You’ve got to have a plan. A plan is a map, a guide, a target, a focus, a route, a signpost, a direction, a path, a strategy. It says that you are going to go somewhere, do something, be somewhere by a certain time. It gives your life structure and shape, gravitas and power. If you allow life to turn up any old thing you’ll be floating downstream as quick as you like. OK, so not all plans work out, not all maps lead to the treasure. But at least you’re in with a better chance if you have a map and a shovel than if you just dig at random – or, like most people, don’t dig at all.

A plan indicates you’ve had a bit of a think about your life and aren’t just waiting for something to turn up. Or, again like most people, not even thinking about it but going through life perpetually surprised by what happens. Work out what it is you want to do, plan it, work out the steps to take to achieve your goal, and get on with it. If you don’t plan your plan, it will remain a dream.

So what happens if you don’t have a plan? Well, you reinforce, to yourself, your sense of being ‘not in control’. Once you have a plan, everything else falls into place. Once you have a plan, the logical steps to achieve that plan also become available, accessible.

A plan isn’t a dream – it’s something you intend doing rather than something you want to do. And having a plan means you’ve thought through how you’re going to do it.

Of course, just because you have a plan doesn’t mean that you have to stick to it, to follow it, to obey it to the letter come hell or high water. The plan is always up for review, for improvement, for changing as and when you need to. The plan shouldn’t be rigid. Circumstances change, you change, your plan changes. The details of the plan don’t matter. Having one does.

Having a plan gives you a fall-back position. When life gets hectic – and boy does it do that sometimes – it is easy to forget what we are here for. Having a plan means that when the dust settles you can remember, ‘Now what was I doing? Oh yes, I remember, my plan was to . . .’ And off you go again, back on course.