Apparently, it was Benjamin Franklin who said: “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.”
 
I have been thinking about this statement in the context of the resolutions I made for 2026. Strong intentions were set. Clear desires were expressed. I even created SMART goals for the two resolutions I felt most invested in.
 
So now I know what I want to achieve in 2026. The next question is: Now what?
 
This is where old Benjamin makes an important point, knowing what we want is only the beginning. If we simply move through each day hoping things will somehow fall into place, very little changes. Goals give us direction — but plans create movement.
 
A practical plan focuses our attention on the steps needed to move from where we are today to where we want to be. The good news is that creating a plan does not have to be complicated.
 
🌱 Here is a simple process that can help:
 
Step 1: Create a Timeline
Draw a simple timeline on a piece of paper or use software that allows you to visualise a timeline.
Place:

• “Today” at the beginning
• and your Goal Date at the end.

This immediately creates structure and perspective.
 
Step 2: Identify the Actions Needed
Now think carefully about everything that needs to happen between today and your goal date to successfully achieve your goal. List each task or action step in sequence along your timeline.
This process helps transform a large goal into smaller, manageable actions.
 
Step 3: Allocate Realistic Dates
Now attach realistic and practical dates to each action.
Be honest with yourself about:

• the time available,
• your current responsibilities,
• and how long tasks may realistically take.

A good plan should support you — not overwhelm you.
 
Step 4: Reward Progress
Finally, think of a small reward for yourself when you complete each task successfully and on time.
Progress deserves recognition. Small rewards can help build motivation, consistency and momentum.
 
Example
Below is a simple example of how a timeline-based plan can be visualised:

And there you have it — not just a goal, but a practical plan to help you achieve it.
A detailed plan makes it easier to:

• see the next step,
• recognise when you are falling behind,
• and adjust before feeling overwhelmed.

 
Most importantly, it helps transform intention into consistent action.
 
Keep your plan somewhere visible so that you can reconnect with it every day because meaningful progress rarely happens by accident — it usually happens through clarity, structure and intentional action.
 
Here’s to creating practical plans and successfully achieving our goals in 2026!
 
If you would like support creating clarity and structure around your own goals, you are welcome to connect with me by email at [email protected]

Let’s face it — time is finite, while to-do lists seem never-ending.
And more often than not, those lists are filled with the needs and expectations of other people. Between limited time and unlimited demands, where do you even begin? Where do you find space for yourself?
 
As Patrick Lencioni says, “When everything is important, nothing is.”

In this state, it becomes difficult to make decisions. There is no clear structure, no solid plan — just a sense of trying to keep your head above water while everything pulls at your attention. It can feel overwhelming… even exhausting!
 
You have to stop. Complete. Dead. Stop.
Yes, I know — everything is still there, clamouring for your attention.
But right now, you need to pause.
Stop. Completely.
Now — take a slow, deep breath in… and let it go.
Breathe in again… and let it go.
And one more time, nice and deep… and let it go.
 
Good. Now that you’ve created a moment of calm, let’s bring some structure to what feels overwhelming.
 
Step 1: One Complete List
Make sure that absolutely everything you think you need to do is written down — in one place. Not multiple lists. One list.
It may look overwhelming at first, but once everything is visible, you can begin to work with it.
 
Step 2: Create Structure Through Categories
Now, go through your list and assign each item to one of the following:

• Must do – cannot be avoided
• Urgent – needs immediate attention
• Important – adds value but is not urgent
• Optional – can wait or may not be necessary
• Eliminate – no longer needed

 
Take your time and think carefully about each item. This step alone often brings a surprising amount of clarity.
 
Step 3: Prioritise
Now group your tasks in order:
1.Must do
2.Urgent
3.Important
4.Optional
5.Eliminate
You may already notice something important:
👉 Not everything actually needs to be done. And that’s okay.
 
Step 4: Put It Into Your Diary
Now take out your calendar or diary.
For tasks that must happen at a specific time, schedule them first.
Then, working through your prioritised list, allocate a specific day and time for each remaining task.
Be realistic about how long things will take. This is where your list becomes a plan.
 
Step 5: Take Action — One Step at a Time
Your “dead stop” is over.
You now have:

• clarity
• structure
• and a practical plan

All that remains is to work through your list, one step at a time in order according to your plan. And yes — give yourself a small reward as you move forward. Progress deserves recognition.
 
A Final Thought
New tasks will always come — that’s part of life. But now, instead of feeling overwhelmed, you have a simple process to:

• organise your thoughts
• prioritise what matters
• and plan your time with intention

You may not have complete control — but you do have clarity. And that is where real progress begins.
 
🌿 If you’d like support in applying this structure to your own life, you’re very welcome to fill in the contact form on this site for free call with me.

Boring.
Tedious.
Unexciting.
 
Creating structure is arguably not the most fun way to spend our time. While this might be the biggest reason that we stick to our haphazard approach to achieving goals, it isn’t the only reason for avoiding the struggle with structure.
 
Structure is about breaking something down into smaller manageable pieces and finding the relationship between the pieces. This creates a framework of different parts showing sequence, dependencies and patterns all making up the original ‘something’. Even this description of the process does not sound exciting at all!
 
The thing is – bringing about structure may be boring but it is the key to clarifying what you want to do and how you want to do it. Once you know these two things, one simple step of planning completes the framework and you are on your way to success. Now that’s something that we do want! We want it because we are now in a position to do the fun stuff – much more successfully and sustainably than when we did not have our framework.
 
The GROW model, developed by Sir John Wihitmore in the 1980s, is a valuable tool to use to create your framework. It is an acronym to summarize the following components of the model:
 

• Goals: Clarify and define what you want to achieve.
• Reality: Assess your current situation and identify what is preventing you from achieving your goal.
• Options: Find possible strategies and solutions to overcome your obstacles (this is your framework and plan)
• Will: Make the commitment to take action and implement your plan

 
The services of a qualified life coach can be most helpful in supporting you through the GROW process and beyond.
 
My message is – the slog of creating structure is a once off exercise to create a proper framework to kick start your journey to achieving your goal. It may not be fun but it is important because then the fun can begin!

 
Tomorrow, tomorrow, you’re always a day away!
 
Annie’s anticipation of a better day in tomorrow is evidence of her optimistic outlook on life despite her dreary circumstances.
 
And there’s nothing wrong in being optimistic, but when it comes to setting, planning and achieving goals in life, tomorrow can turn out to be our nemesis.
 
Tomorrow holds idyllic promise and implies future.
Tomorrow does not call for commitment and action.
Tomorrow invites avoidance and delay.
 
Carpe Diem!
 
When you are really committed to change in your life, rather take up the call of “Carpe Diem” – Seize the day! Get stuck in there making consistent, sustainable change day after day until the change you wanted is part of your life. Start today!
 
This every day thing is not the easy path but then again, nothing worthwhile just drops from the sky. Actually, when it is harder to get something, the achievement is all the more satisfactory.
 
But, how do you get from where you are now to where you want to be?
 
One way is to start with GROW, a model created by Sir John Witmore in the 1980s. The acronym stands for:
 
Goals – start off by defining what you want to achieve, SMART goals obviously (Specific, Measurable, Achieveable, Realistic and Time Bound, and writing in the present tense)
Reality – look at where you are today and identify obstacles preventing you from achieving your goal
Options – brainstorm different solutions to overcome the obstacles in your reality
Will – what do you need to do to take action and implement a plan (specific, detailed planning is not an option!)
 
In summary,

• Identify what you want to change
• Define your goal using the SMART approach (other blog articles go into detail!)
• Be honest about what is required to get from where you are now to where you want to be – what can stop you, who can stop you and what can you do about it?
• Commit by plotting out the actions that are needed from today (seize the day, remember?), step by step until the day that you plan to achieve your change

 
How can a Life Coach help, you might ask? Firstly, a life coach will guide you through the process that I’ve outlined above. More importantly though, a life coach will be your support, your cheer leader, your adviser and your partner from start to finish. How can you be without one?

This post shares an interesting discovery that I made while unpacking the impact of one of my goals for 2026.
 
I decided that one of my goals for 2026 is to complete the 1400km expedition challenge on my Garmin app.
 
Despite knowing that I walked a total of 800kms in 2025, I felt that walking 1400km in 2026 is well achievable and realistic. It’s only 600 more than I did in 2025, right? I patted myself on the back for creating a SMART goal.
 
Articulating my 2026 SMART goal
 
See my checking and thinking in the table below:

Now that I have my end state, the next step is to plan out milestone by milestone from today until 31 December what I will need to do.
 
Planning how to achieve my goal:
 
I decided that I will walk every day except for a Friday and one of the days over a weekend because it is good to factor in rest days. This means my plan is to walk on 5 days of the week – doing this for 52 weeks means I will walk on 260 days for the whole year. I am still feeling very satisfied with my goal and attempt to keep healthy and fit in 2026.
 
Given that my total goal is 1400kms, it means that I need to complete just over 5kms every day on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday or Sunday. A total of 25kms in a week.
 
Hmmm, ok! I need to put aside an hour on each of those days as this is how long it takes me to walk the distance.
 
Hmmm, alright! This works perfectly for me now while I am still on leave but I am starting to be unsure about how practical and realistic this is when I get back to the office again and my normal routine is back in place. In 2025, I generally (in a good week) fitted in a 3km walk twice during the week and a total of around 10-12kms over the weekend giving me a total of 18kms per week. Hmmm, again – a difference of 7kms compared to my goal total.
 
What I don’t want, is to set myself up for failure or constantly feel that I am having to make up the kilometers that I potentially am not getting to.
 
At this point, I am appreciating the outcome of my planning exercise: although I created a SMART goal, the planning has shown that it could become more than I can realistically expect to achieve.
 
I want to review my goal – I do want to do more than 2025 and therefore decide to still aim for the 1400kms but rather extend my end date. I decide to target 4kms on a Tuesday and Thursday and 15kms total over a weekend. This gives me a total of 1196kms for the year – a gap of 204 kms. I therefore extend my end date to 1 March 2027 to realistically allow myself to achieve the goal while still targeting more walking distance than in 2026.
 
The point is - a goal update is quite acceptable during planning
 
Now, I have a proper SMART goal. My point is that the exercise to plan out how to achieve my goal actually pointed out that my answer to the “R” – is it realistic – was not correct. And that’s ok because the goal and the plan go hand in hand – I am much happier with my goal now that I have amended it and know for sure that it is stretching but also achievable and realistic.
 
What I don’t want to do, is to change the goal or the plan once I start.  But now that I know my goal and my plan is realistic and achievable, I am excited to start!
 

There is a lot of information on social media about SMART goals; a concept that was introduced by George T. Doran in 1981. A goal written SMART-ly clearly and specifically states what you intend to achieve and by when. This approach creates focus and enables you to track how you are progressing towards what you want to achieve.
 
Interestingly, a whopping 97% of people do not have goals and do not have a plan in place to successfully achieve their goals. This goes a long way to explain why so many people feel that they are stuck in a rut and not making headway in their lives.
 
The acronym SMART, explained in the table below, is used to check that you described your goal in sufficient detail and specifies how you can track your progress towards successfully achieving your goal:

​Most importantly, a goal is written in present tense. It is one of the ways to focus your mind on achieving the goal. When you are satisfied that your goal is written as a SMART goal, make sure that you visualize it and put it in a place where you will see it every day. This is another way to focus your mind on the goal.
 
Here is a practical example using my avatar Pat:
 
To achieve general good health and improve her energy levels, Pat decides to increase her fitness by doing some form of exercise 3 times a week for at least the next 6 months, working up to a duration of thirty minutes.
 
She describes her goal, visualizing her future achievement making sure to write it in the present tense and include all aspects of a SMART goal (at the time of writing her goal it is January 2025)
 
It is 1 July 2025, I walk or cycle for 30 minutes on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
 
Pat checks her goal against the SMART criteria and is satisfied that she has articulated a SMART goal! She is also happy that it is to the point and simple.

Pat writes out her goal in bright colours on a big piece of paper and pins it to the door of her fridge. She is also considering making an image of the goal to use as her screen saver on her cell phone. Talk about focusing the mind!
 
Creating a SMART goal is the first step to successfully attain what you want in your life. You can create goals to improve any area of your life. Pat chose to improve her health. You might want to improve a relationship, progress in your career, increase your wealth or just deliberately go about including some fun and adventure into your life. Start today by writing your own SMART goal – follow it up with a good plan to take you from today to your goal end day – and then do it!

I love great questions.
This week I realized how great a question “what do you need?” is -
I wasn’t really listening to the conversation between two colleagues until I heard Iqbal ask Janet: “What do you need?” There was a moment’s silence after which Janet succinctly described what she needed and Iqbal replied with constructive advice on how to approach the situation that they were discussing.
My reflection has been on the subtle difference between asking “How can I help you?” and “What do you need?”. The second question moves the responsibility from me trying to figure out how I can make your situation better, to requiring you to be specific about what help is required. It removes the interpretation in my own mind of the situation to clarity for all parties about what is needed. From this, you are likely to find the answer for yourself or the discussion can move on to possible suggestions of how the need can be met. It ends up being a great engagement simply because of a great question.  
“What do you need?” can be an empowering, inquisitive question in the mix of all the other self-talk that goes on in your mind. It can be a split second of interrupting your thinking and getting clarity in your own mind. This enables you to share clearly with others what you need, not only helping you to articulate yourself clearly but also helping other understand you. Clearly, a win-win situation!
Try out the question. Ask yourself. Ask other people. I think it will positively change the way you engage with others.

For a couple of months now, I have been thinking about writing an eBook. After doing some research and reading advice about just getting in there any getting it done, I did just that. The short book is self-published on Amazon Kindle!

Finding Purpose in Process shares a unique way for you to
          do a personal stock take ie make your rainbow,
          decide where to take control of your life and
        put a plan in place to take successful action.

Use the techniques explained in the book to create your rainbow, your goals and your plan. Understand how to prevent regression and make sustainable change.

​Amazon.com: Finding Purpose in Process: Just 3 steps to your pot of gold eBook : Naudé, Penelope: Kindle Store

Looking for someone that will “complete you” must be the biggest illusion that has ever been sold!
 
To think that we can become whole, complete and fulfilled because of someone else is a recipe for a relationship or friendship to end, most of the time in disaster.
 
Let me explain: according to my friend Google, around 80% of people are growing up and becoming adults who subconsciously live day by day constrained by the belief that life happens to you. This leads to most people living out purpose-less “you should” kind of lives, giving away control of their circumstances and subconsciously living with weaknesses and limitations that they aren’t even aware of. Why? Because that’s just how things are.
 
If I may liken such people to a jigsaw puzzle piece – they have ‘extensions’ and ‘holes’ on all sides of them. The natural tendency is to fill the holes (what we are lacking) and capitalize on the extensions (talents or excesses) by finding someone whose needs can be filled by what we can give ie. our ‘extensions’ but in turn has ‘extensions’ that complements our lack. Quite truly, they say that opposites attract. Voila, you get a completed puzzle!

​And this is where the story can end …….. as long as the extensions and the holes always stay as they are, we can continue to live purpose-less yet happy lives completing each other. As long as nothing changes.
 
Thing is – we do change. Life happens and through experiences, moments of growth and reaching different levels of maturity, we change. An experience can have such an improving effect on us that where we are lacking is filled. Hmmm, now we no longer have a place for our puzzle partner to fill. This causes misalignment. It causes friction because there isn’t a perfect fit any more.
 
This is also where the story can end ……. we settle for not fitting any more, because of many good rationalizations we continue to live purpose-less yet frustrating lives going with the flow because that’s how it is.
 
Life certainly does not have to be like that. What if you were fulfilled as a complete, holistic person all on your own? What if you took control of your own life, trimmed down the excesses and filled up the lack – to become a perfect circle of self made you. Independent, in control, successful …. purposeful.
 
That’s about you – and yes, through life coaching it can certainly be done. Fill out the form on this website or get hold of me on [email protected] to find out how!
 
Where I am actually going with this is to wrap up my story about looking for someone to complete you – it’s nonsense. What is amazing though, is when you (leading a completely fulfilled purposeful life) find someone else (also leading a completely fulfilled purposeful life), the picture below visualizes the beauty of two whole people sharing their lives together. I don’t think we could wish for a better life!
 
What is pretty cool, is that ME all on my own is living out your best life, consciously taking control of your destiny and living with purpose. Sharing an US with someone as fulfilled as you are is a great bonus.  

You can only give away what you have.
 
Well, that certainly makes sense: how can you give something away when you don’t have it?
 
My thoughts today are not so much on what we have but on what we are giving away. And how, in what you give away, there is a big clue about what you have going on inside of you. Actually, it gives evidence of how you feel about yourself. What you give away is a reflection on you, not another person or a situation.
 
Think about how you respond to different situations and people as you go through the day…..
Do you tend to be impatient, frustrated and abrupt? Are you demanding and intolerant?
Or are you calm, responding with empathy and understanding, patient and accommodating of others? Of course, there are many variations between these two states of being.
 
Which of the two extremes would you prefer to be? Which of the two extremes would you link to a fulfilled, healthy (in mind and body), mature human being?  
 
If you find yourself feeling out of control, constantly stressed, feeling unwell and struggling in your interactions with people, consider investing in a Life Coach. Through Life Coaching, you will have the opportunity to examine you and what is stopping you from being the person you want to be.