How to Write Plans That Work
To reach a goal or accomplish an objective, you need a workable plan.
“The purpose of organization is TO MAKE PLANNING BECOME ACTUALITY.” — L. Ron Hubbard
Ten Examples
If you know how to write and complete workable plans, you have the power to accomplish anything.
* Improve your health
* Increase your statistics
* Get better-paying work
* Start or change a career
* Find a wonderful spouse
* Create a successful marriage and family
* Start a new business
* Expand your group
* Get filthy rich
* Win any of your life games
Five Planning Mistakes
1. The plan is vague.
For example, “Build a terrific website that makes our company very successful.”
2. The plan is too complicated or has too many irrelevant steps.
For example, “Recalculate the cost/savings ratio to ensure our return on investment is within acceptable limits.”
3. The plan is too difficult to actually do.
For example, “Buy 100 houses, fix them up and sell them for a huge profit.”
4. The plan is just a list of ideas.
For example, “Buy a terrific house. Find a city I like to live in. Decide if we want a yard or not. Call several real estate agents. Look for land in the mountains.”
5. The plan does not actually exist.
For example, “Dream about getting rich.”
Fortunately, writing a good plan without these mistakes is easy.
Question: What is the Test of a Good Plan?
Answer: You get the result you want.
Anything less than 100% success means you are probably making one of the five mistakes above.
A good plan is like using Google Maps or your car’s navigator.
* You enter a destination.
* The app tells you the best path to take.
* You take each step.
* You arrive at the destination.
All of your plans get the result you want if you use some or all of these simple, but powerful tools.
Eight Planning Tools
L. Ron Hubbard wrote dozens of articles about planning. Eight of these discoveries are described in the links below.
1. Imagine the end result of your plan.
Write down what it will be like when you reach the goal. This planning step is not only fun to do, it helps you see what you will need to do. The more details you can include the better!
Read “The Power of Your Imagination” and “Imagine Being Wealthy.”
2. BE the correct person for the plan.
Write down the hat you need to wear or the identity of the person you need to be for your plan. You must be 100% willing to BE this person, whenever you work on the plan, for the plan to work. The correct BE makes DOING the steps much easier.
Read “The Power of BE.”
3. Write down the relevant elements from the “Scale of Administration.”
Look over the list of 10 elements and write down whatever fits into your plan. You will see many of the elements of these eight tools fit together. For example, include your goals and purposes in all of your plans. Your ideal scene might be the same as the picture you imagined in the first technique above.
Watch “Targets and Goals.”
Read “Administrative Scale.”
4. Increase your Knowledge, Responsibility and Control (KRC).
For your plan to succeed, what additional knowledge do you need? Add the answer to this question near the start of your plan.
What do you need to take more responsibility for? You can do this immediately.
What will you need to have more control of? Include the answer to this question when it fits best in your plan.
Read “How to Discover Your Power and Command of Life.”
5. Make a Good Start.
For the plan to succeed, what will everyone and everything need or want from you? What will you need or want from them?
Read “The Power of a Fresh Start.”
6. Balance the Freedoms, Barriers and Purposes in your plan.
Creating a successful plan is the same as winning an important life game. Use the “Seven Steps to Winning Any Game in Life.” Answer the 41 questions to help you write your plan.
Read “Life is a Game.”
7. Work out the valuable final Product and its Subproducts.
As long as you have written down the final result of your plan, you can work out the subproducts. Include these steps in your plan to ensure nothing is missed. As long as you produce each subproduct, your end result is guaranteed.
Read “Produce BIG AMAZING RESULTS with Small Simple Steps.”
8. Track the Related Statistics.
What daily or weekly numbers represent your progress? Once your plan is a success, what statistic will be higher? The numbers are the proof of your results.
Read “Boost Your Pay with Statistics.”
How to Create a Plan That Works
1. First, write down everything that might be part of your plan. It’s like playing a game of cards. Before you make a move, you need to see all of your own cards AND every card of every player in the game.
2. Write down your destination (goal and purposes) and the data related to your route (strategies, freedoms, barriers, needs, options and more). You can just write, write, write until a lightbulb turns on.
3. You realize how you can reach the goal. You KNOW you now have a plan that will work.
4. Create a clear, doable step-by-step plan.
5. START. Take action. Follow your path and reach your goal.
Click the worksheet toggle below for 20 questions you can ask yourself. You can also download a PDF version to print by clicking here.
Planning Worksheet
Planning Worksheet
Consider these planning elements while writing your plan. Jump around from question to question and write answers as you think of them. For example, while working out the three parts of a game (Purposes, Freedoms, Barriers), you might think of a few Optional Plan Steps. Write them down. You might then realize you need some Knowledge, so you write that down.
Keep writing down your answers and ideas until you discover, for yourself, what you need to do. THIS is your correct plan.
Write down the steps to your goal and START!
1. Goal: What do you want? What is the final result?
2. Purposes: Why do you want it?
3. Policy: What rules or guidelines do you need to follow?
4. Ideal Scene: If everything goes well, what will happen? What will things be like? What benefits will you get?
5. Existing Scene: What are things like right now? What is happening currently?
6. What is the Greatest Difference Between the Ideal Scene and the Existing Scene: Of all the differences between these two scenes, which ones are the biggest? Is there one that is bigger than the others? If you handled the biggest one or two, what would happen?
7. Game Balancing: What are the purposes, freedoms and barriers of this game?
8. Strategy: How can you get it? What is your best overall plan?
9. Valuable Final Product: What product or service will you create? What will you end up producing?
10. Be: Who should you be to get it? What is the correct hat?
11. Subproducts: What are all the smaller steps that will make up the Valuable Final Product?
12. Knowledge: What do you need to learn to reach the goal? What knowledge are you missing?
13. Responsibility: To reach the goal, what do you need to take responsibility for? What should be under your care?
14. Control: What do you need to control to get it? What must you start, change and stop?
15. Needs and Wants: What does everyone and everything involved need and want from you? What do you need and want from them?
16. Optional Plan Steps: What might work? What are some good ideas? What are all my options? Which options are best of all?
17. Plan: Step 1, Step 2, Step 3, etc.
18. Projects: Create projects for large plan steps.
19. Stats: What numbers measure the actual success or failure of the plan?
20. Stats Log: Track the results each day or week. What is working? What is increasing the statistics? What is not working?
Five Examples
Ben's Plan to Stop Drinking
Ben’s Plan to Stop Drinking
- Goal: Stop drinking with no urges to drink.
- Purposes: Think more clearly. Live healthier and longer. Be happier.
- Be a healthy person who never drinks alcohol or even think much about it.
- Take responsibility for this condition.
- Learn all I can about my urges and how to deal with them.
- Handle the urges by replacing them with something better. Keep adding new replacements as I discover them. These work:
- Country music
- Walks
- Exercise
- Healthy snacks
- Anything that boosts my mood
- Avoid situations where I normally drink.
- Increase the number of days I don’t drink each week.
- Stats Log: Each time I find a way to not drink, write it down and make it my policy.
- Policy:
- Constantly improve my ability to control my urges.
- Reward myself for each day I do not drink.
- Persist!
Lou's Plan to Be Financially Successful
Lou’s Plan to Be Financially Successful
Louise, known by Lou to her friends, is tired of being broke. She lives in an old apartment building. Her two teenage sons have to share a bedroom and a slow laptop. Her car just crossed the 200,000 mile mark and is about to die for the last time.
Fortunately, she owns an office cleaning company called “Lou’s Janitorial” which has a great reputation, but it’s not making enough money for her needs.
One night, Lou decides to use the eight planning tools. She goes through the worksheet and writes down all the answers she can think of. If she can’t easily answer a question, she skips it.
1. Goal: Have enough money for a better lifestyle, no debt and some savings.
2. Purposes: Not be stressed by money. Good education for kids. Healthier family. Not have transportation problems.
4. Ideal Scene: Three sources of income. Double Lou’s Janitorial profit.
5. Existing Scene: One source of income from cleaning business offices.
7. Game Balancing:
Purposes: Get my finances into better shape by expanding Lou’s Janitorial.
Freedoms: I know how to really clean offices. I have five excellent workers. We work long hours. I have more new clients than I can take right now. Two of my staff are ready to do more and make more money. All my clients are happy with us.
Barriers: I don’t have time to do everything. I’m afraid to delegate. We need to increase our fees but I don’t want to offend anyone. I want to take on more clients but worry we won’t do a good job.
16. Optional Plan Steps: I have so many opportunities. Delegate more to staff. Do more janitorial proposals. Go to a hazardous waste cleaning school. Increase my prices.
As she has no lightbulb yet, she just cycles through the questions.
12. Knowledge: I need to know more about expanding a business, writing proposals and increasing my profit. I want to learn how to clean hazardous waste as I can charge much higher fees.
14. Control: I can’t control my fears.
Lou has a huge realization on this last one. Fear is stopping her. A lightbulb turns on.
She knows how to delegate, how to increase fees and everything else. But the fear of failure stops her. A new plan forms in Lou’s mind.
First, she must face all of her fears. She needs more courage. She needs to learn to do this for the sake of her kids and her future.
Next, she needs to increase all of her fees ASAP.
Third, delegate management duties to her two employees, increase their pay and increase her profit. Lou is good at math and so figures out how to do this.
Next, she needs to write proposals and sign up new clients and charge top fees. She teaches one of her sons to be her assistant.
Lou writes down her plan and faces every obstacle.
Without fear stopping her, Lou’s Janitorial income and profit starts to climb. She delegates as much and as often as possible so she has time for expansion.
She starts a new worksheet and creates a new plan to add a hazardous waste disposal service.
Louise builds her empire.
Carter's Plan to Get Married
Carter’s Plan to Get Married
Carter is not an attractive guy. Women avoid eye contact with him. He can’t get dates.
Carter thinks, “My stupid parents passed on their ugly genes to me, so I’ll probably never get married.”
He tries to improve his looks. He follows online advice for looking attractive by getting nice clothes, exercising and walking with confidence. Women still avoid him.
Carter needs a plan. He uses the worksheet, jumps around the questions and writes these answers.
1. Goal: Marry a beautiful woman.
4. Ideal Scene: In a perfect world, a few attractive women are willing to go out on dates with me. They think I’m a husband candidate. They like me. One of them wants to marry me.
5. Existing Scene: Women refuse to go on dates. They think I’m ugly and would never marry me. I try to look handsome, but I really have no idea of what I can do.
16. Optional Plan Steps:
Get plastic surgery.
Become a body builder.
Plan to be a bachelor forever.
15. Needs and Wants: I need an attractive woman who is willing to talk to me, go out with me and marry me. What would such a woman need and want?
She would probably want a handsome rich guy who would protect her, provide for her and make her happy. Well, I’m not handsome or rich, but I can do those other things.
Actually, all I care about is that she is nice and willing to spend time with me. This is much more important than her beauty. I can be a guy who will help her, protect her, provide for her and make her happy.
Bingo! I don’t need to be handsome, rich guy. I need to be a kind partner. That gives me a great idea.
10. Be: A good and kind husband candidate who will make his future wife happy.
17. Plan: Change my ideal scene to find a willing, kind woman. I won’t care if she has kids; I love kids! I won’t care about her age, race, shape or anything else.
I’ll change my dating site profile to show I might be a good husband. I’ll stop trying to look rich and handsome. I’ll use a picture of me in front of my house.
Carter immediately matches with a dozen women. He’s astonished. His plan works.
Jada's Plan to Become a Millionaire
Jada’s Plan to Become a Millionaire
For years, Jada has wanted to be wealthy, but keeps making mistakes.
She tries risky investments and loses half of her money. She gets business loans for businesses that fail. She buys a rental house as an investment, but learns she hates being a landlord.
The only thing going well for Jada is her accounting job.
She writes these answers.
1. Goal: Own a million dollars.
2. Purposes: Eliminate my money worries forever. Live a comfortable life. Be financially free.
3. Policies: No more loans especially for risky investments.
4. Ideal Scene: Three sources of income with one being the stock market.
5. Existing Scene: One source of income.
12. Knowledge. Even though I listen to three podcasts from investment experts, I actually don’t know anything about the stock market.
Ah ha! I need to educate myself. Like anything, I need to use good, old-fashioned, proven investment strategies.
17. Plan: Read 10 of the best stock market books of all time. Ignore all the flashy “new” investment strategies and just use whatever is proven to work.
Jada is excited. She gets the 10 books. She carefully looks up all of the words in the books. It might take a few months, but she educates herself. She then KNOWS how to invest in the stock market.
She does the math and writes a plan that will give her an average of 18% per year and end with one million dollars within 25 years.
She is even more excited when she realizes she can help her accounting clients do the same. Another source of income!
Andrew's Plan to Be a CEO
Andrew’s Plan to Be a CEO
Since he was 10, Andrew wanted to be a big-shot executive. Even though the other kids made fun of him, his parents let him wear his suit and tie to school. Even though he annoyed people, he loved giving orders. His life dream is to command a big company with thousands of employees.
Andrew went to business school which helped him get a job as a manager in a small advertising company. He knew nothing about advertising, but knew all about strolling around looking like a CEO. He enjoyed writing elaborate plans for the ad company, but no one could figure them out.
Andrew was a big shot executive until he got fired.
Everyone (except Andrew) knew he was a jerk who didn’t know what he was talking about. No one wanted him to be their boss. The only management job he could find was managing a small restaurant, which he hated. Andrew had no plan.
Even though he had gotten excellent grades in his business planning classes, he could not create a plan for his own goal. So he went through the Planning Checklist. Here are his answers.
1. Goal: I want to manage a multi-billion-dollar corporation with thousands of employees.
2. Purposes: I want the freedom, respect and pay that I deserve.
3. Policies: Be tough to all people so they obey and respect me.
9. Valuable Final Product: First, I want a job that will lead to my rise to power. Specifically, a well-paying executive job in a highly-successful company with plenty of opportunity to climb the corporate later to the top. Now we’re talking! This is exactly what I want.
11. Subproducts:
I find management job openings.
I convince them to hire me.
I get a great office.
People under me do an excellent job.
I get regular promotions.
Wait a minute. I just realized something. I can’t just be a big shot. I need to get people to do good work. If I can do that, I’ll get promotions. If I can’t do that, I’ll get fired.
12. Knowledge: I need more training on how to get people to love working for me.
13. Responsibility: I need to be responsible for their results.
14. Control: I need people to do what I say because they want to, not because I’m a big shot.
15. Needs and Wants: What do employees need and want? Ah ha! This is amazing! I don’t know!
17. Plan: Ask everyone in the restaurant what they need and want from me as the manager. Then work out how I can help them do excellent work.
Easy!
Andrew is excited and quickly becomes a brilliant restaurant manager. He moves on to the corporate games he wants to play.