Make a Plan, Make a Commitment
How many times have you made a plan and it did not go as planned? and How many times have you given up on the idea that plan was for? Does your plan help you make a commitment?
There are three common type of plans.
(1) Plans for designing or building something. A Plan is drawn up and followed to the exact as they instruct people on how to build or what to do.
(2) You personally make a plan for what you want to happen. T such as what others will do for you, how they will react to your idea or request.
(3) The business plan comprises of how your business-company will survive and make a profit and how customers will react to your idea-product-service and how investors will receive a profitable return.
Guessing doesn’t work
In a way, it is guessing how things will go or predicting the future and does not necessarily make a commitment.
The difference between the three type of plans is that the plan for a design “inanimate objects” instructs whoever is involved making it. Whereas plans made for something to happen is not completely controllable because of all the factors such as how people will react to you or your idea.
When seeking funding or investment for your idea or business, investors want a plan to give them a sense of security. Depending on how convincing the submitted plan is, determines whether they invest or decline. Even with a very convincing and detailed plan, there is no guarantee that it will happen as planned.
Having an alternative or back up plan “Plan B” can be useful. These do not make a commitment either and if they don’t work out, what do you do?
You can ask yourself, how do it make it happen? What do I need to do? If I do this action will it lead to that outcome I want?
A commitment is a continuous changing plan that adapts to any situation
Having goals or a list of what you want is not a plan, it’s an actual list and it is good to have one or as many as you want. When a plan is constructed and it does not go as planned, many don’t adapt and change their plan. Instead, they give up and claim that nothing ever works out for them!
From all the plans you have made, you can use all the good parts, the parts that worked. These can be used to make a commitment “a continuous alternating, changing and adapting plan”.
Whatever you do in life, where you are from. The circumstances you are in and what you know. You make a plan for what you want to happen. When things don’t go as planned “as the majority of times it does not” you adapt to the change and modify the plan.
Adapting to the change of the situation is a plan in itself and so an alternating plan seems to make more sense because when your original plan does not go as planned, you don’t give up on your idea.
Making a commitment instead of a plan is more effective. When you make a plan, which does not work out as expected, then often the assumption is made that there is a failure, and it can’t be done. If you make a commitment to succeed, you make a flexible-always changing plan as to adapt to the situation of each problem and obstacle that comes along.
The idea is the same but the plan has changed and should keep changing, it is a “continuous alternating, changing and adapting plan”. This is clearly how you make a commitment to make what you want to happen to materialise.
Business consultant, entrepreneur, founder of GNCORP.
When things don’t go as planned “as the majority of times it does not” you adapt and change. Adapt and change, modify the plan, yes. But if the majority of times things don’t go as planned, may I suggest the plan may have had some serious flaws in either design or implementation? Or perhaps in those who were in charge of either planning or execution. There are two kinds of change, planned and unplanned, and while the former is to be preferred it’s not always guaranteed as indicated above. However, you can also have contingency plans or crisis management plans for those occasions that might sneak up and surprise you.
Here’s to good planning -thorough, comprehensive, thoughtful, sensitive, sensible, practical and realistic. Thanks for sharing
Thanks Gary, great observations. In my experience, many people simply don’t like planning and then some are ardent planners. It all comes down to personality type in the end. The best plans are those that have all the characteristics you mention. Thanks for commenting. its appreciated.
Hi Gary and thanks for the reply.
What I have written is from experience of mine and others and from all types of people.
People make plans and 90% of the time it does not go as planned and then they will just give up, they get “discouraged” to do anything as to try again and so on.
As you have said “the plan may have had some serious flaws in either design or implementation” for building something then yes but for people to make a plan to start a business or become a success they need to be very flexible and adapt because not everything is in their control such as what other people will do for them.
I am trying to get people to make a commitment rather than a single plan because when you commit to something you tend to do what is actually required to make it happen.