LIT Podcast

Episode #32: Do You Have a Plan?

Welcome to episode 32 of LIT. My name is Ravi Toor and I’m your host. First, I’m going to apologize today as I’m a bit under the weather and so I might sound a little congested. Welcome to having to do the thing anyway, right?

Ok, over the last couple of episodes, I’ve broken down some of the key things my last 3 guests talked about. Today, I want to break down the final piece that I think is super important, and practical. That’s making a plan.

This topic actually came up a couple of times for me but I wasn’t sure exactly how to talk about it. I mean, to some extent, this concept of making a plan is common sense but we all know common sense isn’t so common anymore. So I figured, why the fuck not. This thought had me go back to my outline for LIT. Back in 2018, before I started recording LIT, I needed to create a plan mostly because I was so new to podcasting that without a plan, I didn’t exactly know what to say, what to do and how to create.

Seems simple, really, get a mic, start talking, edit, publish. But there’s so much in between. Topics, who you are as a listener, what you experience in your day to day, what you experience, or what my hopes are that you experience when you listen to LIT and what I believe you walk away with after listening to LIT.

I broke all that shit down.

I even broke down topics, right? I mean, it seems so simple to get onto a mic and start talking but it’s not that simple. The mic itself can be daunting, even for people like me who tend to talk a lot. I mean, in my normal off mic days, I’m chatterbox. I talk about shit all day long. But when I get on the mic, honest truth, sometimes it’s scary like I just don’t know what to say.

So, to combat that, I created 52 topics which equate to 52 weeks of production.

What I did there, in essence, was I eliminated the possibility of my limiting beliefs getting in the way of producing. By creating a plan beforehand, in times of doubt like when I’m staring at the mic and I’m unsure of what to say because who the fuck wants to listen to this episode anyway, all of a sudden I’ve got something to say because I’ve got a plan. A plan which I invested in way before anything else. Basically a plan I created during the ideation phase of LIT.

Now, how easy is that really? During the momentum of the idea, with all the good feelings, the excitement, the hope, the inspiration, the ability to know possibility to its fullest extent, I created a fail-safe in essence. I created a plan that would help me throughout my process. So, on the days when I wasn’t so confident – and it happens to the best of us, I had a host of topics I could pick from and start talking about. Literally, all I had to do was close my eyes and point to get the topic I would like to talk about. Now, that’s not exactly how things went down, but having the security of a plan really does fucking help. It eliminates your self-doubt in times where you’re not operating at your best, it gives you freedom because you’ve already done the majority of the work, so this just means you’re executing on the framework you’ve already generated, and it gives you peace of mind, because you’ve always got something to rely on.

Here’s the kicker, I didn’t actually follow that outline I made to a T. I totally veered off many of times depending on the guest, depending on the opportunity, depending on the current affairs in the world. So, in essence, we can say this is more freedom, and more confidence building when you have a plan because now you get to choose how you want to execute on the plan. Most plans, even the best thought out ones, tend to have changes to them along the way. That’s because you’re practically applying your plan, and so, sometimes, you gotta shift. That’s pretty much how it’s been going for LIT.

Now, imagine if I didn’t have a plan. What the hell would the show sound like?

First of all, I wouldn’t know shit about you. And trust me, I do. That’s because I took the time to do my market research, I listened to myself about what I wanted to say, and who I was talking to. I was clearer in the infancy of LIT because there wasn’t much going on. It was just an idea that only myself, my husband and a couple of friends slash colleagues knew about. That means, there was little to no pressure. I was in a space where I was free to create. Because let’s face it, once you start to put your shit out there, whether it’s on social, it’s on the internet or it’s in your community, you know when you put it out there, people around you have all sorts of opinions. That shit can really bring you down if you let it, right?

And I believe it does for most people. Trust me, I’m not immune to this either. Whether revealing that is a bad thing or not, I’m thinking fuck it, it’s important for you to know you’re not the only one who suffers from the negative impacts of other’s judgments. So, when you’re being judged, when your ideas are being compared to something already out there, or when people are telling you, meh, maybe don’t do that, you can rest easy knowing you’ve already got a plan and so all that jibber jabber from others who don’t see your full vision, well, that shit no longer matters.

What I’m saying is, having a plan not only creates momentum, gives your idea life, but it also empowers you to say fuck off to all the bullshit that doesn’t serve you and your purpose. That’s because you’ve already written stuff up for yourself. You can’t exactly fall back on things like… oh I don’t know what to say today, or Nancy just made a comment about how this will never fly, or today I’m sick and I just can’t. The reality is, you can when you have a plan. You don’t let negative comments get to you because you’ve already laid out the stuff, so all you gotta do is head down and execute. You don’t let bad days get to you because you’re not scattered. It’s just a bad day but guess what, smart ‘ol you created a plan and so you know at least what to do.

Are you starting to get it?

When you create a plan, you first honour the idea and give the idea life by creating the plan. So, you’ve already set into motion the possibility of this becoming a reality. Numero Uno for manifestation, right? 

Next, by creating a plan, you’ve created a framework or a roadmap that will help lead the way. It’s kinda like the light in your tunnel, right? In essence, you’ve created something you can rely on at every step of the way when it comes to executing your idea. Brilliant!

Then, you eliminate distractions, comments, other people, basically, all the things that are meant to derail you or impact your execution are outta the way because…you fuckin’ guessed it, you’ve got a plan. I cannot stress to you how big of a benefit having a plan has on your emotional well being. When you’re lost, when you’re confused, when people have been straight out rude and ya don’t know what to do, you go back, pull up the plan and get yourself right back on track. 

Now, here’s the best part of the plan. When you make a plan, you have everything laid out, right? You know exactly what you want to do, why you want to do it, and how you’re gonna do it. But, like I said, shit doesn’t always go according to plan. And, guess what? That’s a fucking good thing because there are things during making a plan that you might not know about or you might not anticipate. What do we call that? When you go through it, it’s called experience. So, when you originally build the plan, you build it through a lens of possibility. But when you start to execute, you gain so much experience that now, your experience leads to an evolution of your plan. Now you know that something doesn’t work and you eradicate that from the plan, you create a new extension to the framework which usually brings other ideas or other concepts to the playing field. Now, you have an opportunity to expand on the plan. Shit just gets better each time. And, you’ve added a new realm of possibilities, right? You’re expanding, your evolving and only good shit can come from all of that. 

Now, as you’re listening, you might be thinking, damn, I already know this, or aren’t you repeating yourself a bit? Well, am I and do you?

The reason I ask you this is because most people don’t go with a plan. Instead, most people execute off of just an idea and as soon as the first obstacle hits the decks, most people fall flat and are unable to recover. It’s kinda like putting together Ikea furniture without looking at the instructions. We’ve all been there, and that shit don’t fucking work whatsoever. Legit.

My job, as someone who’s encouraging you to create change in your own life by stepping up as a leader for personal growth that then results in you being a leader in social growth, it’s important for me to walk you through all the pieces of success. Not just the ones that are fancy to talk about but also the ones that are super obvious. That’s because as a remarkable person with life, let’s get real, you can miss these big pieces that have a direct impact or influence on your success or lack of success.

Think about an area where you want to create change. For some this means eliminating debt, for others, this means pursuing social impact. No matter what the idea, debt or impact, you still have to create a plan. You can’t go about shit trying to do it on the whim of how you feel because like I stated above, there’s a host of shit to derail you throughout your journey, a plan just means you stick to the fucking plan no matter what.

So today I challenge you, whether it’s making a meal plan so you have more time during the week to focus on things matter while you’re hitting your budget or whether it’s a plan to create personal growth in an area where you’re being impacted, make a fucking plan.

Get out a sheet of paper and ask yourself: why do I want to do this? Why is this important to me?

Then, start filling in the gaps. What are the different steps I need to take in order to be successful in this venture?

Here’s the best part, you’re not always going to know the answer to all the steps, but again, because you’re making the plan you’re doing the work beforehand which means, you have an opportunity to research to figure out what you need to make your idea work.

So, today, make a plan for your vision.

Get clear so you can execute on bringing that vision to life.

Because, without a plan, it’s just a fleeting idea, a wish, just another thing that gets lost in the land of broken dreams.