I love taking my IPad calendar and filling up every hour of every day with something. Some of the things I write down in some of the time slots are pretty general, such as, “yard work”, or “study”, but it is something. I read all of my 73 goals and then I do some calendar work, then I read my goals again and then fill in some more blanks in the calendar. I try to keep 10 months generally filled up, the next 6 months more so, and the closest 3 months totally planned. When I get 3 months completed I pray, “ Dear Lord Jesus, this is what I believe is your will for my life, and I am committed to pursuing it with all my might. If you want to direct me in a different way on anything that I have planned I am open and willing and I am listening and paying attention to any changes you want to make in my plans.”

Proverbs 16:3 Commit your works to the Lord
And your plans will be established.

Psalms 37:5 Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him, and He will do it.

Proverbs 16:9 The mind of man plans his way,
But the Lord directs his steps.

The rewards of planning as much of my future as possible is that I gain momentum and motivation reading what my plans are for the next day, the next week, and the next month. My use of time gets much more organized and precise having planned out my entire day ahead of time. I can anticipate problems, road blocks, and needs much more accurately and plan accordingly thus preventing them or at least be prepared to solve them as quickly as possible.

I know that there are some things that I do that very few people will ever start doing no matter how much I encourage them to pick up the discipline. Writing goals that cover most of your life and that will use up all of your time and energy, and then filling up the calendar with activities that are part of the strategy to accomplishing your goals seems like such a basic way to pursue a successful life, but very few do it and very few can be talked into doing it. I wonder why? I will keep trying.