Plans Vs. Plans

What I never want to do again is plan my whole year. Hard to believe coming from someone who spends many of my days facilitating organizational and individual plans, but it is true. We know so little about the future and we are constantly making decisions about it. Now before you assume I have just put myself out of business, believe that I am still (even after 2020 - the year of chaos and unknowns) operating out of a plan. And I have plans for the future. But it is all about how you define your plan…

Here is what I believe a plan is:

A set of goals built out of your values and circumstances that will lead you to your envisioned future.

Here is what a plan is not:

A list of tasks and action steps to move you into the next phase of where you are now.

Wild, right? I wake up every day and plan out my day with my partner. I spend a fair amount of every Sunday night reviewing our weekly plans with our whole family to ensure all our desires and expectations are met. I plan meals for dinners WEEKS in advance. I plan vacations and road trips using spreadsheets and routed maps with hyperlinks and multiple backup plans. When visiting a new brewery, I plan which beers I am going to try and in what order so I can maximize my assessment of their offerings. I am a planner.

While I believe that planning ahead saves a lot of headaches (we never have the “Where do you want to go eat?” fight in our household anymore!), I have come to realize that a well planned future includes possibilities and opportunities to change. This philosophy will be my greatest learning from this year and I hope it helps me help the communities, organization and individuals I work with for a long time to come. We need to operate out of a plan to succeed but the plan must be flexible, adaptable and allow us to move with our time.

An example: Your organization plans for the next school year to bring volunteers and students together to promote literacy and have diverse adults from the neighborhood connect with students from their own community. There are scheduling mechanisms in place, the book lists have been chosen, the background checks are complete and POOF! kids are at home for the foreseeable future learning virtually or in school buildings closed to volunteers because of a global pandemic. We have to adapt. We have to shift and move our scheduling mechanism to allow for Zoom meeting, our books have to be accessible online and the volunteers have to be taught what it means to engage with kids through an online platform. If you believe your plan is just the steps and actions to get you to a goal, the plan you made is now worthless. But if you believe that the plan is born out of your values and circumstances, you are now positioned to revisit those values and in light of your current circumstances, build toward the better future you envisioned - a more engaged, connected and literate community.

Seems simple, doesn’t it? But we know that people do this all the time. When things get challenging and the metrics we set seem impossible to meet, so often we retreat into our old thinking. We begin to believe we will never see our vision because we can’t even take the first step. But we are missing the key - our values are what make our vision possible! If we are passionate about our core beliefs, we can find a way to our better and more sustainable future through innovation and commitment to ourselves.

Three years ago, I set out on a path to become the owner of the business I have been an employee of for the last 14 years. I began at age 25 as the office manager making coffee, copies and organizing supply rooms. Today I am celebrating my third week as owner. The plan was set in motion. Over the last 36 months, so many things have changed about my circumstances and those of my boss/colleague/mentor who co-created this plan with me. We have felt nervous, excited, fearful, and hopeful. We have changed and adapted, but we have remained focused on the envisioned future that is better and more sustainable for us both and the values we hold most dear. While every trip I planned and many projects I was hoping to participate in this year have not come to pass, the plan is still the plan and it is working. I am looking forward to what the next year holds and moving toward the goals for my next envisioned future.

Want to chat about your future? Hit me up any time at rachel@leadthindkdo.com or schedule a time for us to talk.