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Planning is deciding how to do something in the future

• Plan: A set of actions that have been thought of as a way to do or achieve something.  Merriam Webster
• Plan: A scheme or method of acting, doing, proceeding, making, etc., developed in advance.  Dictionary.com
• Plan: A set of decisions about how to do something in the future.  Cambridge Dictionary
• Harness the power of small, consistent action steps,  Strategy,  Preparation,  Vision,  Begin with the end in mind

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Planning is bringing the future into the present

• Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now. Alan Lakein
• The future belongs to those who prepare for it. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• I try to learn from the past, but I plan for the future by focusing exclusively on the present. That’s where the fun is. Donald Trump
• Long-term planning is not about making long-term decisions, it is about understanding the future consequences of today’s decisions. Gary Ryan Blair
• We must give a lot of thought to the future, because that is where we are going to spend the rest of our lives. John Maynard Keynes
• The future

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Those who fail to plan, plan to fail

• Failures don’t plan to fail; they fail to plan. Harvey MacKay
• Action without planning is the reason for every failure. Peter Drucker
• Since they fail to plan, they are planning to fail by default. Denis Waitley
• Failure

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Be part of your own plan, not someone else’s

• If you don’t have a plan for yourself, you’ll be part of someone else’s. American Proverb
• If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much. Jim Rohn
• Living your life without a plan is like watching television with someone else holding the remote control. Peter Turla
• If you don’t run your own life… someone else will. John Atkinson
• Life offers two great gifts–time, and the ability to choose how we spend it. Planning is a process of choosing among those many options. If we do not choose to plan, then we choose to have others plan for us. Richard I. Winword
• Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you. Carl Sandburg

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You plan your vacation, why not your life?

• You need a plan to build a house. To build a life, it is even more important to have a plan or goal. Zig Ziglar
• People have more options than they think they do. But most people spend more time planning their vacations than thinking about what they want to do with their lives. Bob McDonald
• I find it fascinating that most people plan their vacations with better care than they plan their lives. Perhaps that is because escape is easier than change. Jim Rohn
• Most people spend more time planning a party, studying the newspaper, or making a Christmas list, than they do in planning their lives. Denis Waitley

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Planning is one of the keys to success

• To be prepared is half the victory. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
• The future belongs to those who prepare for it. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Before anything else, preparation is the key to success. Alexander Graham Bell
• If you want success in anything, you need to PLAN: Prepare for your journey. Launch out in action. Adjust as you go. Network with those who know. Tom Morris
• Success is a well-rehearsed plan.
• No-one gets an iron-clad guarantee of success. Certainly, factors like opportunity, luck and timing are important. But the backbone of success is usually found in old- fashioned, basic concepts like hard work, determination, good planning and perseverance. Mia Hamm
• Success, and remember this is any degree of success, can only be achieved by planning. Successful people make plans for success. True success comes from Vision, but it needs a Strategy. Phyllis Reardon
• The backbone of success is…hard work, determination, good planning, and perseverence. Mia Hamm
• There is no substitute for work. Worthwhile results come from hard work and careful planning. John Wooden
• Proper planning and preparation prevents poor performance. Stephen Keague
• Success

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Planning helps you create your life; not just react to it

• You can create your own plans in advance so that your life will respond to you. If you can hold the thought that at all times your life is either a creation or a reaction, you can continually remind yourself to be creating and planning. Steve Chandler
• How can you be more proactive and less reactive today? Stephen Covey

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Planning saves time in execution

• Every minute you spend in planning will save you as many as ten minutes in execution. Brian Tracy
• The primary idea was this: One hour of planning saves three hours of execution. Steve Chandler
• The payoff from good planning is enormous. It is estimated that each minute spent in planning saves ten minutes in execution. To put it another way, your investment in planning pays you a 1,000 percent return on the time and energy you invest. Brian Tracy
• Time management

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Planning helps turn dreams and goals into reality

• A goal without a plan is just a wish. Antoine de Saint-Exupery
• Purposes unrelated to a plan of action do not get realized. They exist as frustrated yearnings. Nathaniel Branden
• Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success. Stephen A. Brennan
• Good plans shape good decisions. That’s why good planning helps to make elusive dreams come true.
• Plans make dreams reality. Susan Pace-Koch
• It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan. Eleanor Roosevelt
• Sometimes Vision can be seen as dreaming or drifting; Strategy is planning and action. Phyllis Reardon
• Dreams,  Goal setting

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Planning replaces worry

• Worry is defined as being immobilized in the present as a result of things that are going or not going to happen in the future. You must be careful not to confuse worrying with planning for the future. If you are planning, and the present- moment activity will contribute to a more effective future, then this is not worry. It is worry only when you are in any way immobilized now about a future happening. Wayne Dyer
• Let your advance worrying become advance thinking and planning. Winston Churchill
• By all means take thought for the tomorrow, yes, careful thought and planning and preparation. But have no anxiety. Do it consciously in scheduled blocks of time. Dale Carnegie
• The first step in the risk management process is to acknowledge the reality of risk. Denial is a common tactic that substitutes deliberate ignorance for thoughtful planning. Charles Tremper
• Worry

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Planning creates luck

• Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Henry Ford
• Good luck is opportunity meeting preparedness. Deepak Chopra
• Chance favors the prepared mind. Louis Pasteur
• Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning. Thomas Alva Edison
• Luck

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Planning helps manage time

• All time management begins with planning. Tom Greening
• Life offers two great gifts–time, and the ability to choose how we spend it. Planning is a process of choosing among those many options. If we do not choose to plan, then we choose to have others plan for us. Richard I. Winword
• Time management

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Planning is a portal to productivity

• Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort. Paul J. Meyer
• The pleasure isn’t in doing the thing, the pleasure is in planning it. John Green
• Productivity

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Without planning, there are just hopes and wishes

• Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes; but no plans. Peter F. Drucker
• A goal without a plan is just a wish. Antoine de Saint-Exupery
• It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan. Eleanor Roosevelt

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Therefore, plan ahead

• Let your advance worrying become advance thinking and planning. Winston Churchill
• Expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised. Denis Waitley
• Don’t rush into things. Savor them more. Make more plans and be more deliberate and specific about the plans that you are making, and in all that you do, let your dominant intent be to find that which pleasures you as you imagine it. Abraham-Hicks
• Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you ready or not, to put this plan into action. Napoleon Hill
• Four steps to achievement: Plan purposefully. Prepare prayerfully. Proceed positively. Pursue persistently. William A. Ward
• Man’s best friend is a really good plan! Barry Gallagher
• Always, always have a plan. Rick Riordan

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Plan how to reach your goals

• Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success. Stephen A. Brennan
• Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan. Tom Landry
• Crystallize your goals. Make a plan for achieving them and set yourself a deadline. Then, with supreme confidence, determination and disregard for obstacles and other people’s criticisms, carry out your plan. Paul Meyer
• Although goals are important, having a plan of action is vital to the success of those goals. Having a goal with no plan of action is like wanting to travel to a new destination without having a map. Steve Maraboli
• Identify and prioritise the actions needed to reach your goal. Are there many steps involved with this goal, or does it require a few major milestones? Start brainstorming all the steps involved.  What is it going to take to get you from here to there?  Take a look at the steps in your list and prioritize them to the best of your ability. Which things must come before others? Which ones can wait until farther down the road?  Stephen Covey
• Developing the plan is actually laying out the sequence of events that have to occur for you to achieve your goal. George L. Morrisey
• Each goal must be reduced to specific, concrete action steps. Brian Tracy
• Just like goals, not all plans are created equal. An effective plan is one that spells out exactly what will be done, and where, and how. Heidi Grant Halvorson
• For each goal, decide on the steps to reach these goals. List them.  Next, prioritise the action steps.  Phyllis Reardon
• Goal setting

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Plan your life

• Live each day, as if it’s your last, but plan to live 100 years.
• Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? Mary Oliver
• Once you have mastered time, you will understand how true it is that most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year – and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade! Tony Robbins
• You need a plan to build a house. To build a life, it is even more important to have a plan or goal. Zig Ziglar
• Make a list of twenty-five things you want to experience before you die. Carry it in your wallet and refer to it often. Jackson Brown Jr.

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Plan your year

• Robin Sharma recommends the following 5 step plan for planning the best year of your life.
• What wins do I need to celebrate for the past 12 months?  What have I achieved?  What things did I do that I need to appreciate myself for?  What were the most special moments?
• What did I learn during the past 12 months? What are the three best business lessons I learned?  What are my three best life lessons?  What was I doing when I achieved my best results in the past 12 months?  What were my best practices?
• What are my big 5 for the next year.  What 5 big things must happen for the next year to be a great year?  These will be my magnificent obsession –  a seduction to distraction.  What will be my top 5 values?  What are my goals for the next 12 months?
• Take your big 5, values, goals and create a month by month plan of execution.  Make it one page, double sided.
• Close your eyes and start to emotionally engage with what your life will look like in the key areas of your life.
• New year

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Plan your week

• Have a regular weekly planning session in which you plan ahead the activities of the coming week. This simple process will ensure the things which you consider to be most important are not lost in the daily hustle-bustle of accomplishing the activities which are urgent.  Sephen R. Covey
• By planning ahead one week at a time rather than each day, you gain a better perspective of what is urgent and what is important. Stephen Covey
• So far, you’ve figured out your purpose, values, roles, and first things. How are you going to make sure your first things really are first and stay first? The best way we’ve found is through weekly planning. Stephen Covey
• Commit to investing from twenty to thirty minutes a week in weekly planning. Follow these steps as you plan: Write down your key roles. Select one or two of your highest priorities to focus on this week. Look at the week and schedule your tasks and appointments. Stephen Covey
• Your weekly planning session should follow this sequence: 1. Mission     Roles   3.  Goals   4.  Schedule   Stephen Covey
• At your weekly planning session, you should write down one or two goals for each of your roles. Stephen Covey
• Plan your day and week

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Plan your day

• When you plan your day the night before, your subconscious then goes to work on your plans and goals while you are asleep. Very often you will wake up in the morning with ideas and insights that apply to the work of the day. Brian Tracy
• Planning the night before is a great way to really get focused on the next day. “Sleeping” on your tasks and goals for the following day can really help your mind expect what’s going to happen the next day. Glen Stansberry
• Planning your day turns into living your life. Danielle LaPorte
• Every morning plan three things you’ll do on that day: one that gives you pleasure, one that will help put you in the state of flow, and one that will give your life meaning. Marelisa Fabrega
• Take the first 30 minutes of every day to plan your day. Don’t start your day until you complete your time plan. The most important time of your day is the time you schedule to schedule time. Joe Mathews

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Put your plans in writing

• Reduce your plan to writing. The moment you complete this, you will have definitely given concrete form to the intangible desire. Napoleon Hill
• Here is a great rule for success: Think on paper. Brian Tracy
• A plan is what you say you will do. A strategy is how: actions, timelines, resources.  Goals and steps need to be written down on paper or entered into a computer, to get them out of your mind.  If they stay in your head they can become fuzzy, unclear and not real and dissipate over time.  Phyllis Reardon
• It is proven that writing down our thoughts, intentions, desires, plans and goals helps clarify our thinking. Tehmina Zama
• Map out your future, but do it in pencil. Jon Bon Jovi
• Writing

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Keep your plans fluid and flexible …

• Write your goals in concrete and your plans in sand. Ingrid Klimke
• Map out your future, but do it in pencil. Jon Bon Jovi
• Be clear about your goal but be flexible about the process of achieving it. Brian Tracy
• Life is all about how you handle Plan B.
• The most successful people are those who are good at plan B. James Yorke
• Don’t fall in love with your plan; it’s only a tool to get you to your destination. Sean Phillips
• It is a bad plan that admits of no modification. Publilius Syrus
• If Plan A doesn’t work, the alphabet has 25 more letters. Keep calm.
• I know a lot of people have very strong and definite plans they they’ve worked out on all kinds of things, but we’re subject to a tremendous number of outside influences and the vast majority of them cannot be predicted. So my idea is to stay flexible. Henry Singleton
• In war as in life, it is often necessary when some cherished scheme has failed, to take up the best alternative open, and if so, it is folly not to work for it with all your might. Winston Churchill
• Flexibility

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… for life will not always go to plan …

• Life is under no obligation to give us what we expect. Margaret Mitchell
• Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans. John Lennon
• We can plan a roadtrip or a workday down to the last detail but the unexpected will always arise. If we are not malleable, we will get left behind. John Wooden
• How to make God laugh: Tell him your future plans. Woody Allen
• In the book of life every page has two sides: we human beings fill the upper side with our plans, hopes and wishes, but Providence writes on the other side and what it contains is seldom our goal. Nisami
• Even when you think you have your life all mapped out, things happen that shape your destiny in ways you might never have imagined. Deepak Chopra
• We can’t plan life. All we can do is be available for it. Lauryn Hill
• You have to have a plan and it’s important to stick to it, but it should be flexible too. Barbara Saunders
• Plans are invitation to disappointment. Derek Landy
• The best laid schemes o’ mice and men / Gang aft a-gley.    Robert Burns  (Note: Gang aft a-gley is Old English/Scottish for go often awry. )

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… and this can often a good thing

• Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable. Mary Oliver
• Get organised. Know where you are headed. But if something wonderful and unexpected comes along, be flexible enough to follow it. Jackson Brown, Jr.
• Just because things hadn’t gone the way I had planned didn’t necessarily mean they had gone wrong. Ann Patchett
• You can devise all the plans in the world, but if you don’t welcome spontaneity; you will just disappoint yourself. Abigail Biddinger
• We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. Joesph Campbell

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Even if things don’t go to plan, the actual process of planning is invaluable

• It is far better to foresee even without certainty than not to foresee at all. Henri Poincare
• In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable. Dwight D. Eisenhower
• Planning is essential. Plans are useless. Winston Churchill
• Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential. Winston Churchill
• You can’t leave the haphazard to chance. F. Simpson
• It’s not the plan that matters, it´s the planning. Graeme Edwards

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Create contingency plans

• Life is all about how you handle Plan B.
• The most successful people are those who are good at plan B. James Yorke
• If Plan A doesn’t work, the alphabet has 25 more letters. Keep calm.
• Another way to be prepared is to think negatively. Yes, I’m a great optimist. but, when trying to make a decision, I often think of the worst case scenario. I call it ‘the eaten by wolves factor.’ If I do something, what’s the most terrible thing that could happen? Would I be eaten by wolves? One thing that makes it possible to be an optimist, is if you have a contingency plan for when all hell breaks loose. There are a lot of things I don’t worry about, because I have a plan in place if they do. Randy Pausch
• Expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised. Denis Waitley

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Precede planning with dreaming and imagination

• First comes thought; then organization of that thought into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination. Napoleon Hill
• Without leaps of imagination or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all is a form of planning. Gloria Steinem
• The imagination is literally the workshop wherein are fashioned all plans created by man. Napoleon Hill
• Dreaming,  Imagination

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Plan big

• Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably will themselves not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work. Daniel H. Burnham
• To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream, not only plan, but also believe. Anatole France
• As long as you’re going to be thinking anyway, think big. Donald Trump
• Think big, start small

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Don’t overplan – get into action

• Give yourself a deadline to stop planning and to start taking action. Andy Gilbert
• Over-preparation is the foe of inspiration. Napoleon Bonaparte
• A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow. Proverb
• You can’t plow a field simply by turning it over in your mind. Gordon B. Hinckley

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Plan for the future, but embrace the present

• I try to learn from the past, but I plan for the future by focusing exclusively on the present. That’s where the fun is. Donald Trump
• No valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now. Alan Watts
• Man is born to live, not to prepare for life. Boris Pasternak
• The best way to prepare for life is to begin to live. Elbert Hubbard
• Why not seize the pleasure at once? How often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparation! Jane Austen
• Some people are making such thorough preparation for rainy days that they aren’t enjoying today’s sunshine. William Feather
• The true definition of mental illness is when the majority of your time is spent in the past or future, but rarely living in the realism of NOW. Shannon L. Alder
• It’s a funny thing, how much time we spend planning our lives. We so convince ourselves of what we want to do, that sometimes we don’t see what we’re meant to do. Susan Gregg Gilmore
• Live in the present

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Plan for the future but make room for spontaneity and surprise

• You can devise all the plans in the world, but if you don’t welcome spontaneity; you will just disappoint yourself. Abigail Biddinger
• Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable. Mary Oliver
• Get organised. Know where you are headed. But if something wonderful and unexpected comes along, be flexible enough to follow it. Jackson Brown, Jr.
• We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. Joesph Campbell
• Plan to be spontaneous tomorrow. Steven Wright
• Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous. Mark Caine
• I’m not making any plans. I’m just going to let the universe surprise me. John Cusack
• Spontaneity is one of the joys of existence, especially if you prepare for it in advance. Alan Dean Foster
• Spontaneity,  Surprise

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Use the past to aid your planning without overdoing it

• …everything has a past. Everything – a person, an object, a word, everything. If you don’t know the past, you can’t understand the present and plan properly for the future. Chaim Potok, Davita’s Harp
• A lot of people go through life like they are rowing a boat. They look at where they have been (the PAST) rather than where they are going (the FUTURE).
• Keep one eye fixed on the details; the other, on the horizon.

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• If Plan A doesn’t work, the alphabet has 25 more letters. Keep calm.
• Plan: To bother about the best method of accomplishing an accidental result. Ambrose Bierce
• Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans. John Lennon
• Opportunist: One who goes ahead and does what you always planned to do.
• Family Planning: Having all your children while their grandparents are still young enough to be babysitters.
• Family Planning: The art of spacing your children the proper distance apart to keep you on the edge of financial disaster.
• Plan to be spontaneous tomorrow. Steven Wright
• I get up every morning determined both to change the world and to have one hell of a good time. Sometimes, this makes planning the day difficult. E.B. White
• Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous. Mark Caine
• It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him. R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
• Poor planning on your part does not necessitate an emergency on mine. Bob Carter
• Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up. A. A. Milne
• Spontaneity is one of the joys of existence, especially if you prepare for it in advance. Alan Dean Foster

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