I have one resolution this year: Plan ahead. Few maxims are truer than the one that proclaims, “That which does not get planned does not get done.” How much easier would your life be if you placed more emphasis on planning ahead? That’s really a stupid question; of course your life is better when you plan ahead. The real question is: Why don’t we do more planning?
I’m a poor planner. I try to be a good planner. I certainly worry a lot, and I often feel like I’m coming up short on my preparedness. All the worry in the world does you no good if you don’t plan for how you will deal with the things that will happen in the future. However, I’m talking about planning for the things you want to have happen.
You can always react to things that happen in life, but sometimes you don’t get a chance to react if you don’t plan ahead because there’s nothing to react to. You wouldn’t take a long trip without looking at a map first. If you don’t plan for where you want your life to go, you might not get there. If you don’t set goals and think about how you’re going to achieve them, it’s certainly harder to achieve them.
The remarkable thing about planning is that life rarely goes according to plan, and you often have to readjust your plans to meet the changing events in your life. The mere act of planning does, however, prepare us for making the decisions that will have to be made when things don’t go as planned.
I read a recent study that discussed the benefits of creating a business plan before starting a business. The thing that stuck out to me was that, as expected, those that planned ahead had a better success rate, and they rarely even referred to the plans they had made. The initial planning was all that was needed to give them an edge against others.
So, my simple and singular resolution this year is to plan. If I want to achieve a goal, I’ll put pen to paper and try to map out how I expect to get there. I’ll consider the planning as the first step of the journey. You can’t get anywhere without taking the first step. At least if I don’t get to where I want to go, I’ll have some idea of why.
Understanding how you ended up where you are in life can be valuable information; that’s especially true for those of us way up in the CHEAP SEATS!
Bill James is a criminal defense attorney and co-founder of the James Law Firm with offices in Little Rock, Conway and Fayetteville, Ark. He may be reached at Bill@JamesFirm.com.