“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless but planning is indispensable”
– Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dreams. Desires. Longings. We all have them. Seldom do we take the necessary action to bring them to life and thus, they remain secrets, buried in our hearts and minds. Perhaps we are working at our desks and check out for a few short moments. We inhabit a life that seems incredibly perfect…and utterly impossible…and completely out of reach. As we return from our reverie to the reality of our current circumstances, we shake our heads and sigh as our minds are flooded with thoughts that reflect our resignation to, and acceptance of, the status quo. “Wouldn’t it be nice,” we think, or “never gonna happen,” or “maybe someday.” We all know it’s a pipe dream, a flight of fancy, and nothing more. Right?
In truth, our dreams, no matter how big, out of reach, or impossible they might seem, can become our reality. The difference between a dream and goal, or more precisely, the difference between the dreamer and the doer, is an actionable plan for getting where they want to go. The key to bringing dreams to life is planning.
Our modern lives and our modern world are growing increasingly complex. Technology allows us to be connected in ways that didn’t exist as recently as twenty years ago. While there are amazing benefits to that connectivity, it also has its downside. We are always connected through a device in our pocket, not only to our friends and family, but to our work as well. There are endless distractions provided by technology; streaming services mean that entertainment we love is just a click away all day, everyday; our personal devices put endless gaming options in our hands; and social media is designed to keep us scrolling and checking notifications.
When we engage in these inessential activities, we allow our precious personal resources to be consumed and our ability to pursue our goals and dreams is compromised. Achieving our personal objectives in an increasingly complex and distracted modern life is only possible through detailed planning and the elimination of the inessential.
While there are many benefits to planning, it does have some limitations. Planning is a time-consuming process and creating a thorough plan can delay action and result in missed opportunity. When we are faced with circumstances that require immediate action, advance planning loses its utility.
Planning is based on facts, figures, and information. If the information, facts, and figures we use to create our plan is faulty, then the decisions we make will be faulty. If our information is unreliable, our plan becomes useless. While planning attempts to account for future events, the future remains unpredictable. Nor can we plan for all the variables and possibilities. There are going to be things that we just don’t see coming. You might be wondering, “what’s the point of making all this effort to create a plan if it’s all just going to go sideways anyway?”. By working through the planning process, we gain clarity and insight about what it is that we truly desire. The more we plan and reflect on our results, the clearer our desired outcomes become. In deepening our connection to the end state we hope to create, we are far more likely to make choices and decisions that will get us there.
While, at first, the idea of creating detailed plans based on research and solid information may seem restrictive or inhibitive, the opposite is, in fact, true. Planning creates freedom. We can minimize the uncertainties of the future because planning is forward-looking and anticipates future events, which allows us to decide in advance what we will do if something goes wrong or our original plan fails. When we do the work of creating a plan, our attention and focus are free to fix on our objectives and we are less easily distracted from what we are working toward. Our efforts are coordinated and focused on achieving our goals. Planning helps us to eliminate unnecessary activity and use our resources more efficiently. The ultimate freedom of planning is control. Control is simply knowing that our actions are aligned with our objectives and that unplanned actions cannot be controlled.
The true importance of planning lies in the process itself. It is in the act of gathering information, analyzing it, and reviewing our options and alternatives that real gains are made. It’s in this process that we learn what our true objectives are and the most effective methods for reaching them. We come to know exactly the level of commitment the goal will require and whether or not we are willing to make that commitment. We gain clarity about the outcome we desire and begin taking action that is aligned with that reality rather than current circumstances.
The process of creating a plan to reach our goals is where we prime our minds to see the opportunities that are all around us. We gain a sense of what needs to happen and what could go wrong and how we’ll overcome it. It’s how we prime our subconscious to know what options lead to the best outcomes when things start going sideways, and it’s how we make the right choices on the fly, through sheer intuition. Because we’ve done the work of understanding our goal in the deepest possible way by learning what is required to achieve it, we’ve set ourselves up to seek only what is necessary and to take the actions that move us toward our desired outcome.
Taking aligned action, consistently, over time, is what moves us to the completion and attainment of our objectives and goals. The plan itself may well be useless, but the process of planning, of doing the deep work to understand the objectives and their requirements, our options and alternatives, has prepared us to take aligned action. We will know when our actions are no longer in alignment with our goals because we feel it as a sense of disquiet, discomfort, and dissatisfaction. When we encounter these feelings, we can be confident that the solution is as simple as reviewing our plan and bringing our actions back into alignment with our desired objectives.
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell has a rule of thumb for decision making; the 40/70 rule. This rule states that we should make a decision and take action when we have between 40 and 70% of the information. If we have less than 40% of the information then we are just shooting from the hip and are likely to make far more mistakes. If we wait to acquire more than 70% of the information then we risk missing opportunities and becoming mired in analysis paralysis.
The second part of Powell’s rule is to trust your gut. Often, our instincts and intuition will lead us to the best choice, even if we don’t have all of the information. The point here is that we can take meaningful action even if our plan remains incomplete. Once you determine that you’ve gathered enough information to take action, take it! The results of your actions will provide valuable feedback that will allow you to adapt, improve, and expand your plan while making invaluable progress toward your goal!
The difference between a dream and goal – between the dreamer and the doer – is that the doer has an actionable plan for getting where they want to go. Will you choose to be a dreamer or a doer?
Thanks for sharing your day with me,
Evie
Some deepening questions to consider:
- Have you made a solid commitment to your goals? Or are you still hoping that it will just happen someday, someway?
- What are your dreams and how will you get there?
- How thorough are the plans you’ve made?
- Are your actions in alignment with where you want to be?
- What distractions can you eliminate to free yourself to pursue the goals that matter most to you?
For step-by-step instructions for effective planning, click here.