Welcome to Project Manage Your Life (PMYL), the system that helps you treat your goals like projects and actually finish what you start.
This blog is where we keep the PMYL journey alive, sharing insights, success strategies, and personal stories to help you take control of your goals and your life. Today, I am bringing you a new PMYL Pro Tip.
PMYL Pro Tips are quick, actionable strategies to help you apply the Project Manage Your Life system in everyday life. These aren’t summaries of the book; they’re bonus tips and real-world tactics I use with coaching clients to help build momentum, stay accountable, and keep goals on track.
Think of them as your behind-the-scenes coaching boost … straight from the trenches of real goal-setting.
Let’s go crush some goals together!
Ready for a dad joke?
Consider this a lighthearted amuse-bouche for your brain before we get serious. Sure, it might be groan-worthy—but hey, at least you’re getting your money’s worth, right? 😆
Where does a mansplainer get his water? From a "well, actually…"
PMYL Pro Tip: Is Doing the Right Thing Holding You Back?
This month, my Operation Melt blog is dedicated to helping you unleash the courage to be yourself.
I started the month with my Interview with a Goal-Crusher, featuring Alex’s story of having the courage to put herself out there by sharing her first novel. As Alex said, it required vulnerability to allow people to read something she put her heart and soul into. But she knew that being her authentic self was worth facing the fear.
Then, I shared my story of second-guessing myself and my most annoying trait. That’s when unsolicited validation from a friend reminded me that my authenticity is appreciated… even if it is a little too much for some people.
Last week, I explained how asking permission can prevent you from getting started and cause your goals to die of loneliness. It was a good reminder that the only permission that matters is your own. The only rules that matter are your rules.
This week, I want to show you how a prudent, well-meaning step in the goal-crushing process can turn into a pitfall that keeps you stuck where you are.
Punchline: becoming the person you want to be requires action… and planning isn’t doing.
A Tale of No Action
One of the first large corporate technology projects I worked on involved creating new software for point-of-sale systems in hundreds of retail stores.
We had a big kickoff meeting, then immediately moved into months of detailed planning. Four months later, we had a hundred-page requirements document and a project plan that stretched across two years.
What did customers get from those first four months?
Nothing.
No results. No progress.
Eventually the project was cancelled, and the only people who got any value from this project were the attorneys.
The Planning Pitfall
Plans are essential if you want to accomplish something meaningful.
If you’ve read Project Manage Your Life (which you can grab free as an eBook), you know that “Build a Plan that Works for You” is a core step in my goal-crushing strategy. Despite what some agile gurus may say, you cannot skip planning and expect consistent success.
But planning has a hidden danger: planning isn’t doing.
Too often we spend our time analyzing every angle, trying to design the perfect plan, even hiring experts to help. But when the planning ends, what do we really have? Just an idea on paper, built on assumptions. That is not the same as making progress.
At its worst, this pitfall becomes PLANcrastination. This is when you keep planning and planning and delay accomplishing the thing you really set out to do. Usually this isn’t about productivity at all… it’s fear masquerading as progress.
Want to avoid the planning pitfall? I have two Project Manage Your Life pro tips that will help you steer clear of PLANcrastination.
Pro Tip 1: New Mindset
The first step to avoid PLANcrastination is a mindset shift.
Most of us were taught that goal success follows a strict linear process. Plan your work, then work your plan.
Nerd alert: this comes from William Edwards Deming, a business legend who created the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle.
This is a powerful model, but like many theories, it was simplified to make it easy to teach. Unfortunately, people often misapply it as a strict sequence: plan first, then do, and never the other way around. Why do we take models like this so literally… like PEMDAS in math class?
Real life is rarely that black and white.
So, we need to challenge our black and white thinking.
I find this simple mantra is a good way to do that:
Planning isn’t doing…
Doing is planning…
You can always adjust…
Start today, not after you have the plan!
Repeat this to yourself every time you start a new goal journey.
P.S. Taking action before “finishing” your plan teaches lessons that make your plan stronger than it ever could have been if you were just guessing.
Taking Steps… Not Planning to Take Steps
As I explain in my first book, Operation Melt: How I Used Life-Changing Project Management to Lose Over 100 Pounds in Under a Year, when I set out to lose 100 pounds in under a year, I needed a plan. I had to work with my doctor to set a safe target, figure out milestones, and identify behavior changes. That planning process took weeks.
So I had two choices: make planning my top priority, or balance planning with doing.
If I focused only on planning, it would have been fear in disguise. I’d have risked making no real progress and possibly abandoning the goal before even getting started.
Instead, I chose to take action while planning. I started moving more each day, downloaded a couple of tracking apps, and experimented before finalizing my system. Striking while the iron was hot built momentum.
Here’s a goal-crusher insider secret: there is no wrong action. Every small step forward was reversible, learnable, and progress.
That choice worked.
Pro Tip 2: Quick Start Actions
This strategy works for any goal. Those early steps you take while still planning are what I call Quick Start Actions.
Quick Start Actions get you moving immediately. They give you small wins and quick confidence that your goal is within reach.
In the PMYL process, Quick Start Actions are built in. After committing to your SMART goal and defining your why, you also identify actions you will take in the first two weeks.
Some are about reinforcement: posting your goal where you’ll see it daily and telling an accountability partner.
Others are tangible next steps toward your goal.
These Quick Start Actions, paired with your “planning isn’t doing” mindset, are the secret to celebrating wins instead of mourning the death of your goals.
I’ve Got A Proven System for YOU!
Avoiding PLANcrastination is just one of many strategies inside Project Manage Your Life, the system I’ve used with coaching clients to help them accomplish their biggest goals.
And I’m sharing it with you.
📘 Project Manage Your Life – Learn the 6-step system that’s helped me and my coaching clients transform our lives.
📝 The Project Manage Your Life Workbook – Packed with planning tools, tracking pages, and guided coaching prompts to keep you on track.
👉 Grab both at OperationMelt.com/PMYL
💡 Pro Tip: Join the email list and get the PMYL eBook completely free.
Want a Coach in Your Corner?
A system is powerful, but sometimes it isn’t enough. You also need structure, support, and someone who will call you on your excuses (with love, of course).
That’s where I come in.
As a certified Master Life Coach, I help high-achievers like you get clear on your goals, build a custom plan, and follow through without burning out.
Let’s stop the endless planning for the life of your dreams and start building it together.
✨ I believe in you; let me help YOU believe in you. ✨
Meet Coach Tony
Tony Weaver is a master life coach, technologist, consultant, writer, and founder of Operation Melt.
He helps project managers and other left-brained high-achievers pursue their biggest goals.
Through free resources, personalized coaching, and his proven Project Manage Your Life system, Tony empowers clients to move their dreams from “someday” to success — one step at a time.
Learn more about Project Manage Your Life, the system my clients and I use to crush our goals, at OperationMelt.com/PMYL/
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Meet Coach Tony