Planning things with integrity means to plan things such that you have done all you can in your base for things to go as smoothly as possible. It means being prepared for the worst-case scenario, being prepared for the best-case scenario, and actually preparing full-stop. Sure, you can always ‘wing’ something at the last minute - which makes your heart pump faster and you feel like you’ve ‘gotten away with it’ again. But when you actually prepare yourself for what is going to happen, you’re calm, focused, and know that whichever way it goes, you did all you could for it to turn out well. Answer the following questions to plan stuff with integrity.

What am I out to achieve?
By when?

What will I need to do in order to be able to achieve it?
By when?

Will doing what I say I will do really achieve it?
Really?

Have I factored in contingencies?

How will I do those things anyway?
By when?

What are the next actions I can take?

When will I take those next actions?

If your teacher comments on your work and tells you it can be better; it’s not you, it’s your work.

If the person behind the counter snaps at you for asking a simple question; it’s not you, it’s them.

If someone doesn’t want to help out with the fabulous, brilliant project that you have planned; it’s not you, it’s your project.

Don’t take things personally.

Your teacher was probably thrilled that you, their student, had the initiative to create work on your own accord and show it to them. A good teacher will teach you and nurture you to learn and grow to your potential in every field - in academia and as a person. They are not out to make you feel bad about the work you have done.

The person behind the counter probably had things on their mind - maybe their mother is in hospital, or their relationship is falling apart. You don’t know. Sometimes people are grumpy because they want other people to get related to them - for others to know and relate to their pain. Be kind to people, for we all have our worries.

Someone doesn’t want to help with your project? There are over 6 billion people on this planet. Find someone else who does.

Don’t be offended by what people say or how people act. The only person who can make you feel bad or lose your confidence is yourself. Don’t give other people permission.

You’ve brainstormed and tried all the keywords that you could think of in Google, you’ve asked Jeeves, you’ve spoken to your lecturers and you’ve spoken to all the people you know - everyone you can think of! To no avail. No matter how hard you look, you can’t find anything.

So, you decide to set up something on your own accord. You brainstorm with your friends, talk to you lecturers about it, talk to other clubs and societies, set up a plan of attack and put the first steps into motion.

Then, something pops up - you get an email. Something that says, “I was here all along, what are you doing setting something up?”

I signed up to the entrepreneurs society at my university, and didn’t hear from them for the next four months. I emailed them at three different times, asked them how I could help, and whether I could set something up within them if they weren’t going to. I never heard back from them. So, I decided to set my own entrepreneurial community within the university. Two days later, I got an email from them about an initiative they are setting up. I clicked on their links and realised they had a website all along, as well as a blog! Where was I looking?

So, even if you’ve looked, researched, and spoken to everyone you can. Is there anything else you can do? Is there anywhere else you can look? Where are you not looking?

Are you doing the same old things that you know how to do, that you know won’t fail, that you know won’t make you look bad, over and over again?  It can be so daunting to step out and be unreasonable - to venture into an unknown project with all your stories about ‘looking good, and not looking bad’ hovering over your shoulder.  It’s so much easier to just keep taking on the safe games in life, walking the middle line where everyone else tends towards, and keeping out of the way of being criticised or laughed at.

If you’re going to take on big games in life, sometimes people will laugh.  They will jest about you, ridicule you and say you can’t do it.  Don’t hang around these people - they aren’t worth your time.  Others, those that matter, will support you, be optimistic even when you aren’t, hope the best for you and appreciate you for who you are and the unique contribution you want to make to the world.  Hang around these people.

If you want to expand and know yourself to be bigger than you’ve ever known yourself to be, you have to take on big games in life!  Big games that require everything you know - and more, big games that you don’t know how to do yet, and big games, that if you did, would knock your own socks off at how flipping amazing you are!

If you think you’re so busy you can’t possibly take on another project.  Take another on, and watch yourself expand to fulfill on it and be someone you never knew yourself to be - an even more enormous human being capable of achieving even more enormous goals.  Just one more project - I dare you!

You set up a meeting time, ten people email back and say they’re keen, passionate and that they’ll be there.  One person shows up.

So what’s there to do?

Get on with it!  Don’t cancel the project and don’t loose faith in yourself.  Believe in the goals of the project, and keep pursuing them.  So nine people didn’t show up.  Boo hoo.  One person did.  They came for the meeting, you give them the meeting.  Meetings, paricularly the first meetings in creating an organisation, don’t have to look a certain way.  Meetings don’t have to have X number of people there talking about X or doing X.  Create what is necessary there in that meeting to move your objectives of the project, and the desired outcomes of the meeting along.

Sometimes even the best laid plans go awry.  Just dance in the moment and create from what you have.