9 ways to shine when plans go wrong

I am a planner, and I am sure you would be.

I love having plans. It helps me have a direction and set a clear focus.

I intend to:

• Blog more often
• Do more webinars
• Build a portfolio around my expertise
• Gain startup exposure

N what not!

But sometimes, or a lot of times, plans don’t work as intended. Reasons?

Situations, circumstances, changes in priority, shift in focus, or sometimes just being too lazy to follow.

If this is something that happens to you as well, then congratulations, you are not alone 🙂

We all have issues, obstacles, and a life that throws a spanner in the works!

This article is not to tell you ‘How you should plan?’ or ‘What you should improve in your planning?’ Instead, it is about “what to do when everything goes wrong?” and “how to deal with that failure.”

Because no one cares about your success as much as you do.

What to do when plans go wrong?

Go back, scrap the plan, and start planning again! Simple, isn’t it? 🙂

1. Own it and forgive yourself.
2. Never hesitate to accept the fact that “this plan wasn’t meant for me at all.” It won’t put a question on your ability, but it will tell you that this is at least one thing you know you don’t want.
3. Realize the shortcomings of your previous planning and try not to repeat them.
4. Match your potential to deliver with the expectations you set for yourself. Being overambitious is the most frequent mistake I make! Be honest with yourself.
5. Invest time where you need to and learn what you must. Of course, you won’t want to jeopardize on other important aspects of your life.
6. Trust your decisions.
7. Surround yourself with people who believe in you—people who won’t let you fail and can help you when you are headed in the wrong direction.
8. Appreciate people by giving them their due credit, and you will uncover the meaning of loyalty, hard work & dedication.
9. Appreciate yourself for what you achieved, no matter how small or big it is.

A good trick: Whenever you feel you did something good in your personal or professional life, write it down on paper and keep adding it to a box. At the end of the year, open the box and read it out loud. Your level of satisfaction will amaze you.

This is a very inspirational quote to end the article well!

It was amazing how you could get so far from where you’d planned, and yet find it was exactly where you needed to be

– Sarah Dessen, What Happened to Goodbye

How do you overcome the fear of failure when things don’t go as planned?

I originally published this article on Medium.