Establish a Good Habit of Thinking Before Acting

Many brothers and sisters often ask me what to do and how to do it. Today, I want to share with you several very important concepts: separate thinking from implementation, separate planning from execution, and separate research from production. Why separate them? Because it is difficult for people to think clearly about problems while doing things. Many times, we need to calm down and make plans. Without plans, without thinking, without research, the subsequent things will be chaotic.

Over the past few years, I have had a habit: I will not do things on a large scale if I am not clear about them. If I rush in to renovate a house without drawings and directly start working, smashing the wall, the result is that the things that should be smashed are not smashed, and the things that should not be smashed are smashed. This is troublesome, and in the end, it is done in a mess, and the cost is very high. My habit is to first draw a picture on the whiteboard, and then constantly think about how to do it, and to brew it for a considerable period of time, because thinking is not something that can be done by patting your head. This habit must be established.

Without a plan, without ideas, and without thinking things through, it is difficult for you to think while doing. Of course, some things do need to be thought about while doing them. Those are exploratory things. For example, why do I have to smash the wall wrong and then repair it? Why can't I draw on the whiteboard and think about it? That's so easy.

So, thinking is even if you cut out a model with paper, and then draw it. If it doesn't work, find a model to do an experiment, which is better than building a wall and then demolishing it. Why bother spending money and effort like this? After smashing it, it cost more than seven hundred Singapore dollars to hire someone to throw away these construction wastes. In fact, you can think it over before building the wall, so thinking and implementation must be separated.

Also a few days ago, when I was connecting the electricity, I wanted to save trouble in one step. I didn't draw the picture clearly, so I connected the wires. As a result, the switch sparked as soon as it was turned on. It was so scary at the time! If I had drawn a picture in advance, wouldn't it be good to connect it according to the picture? Later, I re-drew a picture, thought it through, and removed the wires that should not be connected, and it was fine.

When you are doing it, you will be dizzy when you see those lines, but if you draw the picture clearly and then do it, you will have a clear idea. If you don't think, the world will be in chaos. So I suggest that everyone think clearly before doing anything. If you can't figure it out, it doesn't matter. You can do exploration, you can do it on a whiteboard, or you can make some models. Anyway, don't do it on site. If the building is built and then demolished, it will be troublesome.

People Should Always Make Plans

Everyone should develop a habit of separating thinking from implementation, habitually drawing pictures, and making things clear before doing them, so that it is basically not easy to make mistakes. People living should often plan. For example, next time I will plan how to mortify the misdeeds of the flesh. I have a bad habit that I find it difficult to tolerate people not thinking. Some time ago, my temper flared up a few times. I was thinking about how to plan to deal with this carnal habit, because it does not edify people, nor does it solve problems, and it releases a lot of fear.

My habit is that I will take a notebook and write down my plan. Many things are thought out before they are done, planned before they are implemented. If there are deviations, then correct them, then implement them, and then find deviations. This will do things well. This is a very typical concept of management.

I also encourage everyone to start planning. If your head is paste when planning, it will be chaotic when implementing. Plan what to do and what to do. Separate thinking from implementation, separate planning from execution, and separate research from production. Research is to study how to do this. For example: In the upcoming 5G commercial market, without research, what do you produce? What if the products are all waste after production?

People need to gradually learn good habits of doing things. Cultivating these good habits of doing things, I think, will be very beneficial to everyone. This answers the question many people ask me, What should I do? Develop a good habit and become a knowledgeable person. Learn how to do things, how to be a person, and then do things with a plan and implement them in a standardized way, and the whole thing becomes very efficient.

Learning How to Plan

How does one plan? Planning is about what we intend to do. There are different kinds of plans: the first type includes five-year career plans or business development plans. These are strategic plans that address what to do and why we are doing it. This requires research and exploration to determine which endeavor yields the highest returns. The second type is project planning, which resolves how to do it, when to do it, who will do it, and what resources will be used.

If we have such plans and we implement them, there will still be some deviations. Without these plans, it's utter chaos.
Why do some people live a muddled life even at seventy or eighty? It's because they make decisions rashly. God created humans not with a monkey's brain but with a human brain. This means that God created people to learn planning, which reflects God's image, and to implement plans step by step.

What if one doesn’t know how to plan? Learn to plan through small-scale exploratory understanding. Take career planning, for example. Last night, a brother came to me and talked about these planning issues. We discussed a key point: it is awkward for people around forty-five or forty-six years old who are in management roles, especially if they neither like the place nor are liked by it. If they can't continue, they are in a dilemma, which is called a mid-life crisis.

How to deal with a mid-life crisis? This requires thought. So, I gave him thoughts and analyzed which endeavor would yield the highest return. My principle in doing things is: first, there must be accumulation; second, there must be continuity.

For working people around forty or fifty, life is generally hard, unless you are in a government unit. Leaving that position, you really don't know what to do. Later, I gradually realized that most business owners have no intention of going back to work for someone else, even if it is full of challenges. The news lately is all about Huawei. Huawei's boss, Ren Zhengfei, lost his job in his forties and owed two million. As a result, he started Huawei and is still at it in his seventies. Li Ka-shing is still working in his eighties or nineties.

Conclusion

There is something everyone must understand: is there continuity in what one does? For example, if you find a job, there is a risk of being fired, which needs to be considered. Actually, nothing is easy. Since nothing is easy, then do something with continuity. Of course, this is my advice to him.

Planning, including career planning and strategizing, requires thought. After more thought, what result will it produce? When you implement it, there will be sustainable development. When planning, one needs to consider which factors and which factors do not need much consideration. Many people consider irrelevant factors in their planning, which they think are important, but they are not.

Those who plan and those who do not plan end up with vastly different lives. Once, my classmate told me, Our classmates all did very well before the age of forty, but in their forties, sixties and seventies, one after another, they collapsed. They were all finished. He observed this phenomenon. Why is this the case? Because that's the path they were on.

Thank the Lord, I think it's very good for us to have a long-term plan. If not, it doesn't matter, just walk by faith. When facing challenges, one still needs to plan how to move forward. Some plan for three to five years, and some plan for eight to ten years, all planned by faith. But some people write these plans in flowery language, and what happens? None of them can be implemented, which is absurd.

I think separating thinking from implementation, and separating planning from execution, are very important hierarchical concepts. Minimizing waste and impact on oneself, and clarifying things before implementing them, makes it easier. Doing things when things are vague is not a solution. This is quite common among our brothers and sisters. If you can remember to separate planning from implementation today, you have gained something. That's all for today. May God bless everyone!