Article by Peter J. Normandia. Follow me on Twitter.

Between training Jiu Jitsu, the neighborhood I live in, and being that I am only 29 myself, I run into a lot of people in their early-mid 20s. It is a crucial age for most because it is the time when college ends and real life begins. It is exciting, scary, and probably one of the biggest adjustments most people ever make. We go to school all those years just to prepare for the day when ‘real life’ begins.  When it comes, everyone thinks they have the perfect plan.

I remember when I was 24, I dreamed of being a director in Hollywood. I not only wanted to be a famous movie director, I wanted to be the greatest movie director of all time. I wanted to change the very essence of the way movies were made. I wanted to be remembered for the pure cinematic genius I knew I was. I didn’t want to work my way up to that position. I was too good for that. I wanted it now!

So I sat in my parent’s basement and wrote script after script in hopes of penning the greatest screenplay since Chinatown. I sent each of them out to agents, studios, colleagues, and anywhere else I could find. I applied for graduate school at NYU. I even opened my own company in preparation of my overwhelming success.

However, nothing worked, not even one bit.

Not a single person responded to my scripts. Even some colleagues I went to school with did not respond back. NYU denied me entry. My relationship with my girlfriend (now my wife) was heading toward marriage so I also had to think about earning a living. The bottom line was I needed to be a Hollywood director soon like I planned or else. This year of writing and networking was taking way too long. When was I going to get my break?

Somehow I came to the conclusion my major problem was that I needed money to make a film. While this is true to some degree, the most important item in any film is a great script. Since I could not get the script I had hoped for in my first 3 tries, I decided I was going to focus on money instead of continuing to write. I would get rich some other way and then fund my own movie that would shake the very foundation of Hollywood.

That’s the line of thinking that lead me into the mortgage business.

Of course, looking back in hindsight, this was one bad decision after another. I was chasing an unrealistic dream, and then worst of all, I began chasing money. Money is like a pretty girl. The more you chase it, the less of a chance you have. The problem was I was too inexperienced in my field & too impatient to to try and gain any.

Instead of planning properly for success, I just dreamed of it.

As I got a little older, I learned one important lesson about being successful: Planning is an important part of the process, but it must be done properly.

Many people, like the younger me, plan for this huge dream we have. We create all these wonderful pictures in our head about our future, but fail to focus on what’s really important: today.

To properly plan for success, don’t plan your life, plan your day.

In jiu jitsu, many people talk about their goals when they first start training. They talk about getting a black belt one day, and maybe opening up their own school. They talk about competing and wanting to be a fighter. They talk about a lot, but when it comes down to it, they always fail. The reason is they are concentrating on their dream, and not their day. Real fighters just come in and try to get better each day. They don’t worry about where they’re going. They worry about where they are.

Planning your day I believe is the best way to be successful. That does not mean you need to have a breakdown schedule with time slots for healthy snacks and tea breaks. It just means you have to plan each day accordingly if you want to work toward your dream.

Here are 6 tips to get you started.

1. Don’t worry about where you might be going.
2. Don’t worry about where you may have been.
3. Simply focus on what you want and nothing else.
4. Find one simple task you could do today to put you closer to that goal.
5. Accomplish that task. The earlier in the day it gets done, the better.
6. Repeat this each day.

Nothing much in life is accomplished in a very short time. If it happens, great, but counting on it will most likely leave you frustrated. Better to take it slow, and plan each day accordingly. If you want to be a fighter, plan which part of the day you are training, stretching and doing cardio. If I want to be a movie director, then I better be working on my video & writing skills each day. The key ingredient in success is consistency.

It’s as simple as that. The best way to start planning your life is to first plan your day. Start small, and climb toward the mountainous goal one day at a time. Before you know it, you will look back down the mountain and wonder….

‘How the hell did I get all the way up here?’

Then you will smile and think…’Day by day. I guess Yin vs Yang was right. Thank goodness for that site.’ (okay, maybe I went a little far after ‘day by day’, but I can dream too!)