The paradox of planning.
“Don’t live the life you planned. Live the life you never imagined.” ~ Jill Telford
I was searching through some old file boxes, hoping to find and shred irrelevant papers, and I hit the jackpot. They were filled with various planning documents I had created over the years—business ventures, product launches, financial forecasts—pages and pages overflowing with facts, figures and projections.
As I flipped through I discovered something interesting. They were absolutely brilliant, and I never used any of them for anything. My future never emerged from what I read or projected, nor from what others told me. It came from what I passionately felt and discovered by jumping in, and sensing and responding to what was happening around me.
Planning is paradoxical. It’s useful when it gets you excited, investing and moving into the unknown. But it can also destroy possibility by miring you in alternative viewpoints, by keeping you playing around in your head. And to make matters worse, others will play with your head, too.
They’ll sense your confusion and apprehension, and your desire for guidance, certainty and hope, and they’ll add to your inertia with even more information. Or they’ll pitch you with promises; ones that make you feel good about yourself. Big ones that no one can logically make, or small ones that keep you in your comforting patterns of behavior.
Warren Buffett once said: “You’re looking for three things, generally, in a person.
Intelligence, energy, and integrity.” There’s plenty of intelligence in planning (A.I. creates amazing plans), but there’s no energy or integrity. That comes from stepping into the unknown, from daring greatly, like the former English major and lawyer, Southwest Airlines founder Herb Kelleher, who once remarked: “We have a strategic plan. It’s called doing things.”
Have you ever wondered why college dropouts, disenchanted employees, a teenage girl from Sweden, and yes, even English majors are the ones who change the world? Were they the most prepared? Did they have the best plans? Of course not. They dared to listen to the whispers of possibility and embrace the messiness of the world.
So go ahead and make your plans, and then file them away and get on with doing things. The greatest adventures are rarely mapped.
Stay passionate!