DON'T BE A CAVEMAN.

“Obalende! Obalende!” Each bus conductor choruses his bus destination, as intending passengers scramble to make it to work early. The usual busy Lagos workday morning.

Lagos is a city that rises pretty early. Most times as early as 4:00am, people leave their homes to start the day’s hustle. Everyone trying to be faster and sharper than the next man in the quest for their daily bread.

But in order to get my daily bread, my stomach needs to be full of enough bread for the hustle, and thankfully, sausage rolls and soft drinks are omnipresent at every bus stop. So, I scramble to get them, either before the bus moves or while it’s hibernating in traffic on the third mainland bridge.

But that only solves the breakfast conundrum. Being pinned to my desk means I often have to solve the arithmetic of where to get food while trying to get work done. My mind rapidly shifts intermittently from my deliverables to “Who delivers food?” I am now completely unable to focus on work. My fault, because I knew I was going to be hungry, yet I failed to plan for my meals.

They say, “If you take care of the little things, the big things will take care of themselves.” Why then, do I put off planning? Why do I delay facing the inevitable? Painfully, that’s how many of us live our lives.

Misunderstanding spontaneity, we completely put off planning and preparation, refusing to face recurring issues head-on. We prefer to enjoy the freedom we get from not thinking about such challenges until we have to face them.

But just as we ruin our automobiles by not giving them the required check-ups and top-ups at the pre-planned intervals, we limit our output and longevity by repeatedly failing to plan or bring structure into our lives.

Are you guilty of heading into situations without prior planning?

Have you started this new year without setting actionable goals?

The year is still young, so it's not too late to put one together. Take a day to examine the past year or years of your life. Look at how far you've come and decide where you want to get to and what needs to change in order for you to get there. Break it down into actions you intend to take and the measurable milestones you'll use to measure your progress.

Don't go flying head-first into such a strategic year like 2023.

Don’t be a caveman, have a plan.

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Culled from "My Third Cent: Life Lessons for Leaders II by Olayinka A. Williams"

Copyright ? 2021 Olayinka A. Williams - All rights reserved.