Page 28 - January 2022 Barbecue News Magazine

What Are Your Plans for 2022
We just ended a whole month of festivities. Christmas par- ties. Christmas lights. Organizing when family will be over or when we’ll be over to visit family. Then there are all the gifts. My mom would set out buying gifts for everyone throughout the year and then forget where she hid them on Christmas day. We cannot forget the week after Christmas where we all switched gears to ring in the New Year and the choice of going out or staying in are placed on the front burner. It was a whole month of planning and scheduling then re-planning and re-scheduling. Then there’s all the plans we’re making for this brand-new year (especially what we’re doing for the Super Bowl).
Planning is such a huge part of our lives and sometimes we don’t even realize it. We plan dinner parties, family vaca- tions and just what we’re doing this weekend. As we enter this season of resolutions, goals and aspirations, the ques- tion we need to ask is, “How serious are you about accom- plishing what you’ve stated?” The most famous resolution, of course, is losing weight. But one of the reasons we don’t keep it up is we don’t plan. This is the issue with a lot of the goals we set. 2022 is going to be the year of planning. Here are a few things we all need to know about planning to reach these goals.
Planning is Essential
There are a lot of quotes I could insert here about plan- ning: “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” “I made my plans and God laughed.” These well-known sayings are ones which almost encourage you not to plan at all. Here’s one in which we should live, “Fail to plan, plan to fail.” I know when making plans there is always that chance Murphy’s Law will step in the mix but none of this should discourage you from making a plan. Just like when we fire up the grill for supper, there’s a plan, however, something may cause us to deviate from this plan or prolong the process. When this happens, we don’t give up, but rather, carry on with the plan, it just may look a little different. Planning is an essential part of the success of any goal no matter how large or small.
Planning Gives Direction
Have you have sat in a career planning class or been asked in an interview, “Where do you plan to be in one year? Five years?” We’ve all given an answer to these questions. They have probably varied over the years, but we have a goal in mind, at least for the moment. Allow me to ask you to sit back and answer these questions, just to yourself. Once you feel the need to verbalize them to someone, please do so.
There’s something to be said about telling others about your goals which hold you accountable in a way. Now, you have your answers to where you want to be, how are you getting there? That’s planning. Planning makes sure you are on the right road to your goal. You’re forced to set steps get there. Sometimes, you may have to take a step or two back. Just keep in mind, those backward steps aren’t signs of failure (even if it may feel like it), it is simply, regroup- ing. Look at your one year and your five-year goals, then sit down to map out a plan and start pressing forward.
Planning Delivers Milestones.
When I plan a trip, especially a long one, I always set places to stop off. It could be a town or an attraction I would like to visit. It could also be just a place to sleep for the night before renewing my journey the next morning. Milestones, when planning, allows you to see you’re on the right on track for end goal. These milestones also give you a sense of accomplishment. Little ‘wins’ along the journey toward your goals. When planning, these milestones, need to be worked into the plan. When I set my one year, or five-year goal, I apply this same practice. It’s easy to set a goal but if there is no plan, with little wins along the way, it can quickly become a pipedream. That thing you would like to do one day, but it never really becomes a reality. Or worse, you get discouraged because you can’t see you’re making progress. At this point, you begin to see how hard it really is to accomplish your dream, then allow that to weigh you down. Before you know it, you have given up and the little nagging voice in the back of your heart tells you, you’ve failed. This is why your milestones are so vital when mak- ing your plans. You need to have the little wins to gain the big win.
28 - BarbecueNews.com
JANUARY 2022