having so many thoughts can
be not only overwhelming, but can harm you in achieving
your success. Because it is not enough to have it only in
your head. You need clarity and you need order.
Productive planning can provide it for you.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
Productive planning does not only allow you to self-
develop yourself further, but also helps you to achieve
personal development in a much faster phase.
 Personal development needs to be planned as any other
action and as for any other action you need to find time
for it. You need to find time to question what you want
and need, and what main steps you need to take towards
it. This process is itself a productive planning, we just need
to improve our skills towards it, making it more efficient
and effective.
In fact, with productive planning you will strengthen
your strengths and develop new skills. Your creativity will
expand and you will notice that you will start uncovering
new ideas. You will get to know yourself on a much deeper
level. You will become self-aware within your both
positive and negative sides of your inner truth. Both of
these sides are the part of you, which you need to know
and with which you need to work with.
Self-development is like an ordinary gym, you buy a
subscription and show up, working your ass off. I am not
talking about working so hard and intense that you itch
afterwards and can barely walk, unable to lift your arms or
legs. You just need to find the sport you like and push
yourself further little by little. If you do that, you will be
surprised of your big results in a pretty quick period of
time.
Important benefit of planning related to self-growth is
the increase in your confidence. Yes, by planning you will
become more confident with yourself, your decisions and
actions. Of course, the previously discussed benefit to take
control of your life is a big part of it. Probably no one will
argue that taking control of our time and our life, including
life around us, would make us feel confident!
Actually, we as individuals always seek the control to
choose. We want to have confident control of our
decisions and choices, our body and surroundings.
From the moment you start planning, your life will not
just happen to you. You will create the life you want to
happen for you! Occasionally, things will happen,
problems will arise and things wont work out.
There will be things that you will never be able to
control as the weather or traffic, so getting your grudge on
it and complaining about it wont help anyone, even if you
think it helps you.
As you plan, you will be able to look at problems with
new non-stressful eyes and deal with most of the issues by
implementing another plan or changing and improving
what is needed. Yes, that is YOU TAKING
CONFIDENCE IN YOUR ARMS!
In addition, within adequate amount of productive
planning you will notice that your focus will be improved
and you will become an effective machine, while others
will talk about you with amazement: She/he does so
much! How is he/she able to accomplish so much?
 While for you, darling, it will be quite easy. For you it
will be the way you live. For you it will become a norm.
And that, my dear, is the feeling of true power.

PREPARING FOR RISKS

We all know how crappy it feels to know that there are
risks involved around our goals. Actually, there are always
some risks involved around our goals. It often becomes
one of our favourite excuses to stop marching towards our
goals.
Yes, it is absolutely scary and threatening, unknown
and worrisome. We always want to avoid it, delete it, break
its neck and just let it go for a vacation. Sadly, however
hard we try, there will always be some risks involved in any
decision we take. Paradoxically, that is the beauty of life.
It is critical to avoid the freak out phases during these
moments and start clearly thinking what can be done in
those cases, even though our inner selves only want to
scream shit shit shit. The only way how we can start
dealing with uncertainties is by preparing for it and getting
to know it better. Afterwards you need to think about the
solutions that you will use to deal with the risk. Surprise
surprise, the answer here is PRODUCTIVE
PLANNING.
 In any given moment, we have two options: to step forward into
growth or to step back into safety. -Abraham Maslow

You prepare for unexpected issues by planning,

exposing the risks and blind spots that might be lurking
around or are already present in your life. Some of them
might not even be visible with unplanned eyes! You will
surely uncover some issues using productive planning that
you have never seen before. Some of these issues you will
eliminate, some you will minimize, some you might solve.
Most importantly, you will know them more by expecting
them.
There is a saying the only way to defeat your enemy is
to get friendly with it or befriend your enemy. I believe
we can befriend our fears and problems too by using
planning.
Either way, it is clear that planning will release you from
stress by preparing you. You wont need to worry what
might happen, you will know the possibilities of it and you
will be prepared with plans B, C or if needed - with the
whole alphabet.
A problem wont hit you anymore as a surprise bomb.
Even with few of those bombs exploding in your life, your
reaction to it will be changed. You wont get stressed so
much about uncertainties, because you will already know
what to do, what you can solve and what you cannot solve.
 You will be prepared for unexpected or in other words,
the unexpected issues will become expected issues. You
will become resilient, able to change much easier, twist and
solve problems in an effective and efficient way.

FREEDOM
This one significant benefit of productive planning usually
astonishes people. More precisely, it confuses them,
because in our society we tend to perceive planning as an
activity that imprisons our freedom. We see planning
locking freedom into a black small cell closed from all
sides, without any windows and invisible doors with a
stinky smell and humid conditions. In fact, we might
become so sure about it that we might forget that each
activity, even planning, can have both positive and
negative sides.
Overplanning can definitely cause lack of freedom, but
that is not the productive planning. We are not seeking you
to get crazy, avoid rest and relaxation, freak out and drown
in planning paper sheets. That is by no means unhealthy
and no one wants to be thought about benefits of
unhealthy life. We all want to be vibrant, energetic and
healthy, without stress, not the other way around. So,
absolutely, there is a big NO here for overplanning and
more depression.
 Good fortune is what happened when opportunity meets
with planning. -Thomas Edison

Everything, everything and everything can have a

negative side. The productive, efficient and effective
planning PROVIDES YOU WITH FREEDOM besides
taking away! It gives you the freedom to think creatively,
freedom to get what you want, freedom to truly be you.
Isnt that what freedom is? We quite often forget that
freedom is not only time bound material. And even if we
talk about time management, planning can still be a
freedom there too. How? When you get used to planning,
you become more productive that you provide quality
results with lesser time needed. This means that you will
have time left for your freedom! This will be true quality
freedom, not the one where you are not exactly sure why
you are lazy at least 6 hours per day lying on our bed and
questioning the meaning of life. Though, sometimes we all
need even that.
This benefit will be discussed more in the next chapter,
giving you a bigger glimpse of the unique freedom that it
provides. Be careful it might become quite addictive
once you taste it!
WHAT IS PRODUCTIVE
PLANNING?

Before we reach deeper into the techniques of productive

planning, we need to discuss the differences between
planning and productive planning. After all, you might be
questioning why this book is called productive planning,
not just planning. I assure you that is not a coincidence
or a cheap marketing trick.
We will constantly uncover the differences between
planning and productive planning throughout the whole
book, yet this chapter includes the basis for you to
understand that planning can either be a big non-sense and
harm, or it can be a big advantage and joy in your life, if
you use PRODUCTIVE PLANNING. What do you
choose?
Many of us perceive planning process as a picture of an
individual sitting in the chair and boringly writing
something out. That is not even what the true definition
of planning is about and it is absolutely very far from the
productive planning explanation. Productive planning
goes beyond on what most of us perceive as planning,
though it also includes the techniques used in planning.
Truth is, you can plan and not do it effectively and
efficiently. You can plan and not take the necessary action
required. You can plan and do not enjoy it, because you
might choose the methods that you are not fond of,
believing that those are the only ones that are present. This
is not the type of planning we want and not the type of
planning this book is about. Without doubt, you can plan
badly, just as you can make mistakes anywhere else and
with everything and everyone you encounter in your life!
You can plan too little, you can plan too much, you can
stress by planning so much that it can even reach risky
consequences requiring medical help. Planning can be a
true hell and you have a right to know it.
On the positive side, productive planning is about
creating a vision for your life towards your dreams and
having fun with it! The main productive planning core
aspect is creating goals and taking actions in an effective
and efficient way, within this process also feeling more and
more fulfilled. As a bonus, you also constantly develop
yourself without too much stress!
Productive planning is not just about listing your goals
on a piece of paper. It is also about evaluating your present
situation and your likes and dislikes about it. It is about
looking at your inner self and dragging out all the sides of
you from within, uncovering your deepest strengths and
weakness before even starting the process of planning. It
is about understanding how you perceive the world and
how you want to perceive it. Because without that, how
can you be sure what you truly want? Without that you
wont have any fun planning and going towards your
dreams. What kind of life option is that? Arent you here
in this life to enjoy what you do? Achieving your dreams
and suffering all the time till you do achieve your dreams,
just so that you can be happy in that distant moment
someday? Screw that type of planning. We must not plan
for the future excitement and portray and live reaching it
with the present torture.
To avoid it, you need to push the stop bottom before
you use any planning technique and evaluate your present
life and perceptions, your strengths and weaknesses. Only
then you can start thinking and brainstorming your wishes
and choosing the options where, how and when to do
planning. Only after these steps, the planning techniques
and the different methods should be applied leading with
actions, follow-ups, evaluations, rewards and celebrations.
That is all included in the productive planning package,
because this package fully looks at your wants and your
beliefs.
Having this in mind and working with this
understanding, every action you take will include a glimpse
of awareness of yourself. Getting to truly know and accept
yourself is the biggest gift you can give to yourself. I
promise you, you will enjoy the process of being present,
the process of planning and the whole journey once you
start using the full productive planning package. In fact, as
you enjoy the journey, you will start seeing even more
amazing things around you and that will make you enjoy
the life even more. This is the reason why this book
focuses on three building pillars:
necessity of identifying present situation and yourself,
essence of obtaining knowledge about planning powers,
different planning methods and tools.

I would recommend reading all of the chapters one by

one as they are all highly correlated together. If you leave
out the identification of yourself and present situation
you will stay stuck with your present believes and imprison
your own personal development. If you do not take time
to obtain planning powers you wont be able to obtain
new habits that are required for you to look at planning
with different eyes. If you do not take time to evaluate the
methods you will never start, you will procrastinate or
take much longer time in achieving your goals. The
methods discussed here truly work, all you need to do is to
follow them, select the ones that suit your needs and
START YOUR JOURNEY!


CHAPTER 2
YOUR PLANNING BELIEVES
BASHING THE BELIEVES THAT
STOP YOU

There is one fundamental process that needs to be done

before planning occurs. In fact, it is so essential that if we
start planning our goals without doing it, we will fail.
Always. It is the core building block on which any goal
should be planned on.

You need to uncover the truths about your own personal beliefs.

It is the check-up phase of your present believes of

both planning and goals. It is your window from which
you perceive the whole world. Do you really know your
window well?
You need to uncover your personal systems: what you
believe to be wrong and right, creative and non-creative,
boring and exciting, possible and impossible, hard and
easy, stupid and intelligent, bad and good? The list can go
on and on.
Even though we might believe that we all have the
same definitions; our definitions vary between each other.
This is the exact reason why we perceive some people to
achieve things easier, though, in fact it might not be easier
for them at all. These people achieve all they want, because
they take time to uncover their personal believes that stop
them. They change these old believes with the new ones.
In fact, that is much harder, because getting to know
yourself on that deep level and acquiring new habits does
not happen from just swinging the magic wand. Though
that would be so good!

Your believes pave your way to success or block you. -Marsha

Sinetar.

If we want to solve any issue or any question, we need

to start uncovering our actions and non-actions, getting
deep into the causes of it. Yes, it is a psychology session,
where some of the things you might hear inside yourself
might hurt you, be sad and seem very untrue by being true.
This is often the place where we are afraid to go, because
seeing deep inside ourselves is absolutely scary. And at the
same time, it is absolutely beautiful, because there is
nothing more enlightening than seeing your inner self and
accepting it to the fullest. Only from this step on you can
start growing yourself into the person you want to be,
obtaining new habits and skills, achieving new goals and
wishes. If you are unsure what stops you, how would you
be able to go on further?
There is always an explanation on what stops you and
quite often there is more than one explanation. The
question is why do you think we continue to be in those
situations?. Because we get rewards from everything,
even from the situations that we do not want to be in!
Those become the reasons why we stay.
Do you know that we get rewards even from
procrastinating? Procrastination gets a very bad rap in our
society. Yet as we discussed previously nothing is only
black or white. Procrastination is a way of us dealing with
stress too, it is the saving mechanism we use as a relaxing
therapy session. Our complains rewards us, because in the
end someone listens to us, so we can feel cared for and
understood. Our addictions reward us too as they give us
some pleasure.
Everything has a reward and this is the reason why we
keep doing things that deep down we would like to delete
from our lives. It will always be a circling life stage we will
be living in, if we do not get deep enough to uncover the
truths of our rewards and our inner selves. Do you know
what rewards you get from not achieving your goals? Make
sure to dig deep and find them, because these are the true
things that stop you from achieving your goals.

Your capability and possibility in life are only limited by the wall
you create for yourself.
 You just need to try to understand the present situation
and go forward with changing your rewards by changing
your habits, because new habits will give you new rewards.
Every single habit has a positive and a negative reward,
depending on your beliefs on positive and negative. Can
you see how everything is related?
All the answers lie deep inside yourself and however
hard I can try, this book cannot get deep inside you and
your inner believes, because they are deeply rooted and
unique to each of us. Only you are able to do that and I
hope you choose this path with an open heart, because true
magic will unfold once you question yourself and your
beliefs.
In the next subchapters of this book, we will touch few
of the common negative beliefs of planning stopping
individuals from achieving their goals. We will look at
them as most common myths of planning and how they
might be creating walls towards you and your goals,
discussing the harm of them.
Afterwards, we will continue with discussing the
powers of productive planning, which you can transform
into your new habits. Remember, successful productive
planners know the true benefits of these powers and also
uses them in their daily lives.
The benefits of it will be portrayed clearly for you to
see all the rewards you can obtain from it. After all, no one
is ready for a change till the adequate amount of rewards
can be seen as a worth it opportunity.
I assure you, productive planning has a lot of rewards
to offer you. It is your decision to choose to use them or
not.
BASHING THE MYTHS OF
PLANNING

There are many myths used in our society to explain the

disadvantages of planning. Sadly, these myths often
become the main causes to avoid planning. You might be
very familiar with some of them. Some myths you might
have heard from others and you might have smashed,
broken, twisted them up; while there might be few that you
still hold glued to.

I dream. I test my dreams against my beliefs. I take risks and I

execute my vision to make those dreams come true. -Walt Disney

Why knowing these myths is important? These myths

become our believe systems, the programmes on how we
perceive the world. We have a believe system for each area
of our life and each single subject. In other words, we have
our own story for everything. And we have lots of stories
for the things that we do not do and like, and of course for
the things we cannot accomplish or do not understand.
Within my experience with planning, I have heard a lot
of stories from other people about their beliefs on
planning, some of which unfortunately kept them stuck in
their lives, just because they were strongly grasping to keep
the old stereotypical myths in their belief systems.
 You know who mainly create myths? Mostly it is
people, who never have even tried the discussed topic,
subject or activity, or the people, who tried it once and
failed. Those are not really the ones you want to be
inspired from. Yes?
Do you want these stories to hold your life into the
cage? I hope there is a big absolutely NO coming from
your side. Within that NO in your mind, we will uncover
the biggest myths, explaining what each of these mean and
what lies they hold by not allowing people to flourish and
obtain planning powers.

MYTH. PLANNING IS A PRIVILEGE SOME PEOPLE ARE

BORN WITH
We already have touched slightly this myth in the
introduction chapter. Remember when we said that
planning is a skill, hence, it can be learned by anyone?
Here, we will indulge more into it showing you that this
belief is a total crook (I like how we can call bad, annoying
and shitty words in a lovely way).
Quite often people believe that a good ability to plan is
a gift that is given only for some people. Everyone else is
left being just plain ordinary and mentally disable to
accomplish the task, because obviously, the task requires a
gift as a checking point to step on the starting line. It is
clearly just a privilege that some are just lucky to have.
Yes, that would simplify the life so much more. Ever
heard that phrase some people are just born with it? It
is an ultimate virus in society. This is the most ridiculous
phrase, because we learn the things during our growth.
Why do you think in CV, planning is put near the area of
skills and is in fact one of the most valuable skills by many
employers? Because firstly, planning is a skill and EVERY
SKILL IS LEARNABLE. Secondly, planning is a valuable
tool for everyone, both personally and in business
environment, because it is a skill or an ability to think about
the future and take action. Everyone wants to have a
humanplanner in their lives, because professionals and
people seeking for future understand that it can help them
achieve their goals and eliminate or minimize the risks.
As a skill, planning can be trained and can be improved
by constant usage. It is all about trying different tools and
checking how they work, changing the things and
improving, sometimes working easily, sometimes harder,
but constantly trying to forecast, evaluate and act on it.
Everyone can learn it, so can you!

MYTH. I AM NOT ABLE TO/WONT PLAN, BECAUSE I

AM NOT SURE WHAT I WANT
This is one of the major myths that I have heard so many
times that the number itself overwhelms me. Some people
say that they are happy for others achieving their dreams,
though they are not really sure what kind of dreams they
want themselves and what kind of results would make
them feel that extraordinary level of happiness and
fulfilment.
Firstly, we all need to understand that happiness and
fulfilment start here, at present. If you are not happy at the
moment, grateful for what you have then you wont
achieve happiness and fulfilment even by becoming a
president or an astronaut. You will just constantly feel
unhappy over and over again. You can surely find lots of
books to indulge more into the happiness matter, if you
are interested, without no doubt I would encourage you to
obtain more knowledge about it by bigger amount of
research and study.
Secondly, do you really believe that you will be
absolutely sure what you want right from the start? Truth
is, no one really is sure about it. We even have no exact
idea what kind of results will be brought to us and how the
situation will change twirling and twisting around.

It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.

 Achieving your dream is a trip, which you decide to
take and on that trip, you might create new opportunities.
Honestly, that happens very often. We get to know what
we want more during our path. That is why there is a saying
it is not about the goal, it is about the journey, because
the journey is the one that creates the new you.
Though, in order to go on a journey, you need to plan
and start taking small steps towards it. Even if you think
that you are not planning, but you decide to go on a
journey today, tomorrow or next month you are actually
planning. And if you want to see more things during the
journey, you also plan more by researching on the places.
And, truly, darling, you might not be sure what you
want, because you never have started planning. You never
have taken time to plan what you might want. Does it really
surprise you that you do not know what you want, when
you did not even take time to think about it?
While some ideas might just flow to you suddenly in
the shower or driving the bike, even these ideas need
planning. It needs planning to brainstorm, to dig deeper
into them, to rethink and think more what can be done.
This is productive planning taking time for your ideas,
taking time for yourself to think about what you might
really want. That does not drop from the sky without you
taking time to plan.
 Remember, you will never be 100% sure what you
want, but you will rebuild your dream by walking the path.
Do not feel any shame that you do not know what you are
exactly doing. Also, do not feel any shame if you do not
know for certain if your taken action is something for you.
You will find out. The fact that you gave it a thought is
already a message that you should try it out.
Constantly take time to plan your dreams. In fact,
brainstorming, a thinking process for your dreams, can
be a chilling and creative experience and you can choose
to do it in your favourite and creative places: cosy cafes,
libraries, outside in the park or near the sea. Whatever you
prefer. All you need to do is just give your mind a green
light to go and do not punish yourself if that day is not as
productive as you want it to be.
Keep trying and doing this and you will notice how
with time more and more ideas will come to light, more
connections will start to be visible and your dream will start
to evolve. Even if it is blurry, there is always something
you can reach for.

MYTH. PLANNING RESTRICTS YOUR FREEDOM

This is a big evil seed that restricts people from planning,
because if you have this belief inside yourself you
barricade yourself with huge walls from your own goals
that might be standing close to these walls, hoping to get
in.
I have been constantly asked How are you able to do
so many things? and of course my answer always have
been I plan. I am always fascinated by what often
happens next after my answer. Probably around 60 % of
the time, people take this myth outside their pockets but
planning restricts the freedom. I better be free. Right on
that spot I know we are in a big problem that needs to be
solved.
To begin with, we always plan at some level. Whatever
we do daily in our lives such as breakfast, dinner, going to
work and buying groceries after work is also considered as
planning. Every action, where you decide when and what
to do is planning. So, be aware when you use the words I
do not plan, because that is a pure lie to yourself. The
only difference in planning and the way how it is done is
the productivity level of it.
Now, lets delve into the definition of freedom. Did
you ever notice how at times you have a free day and
decide to do an important task in the morning, yet you
postpone it till the noon? Afterwards, you postpone it till
the dinner and in the end, you somehow notice that you
have reached the evening. Now it becomes too late to do
something, you have other important issues to attend
(such as watching Netflix on your sofa, because that is
always truly and extremely important). The important task
is left for the next day, sometimes it continues on the next
day, the week, even months andyears, actually shifting
to NEVER. You planned the day, yet it was re-planned
BY YOU. In fact, you re-planned it with other tasks, even
if those were scrolling through Facebook all day long.
Most people would call this day freedom, generally because
it included no obligations for anything. The only
obligations present are your own decisions.
However, if you act this way, in the end of the day do
you really feel accomplished? Do you feel fulfilled, when
this important task is still nagging you deep inside?
Honestly, most often we feel guilty; yet calling it freedom
makes it sound so much ow so much much better.

Failing to plan is planning to fail. -John Wooden.

In fact, freedom equals your choice and you always make

your own choices in every single task. Even if you work in
the job that you hate, this is your choice and you are
making choices every day, during every task. So, in the end,
if we choose everything by ourselves and freedom is our
personal choice, isnt planning a sort of freedom too? You
just choose it in a different way. You choose time to think
more about it, to evaluate it, to brainstorm it. It does not
restrict your freedom, because in fact, either everything
you do is freedom or nothing is. Again, even here you have
a choice how to view it.
I want to whisper to you a little secret. Productive
planning is a new freedom. Productive planning lets you
have more freedom without guilt, because you accomplish
what you want and after that you have time for relaxation!
Actually, with planning you start to have more time for
relaxation, because as a long-time planner, you start being
productive and doing tasks faster without really
diminishing the quality. Yes, you even can plan for
relaxation!
Honestly, I never have had such a big amount of
freedom before as I do now. I started understanding how
freedom truly feels only when I started planning. As a
productive planner, I rarely use the word busy and
always find time to relax and spend time joyfully. I even
was called a chill master for few times! Does that sound to
you like a restriction of freedom?
In the end, freedom is supposed to be absolutely
fulfilling and relaxing, without no or as little stress as
possible. You can feel that kind of feeling only when your
worries are solved, only when your goals are reached, or
by knowing that they will be reached soon! I bet you would
like to feel that kind of freedom yourself.
MYTH. PLANNING RESTRICTS THE JOY OF ON-SPOT
MOMENTS
This myth might be slightly associated with previously
discussed myth about freedom, as it often appears as twin
brother together with it. Yet, at times it might also appear
as a separate belief.
Just like other discussed myths, I personally have heard
this myth many times in my life and I am sure you have
heard it at least once too. Some people tend to lean to the
inner protection side of their selves and rely on one famous
excuse on spot moments correlation with planning.
They insist that planning just seems too strict for them and
that they rather enjoy on-spot moments than planning,
because planning restricts them.
Seems that there is some kind of a new trend happening
right now. This new trend is the fact that everyone will be
fulfilled truly only then they will enjoy and live by on-spot
moments and only on-spot moments. Firstly, that is the
truth, but it is half of a truth, just like everything else in life.
Everything has its dark and bright side, black and white
shadows, silly and intelligent remarks, strengths and
weaknesses, clouds and sunshines. Enjoying an on spot-
moment, suddenly deciding to change something, trying
something new, going to unexpected journeys surely
should be a part of everyones lives. Without any doubt
DO THAT! But lets be honest, how much of it can we
truly do?

All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveller is

unaware. -Martin Buber

Without no means, we should do it occasionally. Ability

to do it also expands our comfort zones as we become
more open minded to the world around us. However, even
if you do not like hearing it or admitting it you have
responsibilities. You choose these responsibilities by
yourself and you are the one, who chooses to continue
them or not. No need to be angry with the word
responsibility. It just explains something that we
constantly do to make ourselves alive: safe, healthy and
fulfilled. Isnt that a part of happiness formula?
Responsibilities are a part of your values, because these are
the things that you do to fulfil yourself. Even if you are
working at a place you hate, you do it to obtain money for
your living expenses. This is what YOU CHOOSE to do
for your life. You can love your responsibilities or you can
hate it, but in the end, you are the one, who chooses them
and no one else.
Just as there are people that plan and do not know how
to enjoy on spot moments, there are also people that do
not plan and do not know how to enjoy on spot moments.
That accounts for both rich and poor, both intelligent and
stupid, and both mean and nice. World never works in the
one-way direction, where one side is plainly evil and
another is good. This means that there is no correlation,
which should incline that productive planners are unable
to enjoy on-spot moments.
In fact, I always highly recommend enjoyment of on-
spot moments for every planner as an occasional vitamin
supplement, because things might happen and plans might
change too. Your life partner might get very sick and you
might need to change the plans and stay with her/him to
help. You might suddenly encounter a past missed
problem that could be presently influencing your business
operations in a negative way and you might need to allocate
time right now to solve it, rescheduling everything else.
While these examples are ranging more towards the
negative side, meaning that they are all accidents that create
discomfort, not joy, they still require on spot attention too.
Of course, there are other situations leaning more
towards a positive side such as getting a rare opportunity
to attend a seminar of the highly inspired person for free,
to go on a vacation you always wanted to go, to try
something with a big discount that you always wanted to
or your good friend visiting your city unexpectedly. If you
would select these options, you might change your plans.
You might decide to enjoy on spot moments, which would
require you to reschedule few of your other plans, or
maybe even the whole planned day. And you know what?
THAT IS PERFECTLY FINE.
I have seen people taking this choice and I have done
it myself many times. I am absolutely sure I am going to
do it in my future too. I enjoy and plan to enjoy those on-
spot moments to their fullest! In fact, I might enjoy them
even more, because I do not need to stress what might
happen LATER ON, because I planned for LATER ON!
I know I do not need to worry about it, because I know
that I will be just fine, because in the end, I am a good
planner and I know I will solve it.
Actually, some people live and take on-spot moments
and still end up not enjoying it. In fact, that happens often,
because taking an action and taking an action and enjoying it are
two different things. On-spot taker is not necessarily a
happier person just like the planner is not necessarily better
at achieving his goals, because that depends on the
productivity level.
So yes, you can plan and live an enjoying on spot
moment, live in a NOW world, fully be present and happy.
Planning does not take that away from you, nothing does.

MYTH. PLANNING IS BORING

Yea well so does eating, sleeping and going to the toilet
every day. Do you notice how everything that can be
considered a habit or a routine is constantly portrayed as a
boring activity?
We logically vastly believe that the same things that we
do over and over again produce us a varied level of
boredom. Scientifically, that is the truth. Our brain does
not produce such an intense level of excitement for
something we are used to do often. Though, to live you
need to breath, eat and drink, to rest you need to sleep,
to flourish you need to love and receive love. These are
the things we constantly crave and do all the time! The
daily routine system is similar for everyone, yet at the same
time we can make the system slightly different too. How?
Simply by changing the methods, for example: the meals
and drinks you consume, select different sleeping places,
deciding to get on a new adventure and etc.
There are many ways how you can make your ordinary
tasks more creative and many ways how you can switch
boring to adoring! Once you start changing your activities
even slightly, at least occasionally, your brain will start
answering with excitement after a while. Excited brain =
excited YOU! Yes, it is so simple! You might be thinking
that there are only few options that you can choose from,
only few changes that you can select from time to time.
But believe me, you can always find ways how to change
things, whatever it is. New ways will never get out of stock.
You just need try to find new ways that you have never
tried before. Yes, some might not be easy, some will look
weird and maybe quite stupid, some too hard or even too
easy and not worthy to try. Yet, the true magic lies inside
all of them and you cant know what sort of magic it holds
till you open it.
You do not need to use the same technique over and
over again in your planning activity too: to sit there and
write it on a small and same piece of paper, always the same
notebook or planner every single day, always the same way
and with the same pencil. Unless you want it to be so.
There is a tremendous amount of different ways how you
can plan in a creative way, letting your creative sparks
flourish. I need to admit to you; my home and work walls
are full of different kind of drawings and action plans.
Some of these are full of colours and stickers. I also have
a magnet board near my desk, which I can use for planning
notes and keywords, a little bucket full of notes working as
my bucket list holder that is waiting for me on my window
sill.

Designing your new life can never be boring. It is absolutely

outstanding, amazing and breath taking.

All of these ways can be expressed more and broadened

into bigger action plans on your notebook or paper, where
you put most of your planning activities, but the process
of planning itself such as the main notes, lists, pictures,
specific dates and brainstorming maps can be changed
constantly, and it can be highly creative, fulfilling your
creativity bowl and breaking the legs of boredom.
As you can see, planning is not so boring as we might
make it to be. It becomes boring just because we do not
try new ways and forget to take our creativity for a walk. It
is not the planning itself that needs to be judged by ugly
words. You are the one making these boring decisions.
Now, that does not mean that we are going to start calling
you by ugly words, yep? And you surely must not! Just
know and remember that there is always a present
possibility to make the action that we perceive as boring
into a more creative one.
You might be lacking the courage to try something
new, but try to push yourself to experiment and step out
from your comfort zone. We cannot blame one or few
types of planning we are familiar with and put the
boredom level on it. This is not how you start a new
relationship. Surely, not a good way to start or continue
any kind of relationship.
MYTHS ARE JUST MYTHS

I hope that this chapter of myths provided you with more

knowledge about what planning is and what it is not.
Many people get lost in the myths believing that some
things are true, while these things are on a totally different
side of spectrum. These myths like winds are being
brought from one person to another, creating beliefs of
reality, twisting them from the truth. This is by no means
not an innocent thing to believe in, because it slowly kills
your dreams! I hope you wont allow these things to
happen to you and your precious dreams.
Question everything, test it yourself and try everything
more than once to make sure that the answer is right. You
might be surprised how many myths lurk around us daily
stopping us from developing our worlds. Once you start
seeing it and start letting it in, you can also start changing
the beliefs. Once you do that your life changes by
opening new doors to you. Lets open few productive
planning doors together.


CHAPTER 3
PRODUCTIVE PLANNING
STAGES
A BROAD PROCESS

Though, many people believe that planning encompasses

just the process of planning for goals, the overall
productive planning process does not start and does not
stop only at this stage.
Productive planning is a complex process, though,
when we say complex, it does not mean that it is
complicated. It just means that it has a lot of phases inside
it. Once you get used with these phases all complexity
disappears.
Productive planning can be compared to an iceberg,
where the visible eye foresees only the small part rising
over the water, while the biggest part lies hidden beneath
our eyes, under the deep waters. Everyone sees what is on
top, yet only few people truly know what lies under it, truly
seeing what is hiding from outer perceptions. Planning is
an iceberg, because for the eyes of others, only the small
part of planning is visible, while the participant, the
planner, knows that it contains different stages, where
every stage leads to another stage. All the stages are very
intertwined, meaning that the things that you will
accomplish in one stage might require your attention again
in another stage. This intertwining process coming from
stage to stage is essential when you need to clarify the
situation, remind yourself some forgotten aspects, solve
the arisen problems or change few details due to found
better alternatives in your journey. Yet, you need to
remember that each stage is unique by its own, each stage
cannot be forgotten and taken for granted.
Now, we are ready to take a look at different planning
stages: brainstorming, drafting the plan, action plan,
action, re-evaluation, appreciating the moment, follow up,
finish line and starting new. This chapter only gives a
glimpse on specific stages for you to get bigger
understanding on what are the stages and what they
mean? and why is it essential?. Later on, the book will
further explain how these stages can be accomplished in
different ways using varied methods.

STAGE 1. BRAINSTORMING
Lets make one thing clear your productive planning
never starts straight forward with the action plan. There is
another fundamental process happening before you sit to
write your goals precisely. Everything starts with the idea
generation, thinking and brainstorming the idea further.
Truth is, everything is born once: by production and by
idea. Brainstorming is the preparation to start the race, the
creative process of visualizing your goals and asking
yourself:
What do I exactly want?
How do I want it?
 Why do I actually want it? What would it give to me?

You might get a hint for an idea, get that famous

longing, the AHA moment. Yet, that is not enough
you need to step down and find time to brainstorm
towards the idea, to get familiar with it and twist more
thoughts around it. If you do not give this permission to
yourself, the idea will leave you. The way how you decide
to do this process depends on you and we will discuss the
techniques that you can use later on in the book. Though,
make sure that you do not ditch your thoughts giving them
the licence to leave.
In fact, many plans do not reach the lighting start just
because people do not give themselves time for
brainstorming. This is why it is critical to take
brainstorming stage seriously, just like any other important
task that can give you lots of benefits. Schedule a meeting
with it and attend it functionally. Brainstorming is a green
signal light, which you give yourself TO GO. At this stage,
you do not need to worry about anything, just let your
mind drift towards your dreams and leave the worries for
later.

You do not have to see the whole staircase.

Just take the first step. -Martin Luther King Jr.
 You can do as many brainstorming sessions as you
want as long as you move to the stage Drafting of the
plan. You should also keep in mind that brainstorming is
not something that happens only once. It is recommended
and actually needed to brainstorm the same goal in the
whole productive planning process once in a while, as you
might get some new and better ideas or see some angles
that you have not seen before by walking the path of the
on-going planning process.

STAGE 2. DRAFTING OF THE PLAN

This is the stage where you take your goal on the leash and
show that you control the situation. Here, you commit to
your goals fully. Here, you take full commitment and
promise yourself to take action.
In this stage, you start by structuring your
brainstorming ideas into a draft plan. However, this is not
the structured plan, containing each detail; you will be
doing this in the next stage. It is a very productive aspect
to split these two things apart as this process might help
you to avoid getting overwhelming feelings. A lot of new
information at once can over burn our minds. We all know
how confusing new ideas can be when we start giving our
focus to every detail.
This is the point where you brainstorm the overall
process, the key points you need to do, the essential tools
you need to get to achieve it. It is a list of everything you
need to get to achieve your goal, yet we are not thinking
about HOWs and WHENs. We focus on WHATs. At this
stage, it is advisable to write all relevant aspects and tools
that you will need, even if it is perceived as a simple activity
such as calling someone for a favour. After that, you can
start digging into each point deeper, uncovering each
single detail, clearly explaining what you want and WHY it
might be beneficial to you. You do not need to limit
yourself with only one plan. You can create as many
different plans as you want to.
Think about all the options you have and create a plan
for each of the option. There should be at least few ways
how you can reach your goal; make sure to put all of these
pathways in this stage for evaluation. Even if it is
something you are unsure with or not really up to doing,
write advantages and disadvantages for all of them. This
will allow you to weigh all the options. When you are done,
check all the options and choose the one that feels the
most suitable, enthusiastic and fun for you by looking at
all benefits and obstacles. Notice that I have not said
choose the easiest option, because the one you might
choose might be the hardest one too! Though, it might still
be the one that you perceive being attractive and fun.
Carefully listen to your intuition and your dreams
whispering to you.
 If you are ready with you draft plan, jump to the stage
Action plan, structuring your goals even further.

STAGE 3. ACTION PLAN

Once you have selected the option you want to go with,
you will need to create an action plan, which is an even
more detailed plan towards your goals. It does not contain
any blah blah blah, I am not sure when, lets see,
lets postpone or other similar excuses. This is your key
plan that you will be using during your whole path towards
your goals, so it needs to be precise and straightforward.
This is your blueprint for success and success depends on
the type of blueprint you have.
The action plan differs from a previous drafting plan
stage, because it ALWAYS contains the schedule, your
deadlines for every little goal and smaller goals, also called
milestones, which lead you to your biggest goal. This is a
precise plan, which you create telling and promising to
yourself I will accomplish this till this specific time. Why
deadlines are important? It pushes you to commit fully,
kicking you to continue further by motivating you. In
addition, if you wont have key point actions with deadlines
that are simple to understand you will procrastinate, do
things slower and most often you might not even finish it.
 The enemy of the good plan is the dream of the perfect plan.
Perfection does not exist.

After this stage, you might end up with a big action plan
and the bigger your action plan the better it is, because
the more you delve towards each detail, the more you
learn, notice and get prepared.
Yet, after you are done with your big action plan that
might contain many arrows, clouds and anything you
would like to draw or not to draw, make the headlines and
key points that are easy to understand. It should be so easy
that another person would be able to clearly understand
your goal and ways to achieve it in a few minutes just by
looking at your action plan. Clarity should be very critical
for yourself too, as you will need to look at your action
plan constantly and find information easily, without
getting frustrated with it.
It happens quite often that many people get stuck on
productive planning stage two without continuing with
stage three or they tend to mix everything so much that
they lose themselves into the mess, ditching the goals in
order to avoid stress. I wont lie to you, creating an action
plan might not be easy for everyone, but you can get used
to it once you try. You will not always succeed with your
deadlines, some things will take longer as you have
thought, while some things will be done much faster. Yet,
your ability to estimate will get better and better.
Remember, it is all about commitment and pushing
yourself to do what you need to do and the process
becomes so much easier when you clearly know your end
points.

STAGE 4. ACTION
And when, you simply act on your action plan! You take
little steps and you do what you need to do. You just do
what you have planned, deleting all the what ifs from
your mind.
Do not worry about what ifs, because you need to
deal with them only when they occur! You do not need to
put worries into your head that do not even exist at this
specific moment. Otherwise, you will find worries and
issues anywhere and in everything. Do you really want to
overwhelm yourself so much?

Planning without action is futile, action without planning is fatal.

The action itself is not a hard process to understand,

yet surprisingly this is where majority of people get stuck.
And you might get stuck too. That is ok; but do not let it
define you. Start again! Re-plan if needed and believe in
yourself to catch the deadlines you have created. Mostly
people get stuck, because something either happens not
according to their plan or the plan itself is not created
properly. The later version most often happens, because it
lacks some details and deadlines.
Either way, in both cases, you just create a new plan
based on the situation and think about new aspects and
obstacles you need to overcome. Just re-do all the process
till stage four and then again take action till you reach every
milestone you want to reach. Once we really comprehend
how much easier it is than we make it to be, we stop
overcomplicating it in our minds.

STAGE 5. RE-EVALUATION. A CIRCLING PHASE

The key in understanding the present situation of the
progress is always the evaluation. Present situation can
change even in minutes; hence, it is substantial to re-
evaluate it constantly.
In order to follow with re-evaluation without a visit of
procrastination, you need to plan specific days for your re-
evaluation. I do my own evaluations weekly, yet some
people prefer it to do more often and some do it twice per
month. Things change and honestly, things change quite
often, so it is essential to look and evaluate the present
situation as much as possible.
Some people are certain that they are finished with the
productive planning once they start their plans. That is the
big mistake that can crush your goals! We learn by stepping
out and taking time to think about our actions and this
applies for productive planning too. You need to step out
occasionally and evaluate what you have done and what
you have not done:
What issues and problems appeared?
What are the present challenges?
With what issues and problems you have dealt already?
How did that feel?
What did you learn? Can you use this experience in the future?
Remember, you can use both negative and positive
occurrences for your future actions as lessons. This stage
is your main learning stage; so, make sure you give it an
adequate amount of your precious time. It is your academy
from which you will obtain a big amount of self-awareness
and lessons, as long as you give yourself time to learn. The
more you will invest in it - the more you will harvest.

Experience does not make you wiser. Evaluated experience makes

you wiser. -Andy Stanley

Keep in mind that re-evaluation is a circling phase, so

even though it is listed as the number five phase, you can
use it at any time in your progress and you should use it as
much as possible. Your evaluation will always identify the
amount of how much you will grow!
STAGE 6. APPRECIATING THE MOMENT
Even though this stage might seem simple and easy, do not
even dare to look at this stage for granted! We, humans,
can get so thrilled in doing things that at times we can
become doing machines eager to reach our goals as
faster as we can, yet blind and forgetting that we learn the
most during our journeys. Learn to appreciate the whole
process, not only the destination.
If you move towards your goal every single day,
however small that step might be, you always have what to
appreciate and you always have what to be thankful for.
Say thanks for your lessons, the things you learn during the
day, the people that are caring for and about you, even for
the people that are not there anymore! Because, that is the
way of feeling alive, things change and we need to be
thankful for any change the life brings us by appreciating
the present moment as a new lesson every single day.
There is so much to appreciate: waking up and being able
to walk, talk and listen, see and touch, being able to
continue with your goals by having current resources. The
list does not have an end. If you dont do it, you might
reach your goal and be surprised that you are not even as
happy as you thought you would be.
 Appreciate life as it happens. Moments will soon pass and you will
wish you had treasured them more.

This situation happens for many people, because they

went with so much force to get what they want without
taking time to absorb the beauty of their journey. Believe
me, each single journey you take, each single day, each
single act is so unique, that no one, even you, will ever
experience it again.
Appreciation stage also contains the rewards, including
encouragement for yourself and saying nice words to
yourself such as you did a great job, you are amazing,
congratulations to your awesomeness and etc.
Reward yourself a lot after you have achieved your big
dream, but also do not forget to reward yourself after each
single goal. Reward is a part of your motivation! Let your
brain know that you appreciate yourself and that it should
celebrate after each single goal is achieved.
You can reward yourself with words, with actions, with
gifts and procedures. It can be anything starting from a call
to a friend, sharing it on social media, getting a relaxing
massage, taking a hot bath or taking a trip abroad for a
week. Whatever you do, choose something that makes you
feel good! If you choose not to reward yourself you
choose not to be happy.
 If you think that awarding yourself in the finish line is
the only reward you need, I promise you that you will be
more stressed during your journey and unhappy in the
finish line. In fact, taking time for pampering yourself will
make you more eager to go further. Sometimes taking a
little time away and treating yourself nicely is all you need
to lift yourself in doing magnificent things, continuing and
rocking it all the way up.

STAGE 7. FINISH LINE

The triumph of the finish line always greets with few
questions.
How do you feel reaching the goal?
Do you feel the way you wanted to feel?
Is crossing the finish line enough for you?

At times, even the future orientated question what is

next? crosses the mind. But, however tempting it might
be to start something new, first make sure you deal with
your harvest properly. Harvesting it properly means that
you should take time to look at the whole process and
evaluate how it went. These are your fruits that you have
grown.
The finish line stage incorporates two sub stages:
follow-up and celebration. For follow up stage you should
ask yourself:
 What challenges did you solve?
What strengths did you obtain?
What weaknesses in yourself did you find?
How do you feel reaching it and why?

It is the re-evaluation of the whole journey you have

taken. Of course, by doing this do not forget to thank
everyone that has been a part of your plan and helped you
along the way.
But before you do that - FEEL SPECIAL, FEEL
POWERFUL, FEEL AMAZING for achieving
something that you truly wanted! Congratulate yourself,
praise yourself and let this amazing feeling sink inside
yourself. You are worth it! You rock! You can achieve
anything you want! Without no doubt, you are an
outstanding human being and you should be proud of
yourself.
Likewise, share your success with others, because you
can inspire them to achieve their own goals. Remember,
there is no arrogance present if you do it from the heart.
That also does not mean you believe you are more superior
than others. You just have decided to act and have found
courage inside yourself, you unleashed yourself to
opportunities. We all have that power inside ourselves, yet
so many of us tend to forget it. Remind them about that
power. Yet, you are the one, who have understood the
importance of it. Yes, you are special, but so is each one of
us. Embrace your special and help others find their own
special. You can do that easily now, because you are the
expert.

The finish line is just the beginning of a whole new race.

While you should show appreciation for yourself

during all the process of your planning, here you should
make it HUGE in order to let your brain know that you
are rewarding yourself for something magnificent. Give
yourself the biggest reward you can! Celebrate with full
excitement.

STAGE 8. STARTING A NEW PLAN

Here we are done with your goal. And once we are done
with our goal, we always ask ourselves WHAT NOW?
Well, the answer here is easy you start a new plan and
achieve your other dreams, follow with the next one and
the next one and the next after that. Yes, it will never stop,
because from now on you will always be eager to learn
something new, seeking to achieve something you want.
Once you get a taste of success, it will become your
ordinary meal! Of course, take as much time as you need
to rest and relax before you jump to your new journeys.
After all, if you do not know how to relax you do not
know how to work and this rule accounts for planning too.
But whatever you do, make sure you do not stop walking.
The world awaits you to uncover new secrets with lots of
ordinary magic lurking around every corner you turn.


CHAPTER 4
PRODUCTIVE PLANNING
POWERS


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