Video Transcript: Making a Plan

All right, welcome back. My name is Steve Elzinga. We are in the coaching, class life coaching, spiritual coaching, actually coaching of any sort where you're trying to help someone figure  out how to do something different in their life, how to how to make goals and actually  accomplish things, get out of the chaos of many demands, to do lists that are so long that  they never get done. All the things that bring brokenness and unhappiness to people's lives,  you're actually as the coach trying to help them figure that out. In the last session, we looked  at how a coach goes about helping a client, figure out what area of life to even focus on, and  then what kind of action that they want to pursue or what kind of goal that they have in mind. In this session, we're going to look at the next step, this is the next thing that a coach helps  the client do. And that is make a plan of action. You can have a goal, you know, I, I want to get a degree, okay, maybe you have that goal, you want to get a religious education degree, well, then you need a plan to do it, you need to take so many courses. And those courses, you  know, that plan can be very detailed, you know, how long it's going to take, what courses you  have to take, and so on. So that's the section we're at, how do you how do you go about  making a plan? Remember, coaching is about getting your client to some form of action,  some kind of goal that they want to pursue. And there are three things coaches do to  accomplish this number one, they help a client figure out what they want to do. That's the  decision. That's what we looked at last time. And number two, that's what we're going to look  at this time, help the client figure out to do what they want to do. And that is a plan. And then finally, in the next session, we're going to look at how to help a client do what they plan to do. And that's really management. So what is planning planning is about figuring out a  progression of steps that lead to a desired accomplishment or outcome. Over time, let me  read that, again. Planning is about figuring out a progression of steps that lead to a desired  accomplishment or outcome, some goal? And that happens over time. Why do people need  help planning what they have decided to do? I mean, if you want to do something, just go do  it. Why do people need help planning to do it? Number one, lack of patience. People often  think well, this is why they want to do when they just go and do it. And they don't realize until it's too late, that if they just sat down and thought about it for a while they could have made  it easier. For example, I want to I want to chop a tree down. And so I just grab the axe out of  my garage, and I start whacking away. And I don't understand why it's taking me an hour to  get through this tree it's because I didn't plan. My goal was to chop this tree down. But the  one thing that I didn't do is I didn't sharpen the saw. I didn't even check to sharpen the saw.  And so that's what happens. A lot of times we have goals, we have things that we want to do.  But we don't take the time to sit down and go okay, now what is it really going to take to do  this? What is the pre step? What is the prior step? What are the many steps? I mean, how  does this break down, and we just jump in, and we start doing something maybe three steps  down the road. And because we didn't do the first two steps, it takes longer, it gets very  complicated. Often I do that with projects around the house, I just grab it and I just start doing and I don't think it through. And then I have to find tools or I don't have the tools and then I  get halfway and I can't complete it. And I started something and now I have wires hanging out of the wall. So what we need to do is help the client, okay, you decided what you want to do.  But now what is the plan to accomplish this and we just lack the patience. We just don't want  to take the time. I think it was Abraham Lincoln who said if you give me two hours to chop a  tree down, I'll spend the first hour sharpening the saw a number two, many people are not  gifted at breaking down an outcome into logical sequential steps necessary to accomplish the  desired goal. So a lot of us are just not sequential thinkers. We're not logical thinkers. Most  people are not logical. So they want to do something but they don't think about all the steps  that it takes to do that. And they don't know how to raise, they wouldn't even if they had all  the steps, they wouldn't know how to put them in order. Unless someone comes alongside  and says, Okay, now let's think this through, we have five steps that you thought of Now,  which one? Should you start with? Which one you think would be second? Which one do you  think would be? Third? What are the possible consequences? If you start with this one? Or you start with that one? So you're helping them slow down this process of planning? Number  three, why do people need help planning what they decided to do? Number three, many are  too optimistic about how much time it takes to accomplish a desired goal. I'm really guilty of 

that, when I when when I think about something to do, I think it's gonna take three hours. You  know, I'm going to paint this room. And I look at it and I go, okay, get the paint brush, the  thing and the roller, now start, okay, that's about three hours, it usually takes six hours. Now  I'm optimistic about how quickly I can do something, I don't realize all the pitfalls and the  problems and, you know, I, well, you know, I get the paint. I've got the thing, but now I don't  have a pan, now I gotta go to the store and get the pan, then I come back and I don't have  something else. And then I start spilling on the rug. And I have nothing to clean up the rug.  And now I'm, you know, I'm hurrying, and you know, making a mess of the thing. Because I  didn't take the time to plan out what are the things that I need? What is the sequence of  steps? What do I need to go, I only want to go to the store one time, and buy all the things  that I need, instead of always, you know, getting started running into a problem, go to the  store, you know, and that's what people tend to do, because they don't take the time to go  through the steps. We're too optimistic about how easy this is going to be. One of the phrases that people in my church use, or they say that I say this all the time, is, you know, I'm saying  this for saying, how hard can it be? You know, whatever it is we're doing, I always like, well,  how hard can it be? And generally, it's harder than I think. Alright, number four, no discipline  process to figure it out. Okay. So we have a goal, we have something we want to do, we think  it's going to help change our life in some area. But we don't know how to make the plan. And  we don't even know how to start, we don't know how to begin to even think about making the plan. Most people don't have a process of how to figure this out. What is really a plan even  entail? Well, how does coaching help people plan to do what they have decided to do? So we  can see people don't don't naturally know how to make a plan. Often people don't know how  to do that. So how does a coach come alongside a person? You know, let me help you. In this  process of making a plan, what does the coach do? Number one, a coach slows the planning  process down. People, they come up with a goal, they want to go do something. And the first  thing they think to do is what they do. And that might be the third thing that they should do.  And then they just haven't taken the time to sit down and go, Okay, so that's what a coach  does. He says, Okay, let's, before we go to the goal, let's think about all the steps that might  be necessary. All the things, you know, let's think about equipment. Let's think about space.  Let's think about time, let's think about energy, let's think about all these different things that that are needed to accomplish other people that are needed. Let's let's sit down and sort of  brainstorm all the different possibilities of the things that we might need to finally make a  plan to accomplish this goal. So So let's slow this down. Let's not go off into action. Let's do a  little more a little bit more thinking on this. Number two, with the help of planning models,  okay, we looked at decision making models in the last session, things like the seven  connections or, or commitments and obligations, we looked at different ways of thinking  about one's life, and the areas of one's life to think about what needs to be changed. And now we're doing the same thing when it comes to planning. There are different ways of thinking  about the whole planning process that can help a client sort of go through the different  possibilities of how one might do this. With the help of planning models, the coach can help  the client figure out the steps involved in trying to reach a goal. Alright, the three basic model categories just we had three basic model categories when we looked at you know how to  make a decision of what you want to do and now we're doing this Same thing with how to  make a plan. And that's what makes this sort of easy. I think, if you listen to this video a few  times these videos, you'll get a whole sense and it will become almost natural. Maybe you're  writing things down right now, How can I remember all these things? Believe me over time, all these things will just come natural to you. The three best basic model categories. Number  one, there's pre planning. Okay, there's things to think about, before you even start planning  at all. Number two, then we start brainstorming and breaking down this plan into its different  parts. And we think about different ways of doing that. And then finally, you make a  commitment. All right, out of all the different things, we brainstorm different ways that we  could do this planning different porters, and so on, we finally have to make a commitment to  one or the other, or something, you know, one of the options. So pre planning, what kinds of  things are we talking about? Number one, I'm calling this cold resources. Okay? Cold Reese's  resources are like equipment and facilities. So I have a plan to do something. Does this 

require any kind of equipment? You know, I'm planning to write a book. So right now,  currently, I'm writing a children's picture book. It's a Christmas children's Christmas book, I  have an idea of the story. And, you know, a girl goes to a young girl goes to asleep, you know, excited about Christmas and waking up on Christmas morning and opening presents. But  when she wakes up she finds herself in first century is Israel. And, you know, she ends up  being a shepherd in the field and the angels come and there's this whole story. And so I'm, I  worked on the story, but then I wanted to actually do the artwork. So, you know, so I thought  about, well, what equipment do I want? Well, I was going to do it all on the computer. And so I  found ordered a pad that you can actually draw on, you know, onto your computer, and paint  in color, all these different things. So I'm doing the artwork, actually, I mean, so I needed, I  needed a hard drive to store it, because I don't want to lose it. And so I needed certain  equipment to carry on the goal. And I needed other books to look at. So I'm calling things like  that cold resources or facilities. Or maybe you have to go on a trip. So I take my son who is a  professional photographer, and we went to Israel for 10 days, and we took pictures of the  Land of Israel, because I wanted to make the artwork authentic, I didn't want it to just look  like any children's book, where someone is just making up a field and the shepherds and all  these things. I wanted to actually get the lay of the land in Bethlehem and the rolling hills and the stones, and everything. So you know, I wanted all that. And so I had to think, before I start even making the plan is like what are the things that I need? cold resources, equipment,  facilities, trips, different research, thoughts. And then number two, in the pre planning, there's warm resources. And that's people, people by connection. Okay, what connections do I have?  So I want to sell my book, and I want to try selling it in Costco. So you know, I know someone  who has sold things to Costco. So I talked to him about it, he's gonna introduce me to  someone, you know, over at Costco that might help, you know, so I'm thinking about, Okay, I  gotta arrange these things. I got to think about this. And, you know, I talked to this person,  because I have a connection, people connection. And then there's people by skill or trade, you know, I know some artists and I talked to them about how to do certain things. There's people by support, who can help, who can, who can I bounce ideas off of, and then there's people by  experience, I've, my wife knows a woman who has successfully done a children's book, and I  asked her about it, talk to her and sat down and, You know, I had a 4000 word, story. And she  said, you can only have 700 words in the children's picture book. So I had to spend a few  months getting it down to 700 words. So those are all before I even had a plan to make  anything happen. I had to sort of go through this checklist of pre planning. And then there's  intellectual resources, there's information and research, you know, what is a children's book?  What I bought, like all kinds of children's books on Christmas to see what was out there. And  in that process, I saw what was I thought missing that most of them don't have much of a  story. They just Jesus is born and there's a donkey. There wasn't a There wasn't any drama,  there wasn't any surprise. And so my story has a surprise and in something that flips 180  degrees, and you know, I wanted it to be a cool, you know, really cool story stories have  drama to them. Stories have a problem that needs to be solved. And then it's a miracle when  it gets solved. And I wanted to sort of illustrate the miracle of Jesus birth with a miracle inside  the story. And so, but I had to do some research, I did look at things. I had to buy things. So  that was all before even making a plan of what this whole thing is. So cold resources,  equipment, facilities, things like that warm resources, people, people that you know, people  that can make, can help you. Maybe Maybe it can't be done without people. People with  experience people with that trade, talking to people that have done what you want to do?  Successful people in a certain area, and then intellectual resources, information and research  and things like that? Okay. So there's the pre, there's the pre planning. And then the second  category of looking at certain models is brainstorm plans of action. Okay, you want to, you  want to make a plan. But there's different ways and ways of thinking about a plan. And so as  a coach, I want to present to my client, these different ways of thinking. And then he has to  choose which one he really wants to do in terms of making his plan. So number one, there's  the linear sequence. So you have a goal, you want to do this, you want a children's book,  that's what you want to produce. Now, what's step one? What's step two, in step one might  be all this pre planning things. Step two would be, you know, to write the story, to edit the 

story to you know, how do I break this down? Do the artwork, make the page, you know, I  have to have it printed, I know, a printer in China, and I have to, you know, I have to email  him, and see what the cost is, I have to think about all you know, I have to break this thing  down, and what do I have to do step by step by step? And then what should I do this week?  Okay. So that's, that's, that's a way of thinking about planning, a sequence of steps, a logical  sequence of steps. But there's another way of making a plan. And that's the shotgun  approach. Instead of coming up with a logical sequence of steps, I'm just, you know, a  shotgun, at least here in the United States. Generally, when you use a shotgun, you're trying  to shoot, you know, different birds out of the air. And because birds are very small up in the  air, you put a shell in there that has like many bullets in it a little, little pellets. And when you  shoot, it just, you know, covers an area. And so you don't have to be that precise. Well, that's  a way of planning, instead of trying to logically figure out all the steps, I do this, then I do this, then I do this. It's like, I've got all these things I should do. I'm just going to start here. And I'm not going to worry about the order. Exactly. I'm just going to get going because sometimes  people can try to put them in order forever. And they're always second guessing whether this  should be first, that should be second, and then they never do anything. So maybe, you know, I'm talking to the client, those, there's like two options, which one do you think appeals to  you? And then then the client goes, you know, I'm the kind of guy that would spend forever  trying to put them in order and never do anything, I should just do something. So that might  be the shotgun approach? Or might be the mud on the wall approach. I don't know what the  steps are, I don't even know if I want to complete this whole project. Let me try to just start  with some things and see if it works at all. Okay, I don't want to, I don't want to spend all this  time making this huge plan. And then, you know, I spend like three hours at it, and I go, What  am I doing? This isn't what I want to do. Let me just start to see if this is even something I  want to do. Okay, is it? Is that what you're thinking as a client? You know, that, you know, as  the coach, I'd be like it? You know, as you're thinking about this thing, how committed are you to it? What do you want to do? Solo versus a team? Does this goal require a bunch of people  that you have to get on board to help you succeed? Or is it something you can do alone?  Okay, if it requires a bunch of people than that it's going to make a difference in this whole  planning process. Is this a consensus approach where I'm, I don't know how to make up the  plan. I need the whole group of people that I want to get involved. They're going to help me  make the plan as part of the plan. Part of the plan is to not make the plan but to let a bunch of people make the plan number six mining versus hunting. Okay, when you mine, you know,  that there's gold there okay, you mine in a place where you're pretty certain there's gold  here, we just got to find it. Okay, that's one way of planning, I know, this is what I want to do,  we just have to search, you know, we just got to figure it out hunting is I have no idea what it  is I really want to do or how to even begin, I don't know what the first step is. So I've got to go hunting, I've got to just go out there and see what happens. And sort of learn as I go, I don't  know where the animals are. With mining, you know where it is, you just get a dig, alright, we  just got to get going, and we got to go in this direction. Hunting, you don't know what  direction to go, you know, look for signs, you're going to try something and see what's  happening. Number seven, research versus learn as you go. So, you know, in order to make a  plan, you could do a whole lot of research and think about this and study it and then come up  with a plan. Or you could just learn as you go. So again, it's more of this, I'm just gonna get  started. And you know, might be the wrong thing, I might be starting with the wrong step. But I hope to just adapt as I go, I can't come up with a whole sequential plan, I can't figure it out, I don't know enough of stuff. And instead of researching it, I just want to do it by trial and error, which one of these appeals to you? So you're giving your client these different ways of  thinking about a plan? Well, finally, you have to make a commitment. So you explore these  different models, different ways of thinking about a plan, the pros and cons and the you know, you know, personality type what happened, you know, which one of these do you think fits  you which one of these these things do you think will help you actually do something and  stick with it and, and have fun doing it? At well eventually the person has to make a  commitment. Okay, which one do I pick? And again, let me try to help you think about that. As a coach. Number one, your commitment, commitment could be let's just try it for a season. 

You know, I don't know, I just want to give it a try. We'll just try it this week. We'll try it for two  weeks, we'll try it for three weeks and see what happens. That's my commitment level, okay?  throw mud on the wall and see what sticks. Let's just try some things and see what works. We don't know what the plan is going to be, we're going to let the plan develop as we see things  

work or don't work. That's, that fits my personality that fits what I you know, how I want to go  about this. Or I'm going to make a commitment of time. And I'm going to really work at this  for the next three months, or the next year or the next three weeks, or whatever it is. And this is how much time I'm going to give to it so that you get the client to actually choose a How  hard are you going to work at this otherwise, it's like, you know, the client makes a  commitment, but he has no idea how hard it is. And he has no idea he beforehand, he has no  idea how hard he's going to work. And when when someone goes at a project, and they have  no idea how hard they want to work. Typically the first obstacle that you hit, you end up  quitting, if this is something that the client really wants to do. And he says, You know what, I  need to make a strong commitment to this. I'm going to give five hours to this. I'm going to  give you know this specific time in my schedule is to think about when and where he wants to do this. Okay, or is this just I'm just gonna give a you know, a half hearted attempt and see  what happens and if something good happens, then We'll reevaluate and see how much time  that I want to give