Plans Are Nothing!

In a world of apps, Google searches, social media, and every form of speed communication, planning seems downright old fashioned.

After all, isn’t a click so much faster – and better – than all that “extra,” tedious work? Besides, plans often go awry. Ever listed, even prioritized to-do lists, or scheduled the hours in a day only to abandon them as useless? Ever felt discouraged or like a failure for not following your plan?

Plans can amount to nothing! Why: what’s wrong with them? Blueprint directions eliminate choices. They work well to present directions, like in an Ikea task where parts must align or even invitations where people need to meet at the same time and place. But as anyone who has found those directions frustrating knows, they can be incomplete, confusing, and just plain hard to follow: they’re good for nothing! Plans are idea stoppers, holding thinking motionless.

Making plans is not planning. Planning is mental doing. It’s preparation. It’s imaginative, creative, problem solving without consequences. Imagine building the house of your dreams. Would it be a ranch with wide open spaces, or a split level with a pool, or a bungalow with a huge party room? Planning makes it possible.

Planning is an imagined preview of a future journey. It could be an event, a new health regimen, a college career, a building project, or even a homework assignment. No matter. Planning answers 3 questions. Where do you want to go and why? What do you need to get there? When will you go? The answers cover what really matters. They’re reflections about our goals, rewards, methods, resources, time estimates, and schedules. And they lead to actual growth, change, and learning. In short, planning creates the trip tickets to success!

Working faster, clicking more, scatters thoughts, creates distractions, raises stress, increases errors, and leads to omissions. It’s time-consuming and de-motivating. It generally gets mediocre results. Planning laser beams thoughts, reduces uncertainty, and lowers stress, all while avoiding errors, restarts, and missed information. It saves time. It ensures the best possible performance.

Planning is the tried and true, think before you leap strategy. It gets you what you really want!