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Common wisdom has it you should plan out your career in detail otherwise you set yourself up for failure. So why should you do something as crazy as setting fire to your detailed career plan? Here's why:
1 . The Most Successful People in the World Often Don't Have a Detailed Plan
I've read loads of biographies of the most successful people of the last couple of hundred years and about 80% of them followed their bliss - not a detailed plan. The formula is this: Outrageous Goal + Action Habit = Score!
But then what will you do with each day? Well, Jerry Seinfeld once said something about how he never had any plans to become the most successful comedian ever, all he did was work hard at the one thing he was passionate about, come what may. I am sure you'd like to be as successful as Jerry (or even partially) and of course you can because your future is unlimited - so there's your answer - just pursue your passion relentlessly.
And for those who are worried about spending too much time on irrelevant tasks. Well, surely you have enough intelligence to recognize a complete waste of time when you see one? Always be doing the next thing you can do that will move you closest to your goal.
2. You Don't Know What You Will Want in the Future
Studies have repeatedly shown that humans are useless at predicting what they will want in the future. About half way down this post there's a great story of an experiment where students were asked to predict what sandwiches they would like to eat for the next week. Most of them reported being unhappy with their choices when the day came around to eat what they had pre-ordered.
The Who's Pete Townshend once wrote "I hope I die before I get old". He jokes about this now.
You shouldn't assume that you know now what you'll want in the future - you don't and it probably isn't what you think it is.
You may have a fantastic plan to become a world famous Frisbee champion, but if you wrote this plan without accounting for the lifestyle that would naturally accompany such a career, then you may be confusing a nice fantasy for what you actually need in order to be happy in real life. I don't know any, but I would imagine that professional Frisbee dudes spend a lot of time traveling and running around on beaches. Now if you hate flying, hate the sun and miss your girlfriend when she goes out shopping with her sister, then you might want to consider if your grand plan is actually congruous with your reality-based needs.
Further, the more detailed your plan is, the more pressure you are going to feel to be getting all those little tasks you've set yourself done. And this will mostly be future-based activity - grunt work - which will not necessarily be all that fun. You may wish a lot of those tasks were over as soon as you've begun. While adhering to a detailed, demanding plan, you may be putting most of your attention on the future instead of enjoying the moment. And, although we don't always remember to do it, I think it's pretty much common knowledge that the best way to enjoy life is to live in the present moment and be grateful for your blessings.
If you are truly happy to live a simple life, spent strumming your guitar on the porch while your husband bakes you a nice cake, then burn your plan to become a rock star and just chill.
3. You Don't Know What Will Happen in the Future
What does your future hold? Flood? Fire? War? Plane crash? Financial ruin? Ill health?
Or maybe you are but a couple of years away from an incredible, unexpected stroke of good fortune - a sudden windfall or a surprise career opportunity that you never could have anticipated.
Even barring something outrageous, the truth is you don't know what the world will bring over the next few years. The rate of change we are experiencing is at an unprecedented high and predictions are that it will continue to increase exponentially. Changing factors that may completely alter the work environment in the next five to ten years include technology, economics, market demands, the oil crisis, politics, global warming, and population growth.
If everything changes around you while you're slavishly adhering to your detailed plan, you may wake up one day to find demand for your business has waned.
4. Short, One Page Plans Are Better
Australian self-made multi-millionaire real estate agent and author, John McGrath, says he never bothers with detailed plans. In fact he specifically writes that "a business plan's success is inversely proportional to its length". The reasons he gives for this are that people have a natural resistance to reading wordy documents therefore long plans tend to wind up stuffed away somewhere, never getting reviewed or acted on.
He recommends one page plans with bullet points to make it easy to scroll through. It should be able to fit onto one PowerPoint slide.
I would also add that in my opinion while spending days or weeks constructing a long detailed plan you are wasting time "thinking" instead of "doing".
5. Over-Planning Indicates a Lack of Trust in the Source to Provide.
Ok - I admit - this is pretty hippy.
And I just don't think that this sort of thinking applies to people living in Third World countries, but it does apply for the First World. The fact is, if you are working class or higher, you are, in fact, comparatively rich. And if you are sensible, and don't make yourself miserable by focusing on the gap between what you want and what you actually have, you should be able to relax and be grateful for the blessings in your life, even as you work for tomorrow's bread.
If, however, you just spend all your time being scared about not having enough, and therefore over-planning to try and control life's outcomes, then you are sending out the wrong vibrational message.
And hey - maybe that Law of Attraction phooey works or maybe it doesn't, but even at a pragmatic level, others will smell your fear and run a mile (taking the opportunities they may have sent your way with them).
6. Your Plan May Be Limiting Your Success
Your detailed plan is a product of your imagination, and while you may think you're a pretty creative cat, you may be limiting your options to what you can imagine while writing it.
For example: You are a software developer running your own start-up. You write a spiffy, detailed plan that involves marketing your products through different online channels. Things are going well; you're busy and making okay money but not exactly setting the world on fire.
One night you're at a bar and a friend introduces you to a woman who is interested in your business. She asks you to come along and give a talk about how you market yourself online at a local small business meet-up. You mentally check the plan - nope, no mention of public speaking there, and plenty of online marketing to do - so you politely refuse. Stick to the plan, you tell yourself. Meanwhile, who's to say that your product, surreptitiously mentioned in your talk, wouldn't have appealed to a number of the business people present, should you have been so crazy as to give spontaneity a go?
7. Planning Actually Achieves Nothing
Nobody ever wrote a business plan that didn't make a huge profit, but plenty of businesses crash and burn. Why? Because it's not the detailed plan that makes things happen - it's you. It's your actions, your hard work, your focus, your persistence.
The Taoist school of thought recommends that you abandon planning altogether and instead "flow like water". Although that sounds pretty goofy, if you stop and think about the qualities of water, it makes sense. Water is flexible, passive, and it flows around the rocks rather than trying to push through them - yet it always reaches its goal - the ocean. I personally take this approach. It has worked wonders for me and I believe this counter-intuitive strategy will give you great results also. If you allow yourself to open up to the mystery of life, then your future will be a grand adventure - and the best way to do this is to click on that detailed plan and drag it into the trash.
For those not game for a complete no-plan approach then some less "out-there" advice is to keep your plan simple, brief and focused on a specific result. That way you can be flexible and responsive along the way, whilst always keeping your eyes on the prize and your ship heading in the right direction.
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Seamus Anthony is a musician, writer and entrepreneur who lives in the beautiful Dandenong Ranges, near Melbourne, Australia. You can check out more of his personal development writing at http://rebelzen.com
Image by Nestor Galina.
Originally posted at PickTheBrain a weblog dedicated to self improvement and motivation.
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1 comment:
hmmm... never thought that my plans could possibly limit my success. Interesting :)
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