In my view, you are a success if you follow your plans whatever the results.
If you actually follow your own plans, whether you win or lose, you are several steps ahead of most of the human race who don’t even have a plan in the first place.
What can we do to make it more likely that we shall carry out our plans? Keep them simple!
When Seko, the Japanese runner, won the Boston Marathon in 1981, he was asked about his training plan. Seko explained it with only twelve words:
“I run 10 kilometers in the morning and 20 in the evening.”
This simple plan enabled him to outrun the world’s most gifted runners.
When Seko was told that his plan seemed too simple, compared to that of other marathoners, he replied:
“The plan is simple, but I do it every single day, 365 days a year”.
Simple? Yes!
Effective? Yes!
Easy? No!
Most people fail to reach their goals not because their plans are too simple or too complicated.
They fail because they do not follow their own plans. All plans are useless if they are not followed.
Seko’s plan was effective not because it was simple but because he followed it every single day.
On the other hand, we are more likely to follow a plan if it is simple.
The great marathon runner, Paula Radcliffe, has a simple race plan. She gets out in front and stays there!
In the film ‘Waterloo’, the Duke of Wellington is asked by his second in command what his plans are for the battle.
The iron duke replies: ‘To beat the French’.
Wellington was a man who paid close attention to detail in all his campaigns but he kept the simple over all plan in constant view. Every smaller plan must fit into the big simple picture.
Epictetus was another person who knew how to keep things simple:
“If you wish to be a writer, write.”
The writer who has the simple plan of writing for an hour every day will eventually complete whatever they are writing. The weight lifter who lifts for an hour every other day will become strong.
A simple plan that is followed is worth far more than a sophisticated plan which is not followed.
The great novelist, Anthony Trollope, had the simple plan of getting up at 6 a.m every morning.
Trollope wrote: “Few men, I think, ever lived a fuller life than me. I attribute the power of doing this altogether to the virtue of early hours.”
He would write 250 words every 15 minutes and would write for three hours before going to work at the post office. His writing schedule became legendary.
He finished his novels at incredible speed and started a new novel as soon as he had completed the old one. In the end he wrote over 40 books which were mainly novels. Many of these are classics like ‘The Barchester Chronicles’ and ‘The Palaces’.
Whenever he traveled by train, he would take his writing desk and write in pencil. His faithful wife, Rose, would copy in ink what he wrote in pencil when he returned home.
The achievement is remarkable since he also worked full time for the post office for 33 years and is credited with bringing the pillar box or mail box to England. He needed to write as he needed to eat but he also grew to love his post office work.
Trollope, in addition to all the above, had a happy marriage and was father to two sons. He even managed, in his later years, to fit in a harmless ‘romance’ with the beautiful young American woman, Kate Field.
Trollope reminds me of my granddad who also had the simple plan of getting up early at 6 a.m. and getting in a day’s work before the rest of us managed to get out of bed.
Charles Simeon, the great preacher, had the same early morning plan. When he failed to get up at 6 a.m. he threw a golden guinea into the River Cam. He only had to do this once.
I am not sure if chef Rick Stein gets up early but he, too, advises simplicity. He speaks of how the real secret of cooking is learning what not to do. When he was a young chef he would try to impress his guests with 3 different kinds of fish and 3 different kinds of sauce to go with them.
Now he laughs at this over complication and is content to keep his cooking simple and delicious. Simple basic cooking is often the best.
Bruce Lee, the great martial artist, used to do 500 kicks a day with each leg. This was a simple but very effective training plan. Bruce became world famous even though he died young.
Joe Calzaghe (aged 34) the Welsh super-middleweight boxing champion of the world, trains in a simple, classical way. His gym is also simple and lacks the sophisticated glamour of the bigger gyms.
Joe is trained by his dad, Enzo Calzaghe. Enzo has been described affectionately as a ’sadist’ by another world champion, Enzo Maccarinelli who now trains with him even though he has to commute for an hour to get to the gym and another hour to get home.
Enzo Maccarinelli is the WBO cruiser weight champion of the world.
Training with Enzo Calzaghe has already paid off for Enzo Maccarinelli. He was on the same card as Joe Calzaghe on October 14th, 2006. He knocked out the challenger, Mark Hobson, in the first round.
Enzo Calzaghe had noticed that Enzo Maccarinelli punched harder with his left hand than with his right. Enzo Calzaghe developed a simple training plan. He decided to make Enzo Maccaranelli’s right hand punches as powerful as his left hand punches.
The fight was won with a punch from Enzo’s right hand. No sophisticated combinations were employed. A simple left jab was followed by a glancing right hand blow close to Mark Hobson’s left ear. Mark lost all balance and the referee stopped the fight immediately.
Enzo had trained to be able to throw 370 punches a round but all he needed were two simple punches.
Enzo Calzaghe’s son, Joe Calzaghe, has become a legend in his own life time. He has won 41 fights out of 41. He won 31 of those fights by knockout.
On the night of October 14th, 2006 I watched, him successfully defend his title against a ferocious challenger, Sakio Bika, whose own manager said: ‘He fights like a wild man.’
Sakio, aged 27, is called the ’scorpion’ because he was stung by a scorpion as a young boy and survived. However, his right cross and his head butts, whether accidental or not, had all the venom and power of a scorpion’s sting.
The fight was a hard, bruising battle. Joe could have been knocked out at any time either with a head butt or a legitimate punch. He survived to win.
A former world champion, Chris Eubank, described Joe as the real thing - a true warrior. Simple, effective and home grown training has allowed him to dominate his weight category for about ten years.
To sum up: a simple plan you follow is far superior to a clever plan you don’t!
Any plan is useless if you don’t actually follow it.
Which plans are you more likely to follow: the simple or the complicated?
The simple.
So I suggest, at the very least, starting with a simple plan for any project you have in mind. You can always complicate your plan later when the simple version has been working well for a while.
You may not win any marathons or become a world famous author or chef or boxing champion but you will make progress in achieving success in any project you are attempting.
You may even astonish yourself by achieving success beyond your wildest dreams.
Incidentally, a simple ‘grocery’ list has the power to help you achieve these dreams.
Simply write down about 3-6 things you plan to do tomorrow. Sleep on the list (literally if you think it will help) and let your subconscious work on it. On the morrow, keep this list in view and refer to it throughout the day.
Stick at the first task until it is completed. Cross it off and then move on to the next. The head of a business corporation once paid a large amount of money for this simple 6 task list solution. He had realized its enormous value.
It is definitely worth a try if you haven’t already experimented with this suggestion. I tried the suggestion today and was amazed at how well it worked. Good luck and keep things simple.
Remember that if you actually carry out your plans, whether they bring the results you wish for or not, you will be amongst the elite of the human race.
John Watson is an award winning teacher and 5th degree blackbelt martial arts instructor. He has written several ebooks on motivation and success topics. One of these can be found at http://www.motivationtoday.com/36_laws.php
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