I would like to open this blog with a clarification that, despite regular accusations to the contrary, I am not a Manchester United fan.
My two older Sons are, and I’m happy to take them there, but that doesn’t make me a fan.
But, yeah, between taking the lads and going a few times with friends I have been to Old Trafford quite a lot in the last several years.
Last Friday, next season’s fixtures were announced at 10 am and tickets became available at 11am.
I’d already made sure I’d renewed our annual memberships in time.
Unfortunately it was my youngest’s Sports Day so, when I had gap between the races at about 10.40, I went and checked the fixtures and cross referenced them with when the boys are already with me and our other commitments in the diary and came up with a list of all the games we could possibly make and a prioritised list of what to aim for.
By 11am I made sure I was in the pre-queue and when the queue began I was about 60,000 in it.
From both previous experience I knew it would take a couple of hours so I checked back periodically and hit the front of the queue at home whilst having lunch.
Unfortunately, this time I wasn’t able to get any tickets for a price I was willing to pay.
But I have put reminders in my diary for two days before each new set of tickets becomes available.
And I will make sure I’m online at those points – this time whilst doing what I normally do, having multiple devices open to maximise the chance of a high queue placement (it was only being able to do it on my phone that really cost me this time).
Not an absolutely massive effort but definitely a structured plan to maximize the chance of getting the desired outcome.
Several times people have commented on that and said things the effect of “I’d love to go but I can never get hold of any tickets”.
When I ask what they’ve done to get tickets, it usually amounts to a couple of minutes going online to see what’s available (usually nothing affordable at that point).
If that.
And I’m sure you’re already seeing the parallel.
Most of the times when I have conversations with people and they tell me that something doesn’t work for them……….
It turns out they’ve tried for a number of minutes at most and with no real plan.
“Meditation doesn’t work for me” they say…….
Even though they tried it twice and gave up after a couple of minutes and didn’t really have an anymore structured plan than “close my eyes and hope my mind empties”.
Or “Journaling isn’t for me” after somewhere between nothing and ordering a journal on Amazon and looking at it for a few minutes.
They’ll say they were “too busy” to use the resources at www.myrise.co.uk/time (which are specifically designed to help people who feel that they are “too busy”) when they hadn’t even clicked the link to have a look.
Or they’ll decide that some form of eating or exercising doesn’t work for them having put in maybe 1% of their time for a few weeks.
Now, I’m all for ‘working smart’.
Focusing on your highest return on investment activities rather than just grinding away.
But sometimes it’s powerful to realise that we just haven’t put enough effort in.
Maybe (probably) we hadn’t even given it that much thought.
But, old fashioned as it might sound, sometimes all we need is to come up with an actual plan and put some elbow grease into it.
Wanting something isn’t the same as having a plan to get it.
Much love,
Jon ‘Even my kids accuse me of being a United fan which I’m sure they’re doing to wind me up’ Hall
