My first manager out of college used to say that occasionally. I understood what he meant, but it took a while before it really sunk in.

What he was telling me was that in a day or a week or a month, no matter how good our “plan” is, it’s going to be outdated. Things change. We learn new information. We change our goals. But it’s the act of planning that prepares us to deal with those things. As we go through the planning process, it makes us aware of alternatives. It helps us discover pitfalls. It helps us refine our goals. In the end, we’re left with the actual plan, but more importantly, we’re ready to refine it when things change.

As I’ve discussed here and there, without goals, we’re just wandering through life. We need goals to help guide us. They must be clearly defined, and it’s of benefit to put deadlines on them.

Once we decide upon a goal, it’s all talk until we start taking action toward reaching it. At first we might just do some things that we think puts us closer to that goal. But if we really want to reach our goals, we need to have clearly defined plans.

My overall goal is to become a golf pro. To achieve that, I have goals to increase my fitness, lose weight, and work on my game. My to-do list is filled with all the things I intend to achieve in the short and long term.

But how do I go about those things? How do I go about getting fit? How do I improve my golf game? Certainly, I can go to the gym or to the driving range. But what do I work on? What did I work on last time?

To make sure I’m always headed in the right direction, I developed plans. I created a fitness plan, a golf plan, and will be creating a diet plan shortly. With these plans, I’m now armed with something that will help me constantly move forward toward my goals.

There are several benefits to creating well-defined plans that direct you toward your own well-defined goals.

• Most obviously, it gives you something to do. If you’re sitting in front of the TV, thinking “what can I do to work toward my goal?” then you’re probably not taking any action. With a good plan, you know exactly what to expect of yourself that day. Sometimes when we don’t have a clear plan, it creates paralysis (don’t worry, not literally) that keeps us from taking any action at all.
• It helps take away “outs”. When we have poorly defined goals or plans, we leave ourselves a loophole. When we make things hard for ourselves, we’re more likely to take the path of least resistance. Especially if there’s a conflict. If you wake up and can’t decide whether to go to the gym or to the practice range, then chances are you’ll mull it over until it’s too late and do something else instead. If you have a plan that tells you that today is a gym day, then the decision is made.
• Plans help you to track progress. If you know exactly what you should be doing every day, then you can easily track it. I’m creating an activity log that aligns with my main plans. Each day, for each plan, I’ll note whether I followed my plan or whether I didn’t.
• Plans help to make sure that we use our time most efficiently. We can see where we have gaps and can fit things in. Plus we don’t lose time trying to figure out what to do. We just do it.

That kind of brings us full circle. Eventually, the plan will be useless (or at least, its usefulness will diminish). For instance, it’s just a hunch, but I’m guessing my golf practice plan will be somewhat different in the dead of winter. Or, maybe I’ll discover that my fitness plan totally ignores a part of my body. Or there’s always the possibility that I’ve planned too much and my expectations on myself are unrealistic on a certain day. In fact, I’ve already discovered that my golf plan didn’t include bunker practice, and my fitness plan is missing a few of my favorite exercises.

That’s where the planning comes in handy. I’ve created well-defined plans and have considered pitfalls and alternatives. I’ve had to make decisions about what’s important and what’s not. I’ve had to decide how much time I have to spend.

With that preparation, I’m prepared to make intelligent revisions to my plans. In the long run, that will lead to better plans that are more likely to be complete and realistic and thus will help reach goals better.

This is a topic that’s not really specific to golf. It’s something that’s applicable for life in general where having a well defined goal is beneficial. Have a look at my plans and at my activity log to get an idea of how you might apply the principles to your own goals. It’s kind of amazing how much well-defined goals and plans affect what I’m doing in a positive way. Instead of just floating along doing whatever suits my fancy that day, I’m more focused than ever. And it doesn’t feel like a burden because these plans are just that: plans. Not laws.

Feel free to suggest ways where I can improve, whether it’s in the planning process or within the plans themselves. Also feel free to take my plans and modify them for your own use.

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