Planning to fail

"If you fail to plan, you plan to fail"

Have you heard this before?  Have you given up on planning because failure/missing the mark/disappointment has been all too common?   Have you ever had to pay a penalty because you didn't plan ahead?  I.e. miss a flight and paid a change fee?  Paid a late fee because you ran out of money before all the bills were paid?    Maybe you're a workaholic and you need to plan some time away. Otherwise it will never happen.  Consider this, things to do are inevitable.  Having things to do is one of those universal levelers across humanity.

"Plans often last until you meet the enemy" 

Military commanders encounter this often.  Great plans. Great strategies.  The enemy does something unexpected.  Of course, the enemy can be a metaphor for any project or task before us.  (Remember we ALL have them.)  Most often we can plan thoroughly and find that there were variables that we didn't/couldn't predict causing us to have to improvise and change our plan.  Have you ever missed a flight even though you left enough travel time to get to the airport but there was an accident or construction causing delays?  Or had an unexpected expense that siphoned off cash planned for other bills?  Have you given up planning because of this?

Failing to debrief after a plan is executed is often like not closing the corral after rounding up the horses.


If the plan worked, why not reflect on why and celebrate?  Repeat successes.  If it failed, even more reason to figure out why not.  Try not to repeat that plan.  Don't you wish that you could have all of that penalty money back, i.e. the ticket you received speeding to an appt?

I know that this should be common sense.  Maybe you're a good planner.  Are you a good debriefer too? Frankly I see people repeatedly not planning and paying the premium for that constantly.  This common sense isn't all that common.  The good news for the rest of us is that we can rise above those who plan and succeed at more opportunities, even gain access to more opportunities.    Of course that would widen the gap between the haves and the have-nots, common sense that is.