Does Planning Take You to Your Goals or Keep You from Your Goals?

On our first day in Washington, D.C., we woke up to rain. My family turned to me. “What are the plans?”

I love planning. Vacations, menus, my daily schedule, planning my new Substack newsletter, any kind of planning. There’s satisfaction in looking at all the possibilities.

Plans make me feel safe.

Details and options in plans give me an idea of what to expect. They guide me along the way. I know they don’t always work out. I can be flexible when needed. 

My family turns to me to make plans, except on this long weekend in D.C. They specifically ask me not to plan. (My planning can annoy them.) So I didn’t. 

I could only answer, “I didn’t make any.” (Some plans would have been good.)

Planning has a dark side. Plans are only good if you act on them. 

It’s easy to stay in a state of planning. Planners want to consider the possibilities. The act of planning can go on and on. As a result, it keeps you from your goals.

Planning can become an act of procrastination.

There is never a perfect plan. You can plan for what you expect. You can’t predict the future. 

At some point, you must take a step to test your plan. You must take a step toward your goal.

The only way to know you are not procrastinating is to implement your plan. It just needs to be one step. You can always do more planning, either for the next step or for a second try at the same step.

After months of planning my newsletter, I posted it. I made mistakes. I planned more. That's how it's supposed to work.

Planning or procrastination? Which do you do?