"How" comes LAST

Continuing from my last post You Can, here I come with an insight into what it takes to prepare for your goal. Very often you will see people determined to do something will start their plans on how to achieve their end goal. Having thought of this for quite some time and summarising my personal experiences, I would say , dont jump straight to "How" of achieving your Goal. How indeed comes LAST.

First you should decide WHAT, i.e. what is your goal, what is that you want to accomplish.

Then comes WHEN, i.e. when do you want to start and by when would you like to achieve your goal. You need to have deadline when you will start to walk your path and a long term vision for achieving your goal, it should not be an ever moving target.

Finally should come HOW. How to achieve your goal/reach your destination should be the last step in your planning process. Having said that this is still the most critical stage of planning where you need to spend 80% of your time. The following steps while defining the How will be important:

• Start with defining a high level plan
• Identify your key milestones
• Plan for each milestone in minutest possible details
• Have your contingency plans ready, planning for failures is not weakness rather being prepared to tackle the unforeseen/unwanted circumstances