Your Business, Your Plan - Oil and Water?

I've been thinking long and hard lately about why I'm into this business of internet marketing.
You might wonder why I’m second guessing something that I’ve put my heart and soul into.
Well, it's this business plan. I've started writing mine and I'm realizing that the direction of my website isn’t exactly the way I want it to go. In turn, that means my ezine is being misdirected, my split-test that’s half written on my computer is misguided, etc.
So I let fright almost turn into flight! I almost let it get to me that bad. I started thinking I had done it all wrong and “ruined” my reputation and there was no repairing my mistakes.
Then I started thinking, really thinking about what I wanted to accomplish with my business. Why am I IN business? What is it that makes AlphaDynamic Marketing so different? Why do I have my heart SET on making ADM work?
Ah, the beauty of the business plan! You see, a business plan's primary goal may be to focus your business and it's finances but it has a hidden, secondary gem. If you are really filling out a business plan and not just filling in the blanks, you'll come to find that you are asking yourself these same questions.
You will find yourself looking at your websites with different eyes, more cynical eyes. You'll try and imagine what your business will be in 2 years, 5 years, 10 years. Will it be? Do you have a goal? Do you have a business plan?
All of those eBooks that you have on your computer that tell you to write down your goals, have you done that? I'd bet some of you have, but a vast majority have not. Why? Because we already "know" our goals, in our head, in our heart. Just as I knew exactly what I wanted for my website.
Until I took the plunge and decided to "get serious" about my business. To be serious, you MUST have a business plan. I haven't personally asked Terry Dean or Willie Crawford but I would lay money they have one and that they have HAD one for quite some time.
Success may come to you but without a clear path to follow, you will not be able to hold onto it.
Writing down your goals and making a business plan are the first REAL signs of success for they are the magnets of progress and prosperity.
Now, with my business plan to lead me, it puts blinders on things that may stand in my way. To "opportunities" that I don't need. I have a clear path and all I have to do is follow it.