What is a plan?

I love the quote in the header: “Planning is bringing the future into the present so you can do something about it now” (Alan Lakein). I especially like it because it captures the way in which a plan is kind of general. A plan gets us going in right direction, but leaves room for learning and making adjustments.

So, let’s look at what a plan IS NOT. It’s not a line map. In the military, we would often slap a thin piece of white paper over a map and use a pencil or pen to trace the one route we would follow to our destination. After noting a few highway numbers and distances, we could lift off the paper and have an annotated picture of exactly how we were going to travel to reach our destination. A plan is not a line map. If you think you can lay out exactly how you will proceed every step of the way to your goal and then follow that map you are in for a series of disappointments that are a part of life.

A plan is more like a good sense of where you are, where you would like to be, and the first few steps in the right direction to get you “kind of over there, closer to where I want to be.” Instead a set of precise directions, a plan is more like a series of likely landmarks.

Let me illustrate. Suppose you started out on foot early one morning to get to a certain bed and breakfast before nightfall. You know it is off in the east so you have a general direction. You suspect it will be close to a road so if you walked on the road and headed east, you’d probably be getting closer with each step. However, the road ends. So, looking toward the east, while the sun is still rising from that direction, you pick a landmark, say that red barn that is peeking over the top of the hill. The barn is not your goal, but heading in that direction will help you get closer to your goal. That makes the barn pretty important. It gives you something to focus on that moves you closer to your goal. As you top the hill, closer and closer to the barn, you come across a road that had been hidden from you when you were farther away and below the grade of the road. You also see a barbed wire fence between you and the barn. Looks as if the journey might take an unexpected turn!

Looking off far to the left, down the road, you see a small white house that looks like it might be on a bend of the road. For ease of travel, you decide to head toward the house and then reorient yourself toward the east again and on to the bed and breakfast.

A good plan is flexible and forgiving. A good plan is not complete and perfect; it corrects itself and grows in detail and richness as long as one keeps moving along the plan.

A detailed line map is boring; a plan is full of surprises and opportunities. A plan will get you there with your sense of humor and humanity intact.

Join me and your fellow travelers as we explore the power of a plan and gain direction for our lives.