Don't Plan, Just Go

Planning, preparing and setting a course is a great thing to do. It's important to have a clear idea of what it is you're after and what you're trying to accomplish. After all, how can you have intentional action towards achieving something if you don't even know what that is? You also need to know what steps it will take to get there. Having a plan is important and definitely has it's place as a necessity to achievement.

However, it's easy to get caught up in the planning, to the point where we get so focused on the plan that we fail to leave room for anything outside of that plan. It's not that you don't want to be committed to the plan and follow it through. What you have to remember though is that life and business are dynamic. They're always changing. There is no way to completely plan out your course ahead of time. You want to stay on course as best you can, but you have to be willing to adjust your sails along the way. Technology, systems, laws, economies - everything is changing constantly. If you can't adapt and change along with it, if you're too set in your predetermined path and step-by-step plan, you'll just get frustrated and you'll never make the progress you could have otherwise. Those that plan but can adjust are those that will be most successful.

Life itself is dynamic. We don't know what tomorrow will bring. Again, you need to be able to flex with the changes and keep moving forward. Not only do life circumstances change, but we change as we stretch and grow. The thing we set out to do 5 years ago that was all we could think about doing may not end up being what we ultimately want to do those 5 years later. If we're unwilling to divert from the plan, we'll be stuck continuing to move forward at something we no longer have our passion in, simply because it was "part of the plan".

It's also easy to get so stuck in planning mode that you fail to take any action. A plan is no good if you never take the first step! If you're going to wait until the plan is perfect, and every little detail is worked out, you'll never move forward. Remember, everything is going to change along the way, so no matter how perfectly you plan out the entire process, it will never turn out exactly the way you planned it anyway.

Plan, prepare, set out a roadmap and detailed steps to get there. But don't get so caught up in getting down every single detail before you move forward, and don't be so rigid that you can't adjust when something doesn't go exactly as planned. You can plan well, but you can only plan so much. Forever planning without taking action will get you nowhere, and having no flexibility in the plan will mean disappointment and an inability to adapt to the inevitable changes, whether those changes are something out in the world or something within yourself.