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
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 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
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
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.
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
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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