As most of you already know I closed on my new house last Friday.  Even though this was a newly built house, my wife and I decided long ago that we wanted porcelain tile and stone mosaic floors throughout the entire structure, even in the washroom and bedrooms.  As you can imagine this was/is very, very pricey.  Today I was telling a fellow that I work with about the house and the upgrade to it when he commented something to the effect that I must make a whole lot more money than he did.   I responded by saying no I didn’t but that I had been planning and saving for this little upgrade for over a year.  He looked at me kind of funny and said “you knew what you were going to do a year ago?”  

I don’t know why the above conversation struck me as odd but it did.  Today my wife was speaking to another friend of ours about the project and his response was that he thought we were taking on too much debt financing the project.  She said that we were in fact paying cash and that we do not finance (borrow for) things anymore.  He replied “how the heck did you do that?”  Again, we planned and saved for over a year which seemed to mystify him as well.

About 2 weeks ago a guy that I worked with was talking behind my back (he doesn’t know that I know).   He was saying that he and I do the same job and earn the same money, that I keep going to school yet make nothing more than he does and he felt I was just spinning my wheels.  He exclaimed that I will be the only doctor in the department and still only be a Sergeant.  What he doesn’t know is that my degree is part of an overall much bigger plan.  Which doesn’t include me even sitting in the same zip code as him in 5 years.  

So what separates me from my peers?  The same thing that can separate you, in short, planning.  I contrive a plan, research the best method of execution, work through the plan, delay gratification and ultimately see the plan through.  During that time I will watch my peers run around, having a good time spending their money and time on things less substantial.  Then when my plan comes to fruition they stand around wondering how the heck I did all of that.  The God’s honest truth is that they watched me do it every day but didn’t understand what it was I was doing, to them my vision was just too far off, too uncertain or too abstract.  Everyone has plans, but a lot of people talk of plans as they would a wish.  It never goes from conception to execution to completion.  Almost any plan worth making and seeing through will also require sacrifice.  In this me, me, give me, give me, now, now, now society we are in, delaying gratification for something bigger is almost an alien concept.  I explain it to people I work with and friends and it’s like I’m speaking a foreign language.  Often I am dismissed as being “lucky” or coming into a windfall.  Often people refuse to believe that I, they or anyone can achieve what they dream of through sheer hard work, sacrifice and resolve.  It is easier to make excuses and point out for how much easier it was for me or someone else than it would be for them.

Do you really want to know the #1 tool I have at my disposal that I have used time and again to get my BS, then my MBA?  It is planning.  Not the kind of wishful thinking “some day over the rainbow” crap.  But real honest to goodness, research oriented, goal focused planning that takes for granted and accepts that sacrifice will be part of the bargain.  If you can get your head around that and understand it, you’re more than halfway to whatever it is you wish to do.  Even get an advanced degree when you barely finished high school.