Plans are useless…
“Plans are useless but planning is indispensable.” This somewhat paradoxical statement is one seemingly attributed to the shrewdest of planners and the mastermind behind the D-Day Allied invasion of Europe, Dwight D Eisenhower. Similar assertions were made by the Prussian military commander Helmuth von Moltke and even the inimitable Mike Tyson who respectively noted that “no plan survives first contact with the enemy” and that “everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
If plans are so useless then why bother having them in the first place? That’s probably not the point that either Eisenhower nor von Moltke were making and possibly and not even Tyson for that matter. Sure, pretty much anyone who’s ever spent days, weeks or month pulling a plan together will have found that when they come to execute that plan fundamental assumptions and hypotheses turn out to be a degree or two off. Maybe the world has changed too in some way since the process started or that – guess what – things don’t always work out as we’d imagined. That’s the point! But to have a plan you must have undertaken some planning in the first place and it’s that which is so critical.
We all have aspirations and goals, things we’d like to achieve or become. We promise ourselves that we’ll write a book one day or learn a new language. We’ll get great at public speaking, grow to become a better leader or simply become more assertive in our careers or lives. All admirable in their own right but how often do they remain just aspirations rather than real achievements we can look back on with a sense of pride and accomplishment.
There are of course numerous reasons why we all fail to deliver on our aspirations and goals because in the planning process – no matter how formal or informal that is – we convince ourselves that whatever we’re striving for is beyond our grasp or perhaps conversely we’re a tad too ambitious and set ourselves unrealistic aims. Perhaps we decided that the path to that goal was too hard without considering alternatives or, even if we get to that stage, we lack the accountability in ourselves to actually try and put the plan into action. It’s not necessarily the plan in itself that’s the key it’s the planning.
And that is why even the greatest and most successful accept that in planning for success their chances of being successful will be that much greater with a little help. Someone to work with on setting realistic and achievable aspirations underpinned by our own unwavering self-belief. Someone who will explore all possible roads to success with us and help us to choose the one with the greatest chance of helping us achieve our aims. Someone who will help us to hold ourselves accountable and work with us even when that plan inevitably encounters first contact with the enemy. Someone who will help us to put faith in the process of planning for success for without that process of planning we’ll never start the journey. And that ‘someone’ my friend is your coach.
You can also find me on LinkedIn and Bluesky or simply drop me an email if you’d like to chat more.
David Martin; I work with start-up and business owners, entrepreneurs and team leaders to become the best possible versions of themselves.
