ARTICLE

Creating Your Plan
by Michael S. Clouse

We have all heard it, "Eight to ten hours per week, one Saturday per month, and one weekend per quarter—for two to five years." Referring, of course, to the investment of time—your time—needed to achieve success in Network Marketing.

And as important as it is for you to reach that elusive status called "success," I think it would be an equally good idea to know what you're actually striving for—and why you desire to achieve it.

To accomplish this, we'll need to begin with a little "futuring" as it's called, and move on from there. In this exercise, you'll start by listing the ten most important accomplishments you aspire to attain over the next twelve months. Make your list quickly—without giving it a lot of thought—that way you will bring to the surface those ideals that are truly important to you.

Always written in present-tense language, your "futuring" could look something like this:

I drive a black Crossfire.
I have more friends than I can count.
I have more money than I can spend.
People are always excited to meet me.
I read ten pages of a good book each day.
I listen to CDs during my automobile drive time.
I pay myself first, and invest 10% of my income.
I talk with two people today about my business.
My life is a masterpiece, because I design it that way.

By the way, your list may look completely different. After all, this is your life, and you may design it anyway you choose—and you do need to choose—or others will decide your future for you... It's true. Because the universe can not operate in a vacuum, every detail you leave out will be filled in by someone else.

Therefore, after you have placed the direction of your future on paper, begin creating your Master Plan. For this portion of your life, you will need a daytimer, or a calendar of sorts—something you can use to record the details of your new destiny...

To accomplish this, you need to schedule your year— months, weeks, days and yes, even hours. First, block out the commitments you have already made. This would include the hours you work a full- or part-time job, anniversaries, vacations, etc. Make sure you do this for the balance of the year.

Now take another look at each and every month, and see if you missed anything; like family time, company functions, seminars you are going to attend, special events you might have missed on the first go-around, or a little time to just relax.

Sadly, most people will never experience success, because they just let time go by—and it does go by—hoping against hope, that everything will somehow turn out okay. And then, before they realize it, life has passed them by. We have got to be better than that! Therefore, with all your priorities in place—written down in your planner—you can, perhaps for the first time, see how, and where to invest in the future you really desire.

Write down the hours you have planned for your two-on-one appointments, follow-up calls, and business briefings. Remember to schedule time to do your prospecting and your personal development too. In other words, find, and then put in writing, the "Eight to ten hours per week, one Saturday per month, and one weekend per quarter—for the next two to five years."

Because if you will just do a little planning, and then take action—remembering to improve a little every day—within two to five years they will call you "successful" in more ways than one.

All the best,

MSC

P.S. And if you're looking for a simple system to follow so that you succeed a little faster, click here