So you’ve got a plan, right? Not just any plan, a good plan. But unlike the five others you’ve had before you’re sure that this one is going to work. You’re desperate to make it work, and so you start working on it.

But, then, as always, you find loopholes and you realise that your plan isn’t exactly fool-proof, or that you don’t have all of the resources to get it done pronto. You’re a perfectionist, but you’re a walking paradox – I mean, it’s because of your drive for perfection that you hardly get anything done, if anything at all.

I’ve been there, done that, been that, am that, and am still trying to get over that. Anyone who’s lived a bit of life knows that you can’t control it at all – life has a way of sedating even the most OCD among us, but sometimes, the sedation – in the form of discouragement, pain, frustration, or betrayal – can even move to paralyse us until we do nothing at all because we are so fear driven.

What to do next? Just get started!

“With the right strategy the battle is half won; the strategy succeeds only with professional execution tactics. Problems arise when planning is separated from execution. This is like separating thinking from doing and diffuses responsibility. The important thing is to get started. Too much time spent in planning can breed indecisiveness and error. It is often better to engage in some form of simultaneous planning and implementation…” – Gerald E. Michaelson

Here are some quick pointers that I’ve adapted given to apply to ones’ life by Michaelson, in his book Sun Tzu: The Art of War for Managers – 50 Strategic Rules:

Why must you start now, make time to ally, and avoid delay?

  • Because, “as a rule” the more time you save in making a decision, the more time you gain;
  • Fast action turns into fast execution;
  • Acting fast is simultaneous action;
  • The more urgent the need for a decision, the longer it takes, but delayed decisions inevitably lose their positive quality;
  • All of the positive consequences of speedy decisions go to those who act first (not act without thinking, but act instead of being paralysed…)

The less you delay in making those important decisions …

  • … The less apt you are to being surprised by anything that may come your way;
  • … The less ready your competitor (i.e. situation, thing to overcome, barrier) will be…

“Throughout history, winning generals developed disciplines any systems for moving faster than their opponents… Sun Tzu’s point is not that speed can overcome stupidity. Operations must be completed rapidly because when actions take too long the chance increases for errors and unforeseen events to contribute to failure.” – Gerald E. Michaelson

If there’s something that I wonder at, it is how we want God to always move fast to meet us and our need (even if it’s the answer we don’t want or at a time that we don’t deem convenient!), but we take so long to commit to the things that we say that we are going to do, getting angry at Him as if we were any better.

“If you make a vow to the LORD your GOD, do not be slow to pay it, for the LORD your God will certainly demand it of you, and you will be guilty of sin.” –Deuteronomy 23:21

The Voice, a simple translation of the Bible, says when you make a vow, pay it promptly… on time, in a punctual manner, with no delay.

Let your yes be a yes and your no be a no (Matthew 5:37). Let’s try – even if it’s for a week, after committing our plans to the Lord, to do what we said we were going to do and see what comes of it. I’ve started already and found that there is miraculous provision for the plans that you go ahead with in faith and not fear.

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