Without Planning, You’re Gambling With Your Future

You have probably heard someone say “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” Many people think that they plan, but the reality is that most people don’t really plan. Instead, people create lists of tasks and put the tasks in order. Expectations of which tasks can be realistically accomplished in a set amount of time are often unrealistic and people get by. This is adequate for many things in life because they are simpler to execute and because the consequences of completing the tasks late are low. For example if I need to pick up a bottle of wine on my way to a party which results in me arriving a little late for the party, no one will care. I have friends who assume that everyone will arrive late and they find it strange when I arrive on time for a party. Some people put more effort into planning their vacations and weddings than they do for their businesses, careers, or important goals. Why not give as much attention to those aspects of life?

If a goal is important, relying on a task list and hope is gambling with success because there is a high chance of missing your timeline. Without a plan we end up relying on hope, luck, and will power to achieve our goals. Will power is great and can only do so much. Imagine going on a road trip where you will be driving 500 kilometres (310 miles) to attend a wedding in another city. You know that you need to drive East to reach the city but you don’t know the exact route. Instead of planning out your route on a map or using GPS so that you have a plan of how to get there, the estimated length of time to drive, where you will stop along the way for food or fuel, you choose to wing it. You will just drive East and hope that you get to the wedding venue on time. Even if you know the highway that will take you to the city, the chance of you reaching the wedding venue on time is extremely low without a route to the venue. If you reach the city and you ask people on the street for directions to a wedding venue, you may have to visit multiple venues before you find the right one. In a large city, it could take days to find the venue. Unless you are extremely lucky, you will miss the wedding without a plan. This is similar to what many people do with their goals.

Plans do not guarantee the results, but they are a tool that gives you a chance to achieve your goals. Without a plan, your chances of success are low or your goals are nonspecific. One of the benefits of creating a plan is that it forces you to think through the actions, activities, resources, preparation, people, and execution to achieve your goals. This alone increases your chances of success because you had to deal with assumptions, unrealistic expectations, or you found missing pieces.

There are many reasons why some people do not make plans and the common reasons are covered below.

The plan must go perfectly or the plan is ruined. People who think that plans do not work are creating plans that are so rigid that unexpected things in life will derail the plan so they give up on the plan. The solution is to create plans that account for unexpected events in life since life rarely goes perfectly. This would be like having a spare tire in the car for a road trip in case you get a flat tire.

People feel trapped by the plan. A plan is not set in stone. Also, you created the plan and you are in control of the plan. You can make changes. In fact, you will need to make changes because once you start following the plan, circumstances may change or you may learn new information that requires the plan to be updated or modified. You can also design flexibility into your plan such as room for experimentation, spontaneity, and time for tasks to take longer than you anticipate.

People missed a step in their planning and they discovered the gap after they started following the plan. Sometimes people get stuck there. The solution is to pause execution, regroup, and get back into a planning mode to fill in the gaps and to figure out the missing steps. Then get back to executing your updated plan.

People forget to use the plan that they created. Sometimes people create a plan and then they don’t try to use it which makes the time and effort of planning a waste. If you are going to make a plan, create one that is worth following.

If your goal is truly important to you, give yourself the best chance you can of succeeding.

To read further about why plans often fail and how to create a plan that is effective, read Why Plans Often Fail.