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One of the most popular blog posts I wrote is called "50 Ways To Start Fresh". I wrote it 6 years ago and I still get a significant amount of traffic each day. By significant I mean between 100 and 200 page views per day, consistently. As you can see below.

But I'm not going to talk about that now, it was just a hook, to get your attention. Big numbers mixed with visuals are a very good combination for that.

People have a short attention span and we're bombed with more and more stimuli each day. So knowing how to get people's attention in an effective, yet non-intrusive way, is paramount, if writing is part of your income streams.

So now, that you're here, and at least curious, I can tell you that what I really wanted to talk about is plans. And how you should stick to them. Or why you should stick to them. Or both.

The Big, Unavoidable Potatoes Field

It's the beginning of a new year. We have a little bit of free time now. We can get some rest for a few days and try to draw a new perspective. Try to understand what went wrong and what went well. And we also start to imagine how the next year will be.

Usually, we tend to project a nicer light on the future now. We are hopeful and we expect something better.

But why?

Why this year should be better than the last one? What's the causality here? Just because we want it like that?

Like, really. Did you ever wonder how it actually works?

Because it almost never works like that. We don't get what we want. We get what we worked for. In whatever form and shape "work" may come into your life. We reaped what we sowed.

If we sowed potatoes, we can't get avocados. No matter how hard we want that. No matter how nice the image we project over that potatoes field. No matter how much yoga we do on that potatoes field and no matter how many positive posters we watch and how many positive affirmations we repeat.

If we sowed potatoes, we will reap potatoes.

Stick To It

And with that we get to the core of this post. The article mentioned in the intro was not only meant to get your attention, it also contained something very important: one of those 50 ways to start fresh listed in there was something like that (I think it was number 9):

9. Make a plan. And stick to it.

Yes. A plan. And fucking stick to it.

That's how you get a better year. That's how you get a better life. That's how things work. You just decide what you want to have, plant it and take care of it. As simple as that.

Introducing Mike Tyson.

Wait. What?

Mike Tyson? Huh? Why?

Well, apart from distributing hundreds of thousands of punches, Mike will probably remain in history for this quote too:

Everybody has a plan, until they get punched in the face.

Now everything comes together, right? Now we start to understand why sticking to a plan is so damn hard. Because now, when we have a bit of a free time, a short respite for the holidays, making a plan is almost trivial.

Of course I know what I have to do, it's obvious. I can even write it down. I can make a list. Or two. I can put reminders on my phone. It will work. Of course it will work.

Until you start again. Until you dive again in the deadly carousel of your day to day life and your attention span gets narrower and narrower up to the point you can't see the next punch. And, eventually, you get hit.

The most difficult part to understand is that you can't avoid that punch. It is bound to happen. It's part of the carousel. It's part of the game. It's part of life. It's life.

Avoiding it is avoiding life.

A much, much more effective approach is to just be ready. And have your next move ready too. Ok, you lost your business in one day. Ups. It really hurt.

Now what?

Linearity is such an abstract and impossible thing. Our minds are able to create all sorts of concepts and give them the appearance of truth, so we start to believe all of them. Like the one in which we are evolving in a linear way, from level A to level B. Guess what, it never happens in a linear way...

You go up for a while, then you go down, then you go up again, then you keep going down for a while.

And then you go up again.

And that's how you stick to a plan.

By accepting that the plan may explode anytime.

image source: Pixabay.

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This post is part of 30 days writing challenge during January 2017. If you want to join the challenge, here's the introductory article.

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I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.

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https://steemit.com/~witnesses