Making plans and strategies

IF we are to be effective in facing the many challenges

and opportunities today and in the future, we need to hone our skills

at making plans and strategies, both of the short-run and the long-run

types.

  

            Especially for the youth of today, this skill is very

necessary. We have to help them in developing this skill. We have to

rescue them from the state of being just at the mercy of

circumstances. They have to be taught how to shape their life by

having a clear vision of their goals and means, and instilling in them

a sense of direction and purpose.

  

            Sad to say, many times we allow ourselves to drift away

and to be carried away by external forces in our environment, leaving

us completely at their mercy. We obviously are conditioned by certain

elements, both inside and outside us, but we are meant to direct our

own lives too, since we are the captains of our own ships.

  

            We need to talk more about this matter, since it is often

taken for granted, thinking that the young people would just learn to

plan their life one way or another, sooner or later. This may be true

to a certain extent, but it certainly is more proper if a deliberate

effort be made to teach them to plan and strategize.

  

            This may require a lot of patience and self-discipline,

and the learning curve may be very slow at the beginning. But then

again if we persist, there is no other way but to succeed. And

hopefully we will see in the next generations, youth who are more

adept at making good plans and strategies for their life in general

and for their daily affairs.

  

            Of course, the most important goal of the plans and

strategies is how to relate everything to God. This should be made

clear from the start. We have to continually give the youth the

reasons and motivations, so that they can be sustained in developing

and living this skill.

  

            And then we have to give them concrete ideas as to how to

make a practicable plan and strategy. These should involve the whole

idea of developing the virtue of order and inculcating the proper

sense of priorities. Of course, the inputs of our Christian faith that

shows us how things ought to be, are necessary.

   

            We need to look into their attitudes, practices and

habits, and see which ones would reinforce this effort and which would

hinder it. We have to teach them how to make plans and strategies that

are realistic and are organic in the context of their personal

circumstances. They have to be plans and strategies that know how to

flex with the changing circumstances.

              Development has to go through stages arranged in some kind

of an inclined plane. In the beginning, they always need to be

spoon-fed first. They have to be asked to make some kind of daily

schedule, defining their priorities, identifying their needs and

resources they can avail of, etc.

  

            Obviously, when dealing with kids, we start with the most

elementary and immediate needs that are not, of course, the most

important and basic. They need to be directly supervised from always

to occasional.

  

            But there has to be a gradual process of letting them get

involved into more and bigger responsibilities—their studies, the use

of money and other resources, then the development of virtues like

order, prudence, temperance, fortitude, etc.