Summary

One stormy afternoon on a boat in Thailand changed the way I thought about my entire life, and it had nothing to do with the waves.

Not having a plan isn't playing it safe. It's playing it small.
The Capable Drifter: successful on paper, but never quite tapping into their full potential.
A plan doesn't need to be permanent. It just needs to exist - it can change when the situation changes and that’s fine!
Having a plan will help you build a muscle of set goal - achieve goal - set goal - achieve goal. That momentum will carry you to places you never knew existed.
Plans are best set and achieved with other people - they inspire you, challenge you, and support you to be better.

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The toilet door

One time I was on a boat. The crew were running around, tying things down, preparing for the approaching storm. “It’s nothing we haven’t experienced before,” they reassured David and I. David, the only other guest on the boat, didn’t need reassuring - he’d definitely seen worse.

The waves picked up to several metres, throwing our boat forwards and backwards. After ten minutes of increasingly aggressive boat-rocking, two things happened. First, the waves changed so now the boat also rocked side-to-side and secondly, I needed to pee.

I’m not sure if you’ve ever had to go to the bathroom during a storm on a boat, but I can assure you that it’s not a fun experience. I was thrown around the toilet as I tried to brace myself against the white plastic walls. Let’s just say it was a good job I was wearing trunks. In that moment, the main thought on my mind was “how did I end up on this boat?”

Why was I on the boat?

I’d met Mick, this larger than life Australian guy, just nine months before. He was running our leadership development program at Kraft Heinz in South-East Asia. Just three months before, I’d received the job offer in Bangkok because I was what Heinz would call a “high performance, high potential” kind of person. I’d always felt pretty good about my career, having gone from business school to consulting and then onto an amazing brand like Heinz. My LinkedIn looked good and I had enough cash to buy what I wanted.

*Moving to Thailand with Heinz was one of the greatest adventures of my life. If you ever have the opportunity to work abroad, take it - it will only change you for the better!*

Meeting Mick in Bangkok, we quickly connected. He really understood me and the second time we met for our development program he said something to me along the lines of:

Jack, you’re achieving a lot in your life - but I feel like you could be doing so much more. Come on our retreat to Thailand with a bunch of other leaders - we’ll set goals and plans to take you to the next level.

The storm was on the last day of the trip. I’d stayed behind to chat to David - ex-military, coach and one of the kindest people you’ll ever meet.

He’d said something to me the day before that really struck me:

Jack, you’re missing a plan. There’s nothing wrong with having a plan and changing it - that’s called life. But to not have one means you’ll always spin your wheels.

I’ve paraphrased what he said, but I changed in that moment.

I realised that throughout my entire 20s I had been playing it safe. Not intentionally, but sub-consciously. Through some strange fear of failure, I had decided that it was much safer to never set plans, goals and visions, because I could fail at those.

I had been a Capable Drifter: successful on paper, but never had a clear plan - as a result you don’t tap into your full potential.

Making the plan

So, as I sat in my swimming trunks with David, I spent the next three hours forming a plan. A vision, a purpose, some goals, my values, everything. It was one of the most inspiring, creative, magical moments of my life.

It’s what led me to where I am today.

*Not only do you get to experience a new working culture, you also get to explore countless countries and their cultures too - this is Jack & Liv in Vietnam.*

Initially, I had a plan to ride the wave to the top of Kraft Heinz, but as David said, life changes, my plans changed, and now here I am writing on a Sunday morning from Florence.

Florence was never part of the plan.

But that’s David’s point. When I made a plan to make my way to the top of Kraft Heinz I lit a spark inside me that said, “I will do this in the next 12 months (goal), because I want to do this amazing thing in the next 36 months (vision).”

As many people have said:

It’s not about what you achieve, but who you become on the way.

As you start to build a plan you will realise that you becomethe type of person who gets things done, who is okay with coming short, and who is able to bounce back from those failures.

So when life changes, new opportunities arise, or circumstances beyond your control thrust you in a different direction, you have the tools and the muscle memory to take yourself to another level.

The final thing I realised

Spending time on the boat with Mick, David and everyone else showed me that people always want to help you achieve your goals, visions and dreams - if you have a plan. If you don’t have any plan, people don’t know how to help you or what you need help with.

*Our WD Roadmap is the tool we use with EVERYONE to build a plan.* *Check it out here.*

Everything we’ve created at Wildest Dream is to help other people have the same experience that both Patrick and I have had. From our coaching, to our workshops, to our events, all of them are designed to help you commit to who you are destined to be.

So if you can turn around and say, “yes, my life is good - but maybe, just maybe, it could be a little bit better,” get in touch with us, we’d love to talk.

Start building your plan - book a complementary 30 minute call with us and we’d love to chat it through.

Having A Plan Changed My Life