The formula for success: spontaneous planning and living in the flow.

A wonderful article by Ivan Pirog on spontaneous planning:

The Success Formula: Spontaneous Planning and Living in Flow

Is success possible without setting long-term goals and planning? Can you move in several directions at once without spreading yourself too thin? How do you live in flow, forgetting terms like “self-motivation” and “laziness”?

This is the second part of the article “Spontaneous Planning for Those Who Hate Time Management.”

Here you’ll find all the best bits that didn’t make it into the first part. You’ll learn about the biggest mistake of popular goal-achievement systems. About why people give up on moving toward their cherished dream. And you’ll get to know the five practical components of the success formula.

This article is dedicated to all victims of time management who have failed in their pursuit of ambitious goals. To people whose self-confidence has suffered from fruitless attempts to apply rational systems that contradict their inner nature.

“Why Do People Give Up on Moving Toward Their Cherished Goal?”

Adherents of various goal-achievement systems all teach us, as one, how to set a goal correctly. They assure us that proper goal-setting is half the battle.

The goal must be specific, measurable, results-oriented, time-bound, inspiring, and motivating. A properly set goal will continuously inspire and give you strength in your daily work.

Once the goal is set and truly sparks burning enthusiasm, we move on to making a plan. At this step, we list the stages, deadlines, and all the necessary actions that lead to success.

If the goal is inspiring, it will irresistibly push a person to do everything they have planned.

Right? At first glance, the theory is convincing. But upon closer inspection, it is deeply flawed at its very core. I want to say that the basic principle of time management that everyone declares is its fundamental mistake!

Let’s face the truth. Trainings have already taught us how to set goals for a year or even ten years ahead. We know how to do that. So why does the vast majority give up on moving toward their goal right at the start?

Let’s figure it out now.

“The Glaring Mistake of Goal-Achievement Systems”

Imagine a horizontal line on a notebook page. The start of the line is the first step on the path to the goal. The other end of the line is the moment of achieving success. So, the line reflects the time period from the start of the journey to arriving at the destination.

Let’s say the goal is set for two years: to buy a car. Let’s take this entire path as 100%. How long do you think a person will celebrate buying the car? Well, let’s say a week. It’s hard to celebrate longer than that.

2 years is 700 days. Accordingly, 7 days of celebrating victory is 1% on the timeline. Let’s not delve into the fact that a person can’t work for all 693 days straight. For our example, let’s assume they can.

SO, THE MISTAKE OF GOAL-ACHIEVEMENT SYSTEMS IS THAT…

They teach us to motivate ourselves with positive feelings and the moment of glory of that measly 1% of the total time. At the same time, they blatantly ignore the joy and pleasure of the process of achievement itself!

While preparing this article, I specifically reviewed books and articles on time management. Everywhere it said that the goal should inspire. But not a word about how the activity itself absolutely must bring pleasure, a sense of meaning, and satisfaction.

What’s more! In one blog, I found the following. I quote:

Seeing such a tempting goal as a million dollars in front of you, you won’t have to ask yourself “how to make myself work.” You will have high self-motivation when it comes to work that contributes to achieving your long-term goal (dream!). Furthermore, your daily routine actions will become more conscious and filled with meaning, because you are working for your dream!

Later in the text, the author suggests setting a goal: “$1,000,000 in seven years, so you don’t have to work 8 hours a day anymore.” In other words, he considers it normal to endure routine and unpleasant work for seven years just so you never have to do it again.

But that’s complete absurdity! Wouldn’t it be better to spend seven years on something you love? And really, why limit yourself with time frames? Why not do it your whole life?!

In my opinion, reason number one why people abandon an inspiring goal is the unwillingness to perform tasks they don’t feel passionate about. The unwillingness to do them at all, despite the desire to achieve the goal.

Proper goal-achievement systems should first and foremost teach us to find an activity we enjoy. Then set a goal. And only then make a plan: how to achieve the goal by doing what we love.

With this approach, all 100% of the time period will bring joy.

That’s why the first and most important principle of the success formula is: do what you like and what brings you pleasure.

I want to note that an activity that brings pleasure doesn’t mean an easy activity. For example, writing articles for a blog is difficult for me and sometimes mind-blowing. But overall, I really like it 🙂

“Replacing the Concept of GOAL with PATH”

A goal is a destination or a final product at the output. The moment of achieving it is a fact that can only happen once. After achieving a goal, you can rest on your laurels for a while, and then set the next one.

The moment the goal is achieved cannot be stretched out in time. For example, you go to the store and buy kefir. As soon as you pay, it’s yours. The goal is achieved. It’s impossible to go to the store and pay for kefir for a whole year. Well, only if you bought it on credit 🙂

Okay, that’s clear and obvious. Now let’s answer the question: why is setting the following goals fundamentally wrong? Here’s the list:

• Learn English;
• Start your own business;
• Learn to play the guitar;
• Find your true love.

The desire to learn English cannot be a goal. It is a process of continuous improvement of speaking and writing skills. It cannot be finite, if only because we will have to constantly maintain our vocabulary. Otherwise, we will simply forget the language.

Starting a business is not a goal either. A business needs constant development: new clients, new services, process improvements, and so on. A business requires regular investment. We cannot one day become business owners and rest on our laurels.

Well, it depends on the business. But that’s not the point. I think you get the idea.

The other points are also clear. Playing the guitar is a process. If you stop, the skills are lost. And if we find our true love, the fairy tale is just beginning 🙂

But if these aren’t goals, then what are they? Let’s call it a path. A path that has a direction and involves constantly gaining experience with continuous development of skills and talents.

Then our list will turn from a list of goals into a list of desires. Desires to move in a certain direction and develop. Let’s formulate it more correctly:

• Embark on the path of constantly improving skills in spoken and written English;
• Embark on the path of creating and constantly developing your own business;
• Learn to play the guitar and improve your mastery by performing for friends and at concerts;
• Find your true love in order to continuously build, strengthen, and develop the relationship.

“Goals on the Path”

If you remember, the previous article talked about life without goals. This point needs more detailed explanation to avoid misinterpretation.

It’s not that the path leads to the goal, but moving along the path involves achieving small goals.

Let me explain with my own example. When I decided to start a blog, I didn’t set goals like: “Create a popular blog that will be in the top ten.” Instead, I decided to embark on the path of running a blog. The path of constantly developing writing skills, the path of continuous communication with readers, and the path of new discoveries.

At first glance, this corresponds to the principle of “life without goals.” But not entirely. On the path of running a blog, I constantly encounter goals. My goal right now is to finish this article. The next one will be to write another article. Then I’ll want to improve something in the design. And so on.

This is like traveling through unknown territory. A traveler walks through the forest, enjoying the beauty, the smell of freshness after the rain, and the birdsong. Suddenly he comes to a river. Now his goal is to get to the other side. As soon as that happens, his path continues.

Then the traveler comes out onto a picturesque plain and sees a mountain. He decides to climb to the top. Now his goal is to conquer the summit and admire the view. When he climbs up, the goal will be achieved, but the path will continue.

This way of framing things is ideal, in my opinion.

This is the second principle of the success formula, which states: constant development and living in flow, instead of setting goals.

“Moving in Several Directions at Once”

Developing in several directions is one of the most important principles of the success formula. It provides the necessary novelty of impressions and a change of activity. Doing just one thing is death for an irrational person.

Being in a flow of variety maintains interest and prevents abandoning started projects.

Spontaneously switching from one activity to another is like a friendly party. Imagine you’ve invited thirty of your best friends. You have different interests with each of them. You have things to talk about with each one.

The party is in full swing and you want to give attention to everyone. First, you strike up a conversation with one friend, ten minutes later you’re talking to another friend. Half an hour later, you’re actively participating in a fascinating conversation with a small group of people.

By switching from one person to another, you manage to talk to everyone over the course of the night. Now imagine the party lasts a year! That’s enough time to discuss a million different topics with each participant individually. The productivity is tangible.

But from this perspective, what does moving toward just one goal look like?

A similar example: a party, conversation. The only difference is that you invited one friend and plan to talk to them for a whole year. Every day! You’ll enjoy each other’s company at first, but not for a whole year!

Therefore, success principle #3 is: variety through moving in several directions.

“But What If I Start Spreading Myself Too Thin by Doing Several Things?”

Let’s first define what “spreading yourself too thin” means in the negative sense of the word.

Spreading yourself too thin means grabbing several things at once and dropping them without finishing them. Also, it implies doing unnecessary actions instead of concentrating on the main thing. Simply put, spreading yourself too thin is cluttering your attention with trifles, changing goals like gloves.

Avoiding this is easy.

First, a list of directions will help us. Second, for each direction, we’ll prepare a list of important actions. Third, we’ll need minimal control over the directions. Fourth, our list will only contain the paths we feel passionate about.

During the day, switching from one direction to another, we will focus on the main thing. This looks like spreading yourself thin, but I would call it multi-tasking NON-spreading 🙂

“Preparing for Spontaneous Planning”

Well, it’s time to get to practice! We’ve already discussed the three most important principles of spontaneous planning. Practical experience will help us absorb the remaining two.

STEP ONE

First, let’s determine the directions we want to move in. This will be a list of all the paths we want to take.

Take a blank sheet of paper and list in a column all the paths that interest you. If you don’t know what you want to do, I recommend going through a search for your talents.

Note, we are not listing goals. We are listing paths. Therefore, I recommend throwing out of your head any thoughts about the results you can achieve. Forget about success and fame. Focus on making sure the areas of activity are interesting to you and bring you pleasure.

Write until you run out of options. Turn off your inner critic. Now is not the time to think: “I have no experience in this,” “It won’t work,” “There are no opportunities,” and so on.

Try to make each item answer the question “what to do?”. For example: “Grow flowers,” “Write books,” “Train memory,” “Learn and improve English.”

STEP TWO

The list of directions is ready. Now, for each direction, write down the types of activities you will do. Note, the types of activities are not a “To-do” list. They are more like activity options within one direction.

Start the name of each type of activity with the words: “Right now I would work on…” or “Right now I would focus on…“

Let me give an example. Let’s say there is a direction “Write adventure novels.” What types of activities are included? Something like this:
Right now I would work on generating ideas for the next books;
Right now I would work on thinking through the plot;
Right now I would work on describing the characters’ personalities and motivations;
Right now I would work on writing the next chapter for the draft;
Right now I would work on editing the text;

If you have decided to embark on the path of learning English, the list might look like this:

Right now I would focus on reading a book in English;
Right now I would focus on watching a movie with English subtitles;
Right now I would focus on reading a grammar textbook;
Right now I would focus on making a few sentences with new words;

STEP THREE

For directions that involve making money, do one important task that will help determine the value of your work for others.

Write down the name of the direction separately and answer the questions:

What value does my work produce as an output? What product or service is it?
Why do people need this value?
What needs of people do I satisfy with this value? What problems do I solve for them?
And when this need is satisfied, what changes in their life?
And when that changes in their life, what happens next?
What will I get by doing this for people?
And when I get that, what will happen then?

A good little list. It helps clarify the situation and get a couple of insights.

“The Practice of Spontaneous Planning”

So, in the first two steps, we got a list of directions with a list of activity types for each. Now it’s very important to hang it in a visible place.

Make the list accessible at any moment. Print several copies. Carry it with you. Irrational people tend to forget list items. They usually say: “Oh, come on. I remember the list. I won’t forget.” Saying that would be a mistake.

First, when it’s time to act, irrational people often forget about the list and its contents. That’s just how they are wired. Second, we’ll need the list to identify the inner responses that start the inner engine of creative energy.

WHAT TO DO WITH THE LIST?

When it’s time to act, take the list and read it. While reading the items, pay attention to your inner bodily responses and emotions. Listen to how you react to each type of activity.

As soon as you feel there is an inner desire and readiness to do something from the list, start doing it. Do it until you feel that you are about to start forcing yourself to continue the work.

At that moment, stop and praise yourself! This is very important. Reward yourself with a kind word, because you have just made progress on your chosen path. You deserve encouragement.

Now, for variety, switch to another type of activity. Look through the list again, listening to your responses. You will notice that activities you didn’t want to do a couple of hours ago are now very attractive.

Having chosen the next activity, act until you feel you don’t want to anymore. Don’t force yourself to go further. This can lead to overdoing it. If you overdo it, the desire to return to the activity might not come back for a long time.

We’ll talk about overdoing it in detail in the next article. For now, I want to quote the definition Barry Fireburn gives in his seminars:

“Overdoing it is a negative phenomenon that occurs when a person cannot track the optimal moment to finish a particular action in time and begins to ‘persist,’ trying to do it further or longer than that moment. It has certain (unpleasant) manifestations and even more unpleasant consequences.”

This is the fourth principle of the success formula: don’t overdo it!

By the way, by switching from one activity to another, you ensure variety as well as control over the directions. This is very simple control. It helps avoid spreading yourself too thin and helps you focus on several directions at once.

Therefore, principle #5 is: control the directions.

This is like watching TV. The viewer sits in front of the screen and clicks through channels on the remote. When an interesting show or movie is found, the viewer stays on that channel for a while. When the movie ends, they continue switching channels in search of something interesting. It’s the same with the list.

“Conclusion”

There’s a lot more I want to say, but it’s time to wrap up. We’ve discussed the main principles of the success formula. Now, based on them, you can create your own system of spontaneous living, adapting it to yourself.

Finally, a few words for those who go to work every day and don’t have the opportunity to engage in their favorite directions (yet).

Using the spontaneous planning approach, you can make to-do lists with tasks that need to be done. The principle is the same: look through the list, choose what you feel like doing right now, and do it for a while.

No priorities and no “eating frogs” first. Only what you feel like doing right now. Of course, this also applies to those who don’t go to work.

In general, decide for yourself how to use the success formula. There are no rigid frameworks here. Take for yourself what seemed most valuable. And now let’s summarize:

• It’s not the goal that should inspire, but the activity itself;
• Do what brings you pleasure;
• Instead of setting a goal, decide to embark on the path of constant development in some direction;
• Move in several directions at once, switching according to the list;
• Don’t lose the list. Keep it in an accessible place;
• Avoid overdoing it;
• Control the directions so you don’t spread yourself too thin.

That’s all. Thank you for sticking with me until the end! I wish you success on the path of discovering spontaneous time management 🙂

“If you share this text somewhere online, please credit the author. Thank you!”
Sincerely, Ivan Pirog