Everyone today is looking for a shortcut.

Who doesn't want to discover the secrets of business success and bypass all those people who are waiting in line like sheep?

If you've ever gone to Disney World, you've experienced this firsthand. If you had smartly planned ahead, you might have reserved a FastPass for that coveted ride, and you got to skip merrily to the front while the rest of those Mickey fans sighed heavily as they shuffled along one centimeter at a time.

At an early age we were all taught to plan ahead, and our society rewards us for it. Did you plan for your kids' college by saving early? Did you plan for retirement by not upgrading your car every 3 years? Did you plan for your vacation so you got the cheapest airfare?

If you fail to plan you plan to fail. We all know this. But then we don't heed that advice!

• We take that prospect call...without planning our sales script.
• We write that webpage...without planning our sales funnel.
• We set prices...without planning our profit margins
• We build a business...without planning how it fits into our lifestyle, life goals, exit plans, and more.

That you should plan is not new. HOW you should plan is. Now, more than ever, we "don't have the time" to sit down and write a plan. Even if we can carve out a few minutes, our minds are rarely quiet enough to turn off our distracting lives and get into a thoughtful flow state where we can focus on proper planning - pros, cons, alternatives, and what-ifs.

If you're looking for a magic shortcut here, there's not. If you want to create proper space for you to plan your business and your life, you must plan it.

That means actively blocking off times in your calendar where you choose a singular goal - to plan something - and you go to a quiet place to accomplish that one thing.

Giving yourself that time and space is a thoughtful gift you can give not to yourself, but to those who love and support you. Because if you don't, and you skip steps in the process, you can end up strung out and angry that you aren't moving in the right direction.

And who is that good for? No one.