Why Plans Can Fail

I’m often asked “Why plan? Things never work out as expected.”

Often, that is true.  Plans don’t work unless you do. It is not enough to create a plan, you need to refer to it regularly and implement it. Execution is key. Otherwise, your plan does fail.

Working your plan, however, doesn’t mean it is going to succeed… at least not in the way you thought it would.  As Robert Burn’s poem “To a Mouse, On Turning Her up in Her Nest with the Plough, November 1785” notes, the best laid plans often go astray.

While we can envision a variety of scenarios during the planning process, none of us know what the future will really hold. 

• We may gain new information that requires us to totally rethink our plans, even our chosen long term vision or destination.
• Accidents happen.
• Things wear out and so do our bodies.
• Many things are outside of our control: the weather, natural disasters, wars, monetary policy, actions other people take or don’t take.
• Economic shocks, changes in family status, a debilitating disease and more can significantly impact our plans.
• Falling in love, an unexpected job offer or loss
• Having a dream, but not knowing yet how to get there, or even what it is going to look like.
• Technology changes can upend how we do things.

All these and more can require a change in our plans. 

We can’t predict unknowns. We can identify some risks and mitigate them a number of ways. However, we will never really know how we will respond until such a circumstance happens.

What can we do?

When interruptions happen, as they always do, we need to be open to possibilities. We may need to change our thinking and/or our chosen action steps to accommodate the changing conditions, unexpected consequences, and unexpected events outside of our control.  We must be willing to handle the detours, while keeping our eye on our vision.

Do take the time to reflect on your chosen vision. Is it still the one you would choose?  If so, reaffirm your commitment and explore options and contingencies that will get you there. 

Sometimes, we may find that our chosen vision isn’t really the future reality we want after all.  If that is your situation, it is okay to modify or change your vision.  Take the time to select your new vision, then change your thinking, goals and action steps to move towards the new vision and keep stepping.

Don’t think of your plan as a static document. It is a work in progress.

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