You Are Not a Loser if Your Plans Do Not Work Out

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believed our plan was perfect and would deliver precisely the results we wanted. Now, if the plan could not be implemented, we think it is our fault.</p><p id="5e0a">The mistake we make here is that we think that there really is such a thing as a perfect plan. But this is not the case.</p><p id="91e3">Of course, the moment we make a plan, we don’t know the future in every detail. We have to start from assumptions that may later prove to be right or wrong.</p><p id="a52b">If they turn out to be right, we believe that we have done a good planning job. But if some of our assumptions turn out to be wrong, we blame ourselves. We think we should have known better, even though we could not have had the slightest influence on the changed circumstances.</p><p id="4a71">If we put ourselves under such pressure with our plans, the plans do not help us but make our lives more difficult. As long as we regard our plans as set in stone, we are slaves to our plans, even though it should be the other way around.</p><p id="c0fd">How do we avoid falling into this trap? We should see every plan we make as provisional. A plan tells us what is ideally possible, not what will actually happen.</p><p id="d9c1">So it is a good idea to continually update our plans and adapt them to reality rather than rigidly adhering to them.</p><p id="21f2">As you can see, if your plans do not work out, you have to give up the idea of being a loser. Plans fail every day. It is crucial to find an appropriate answer to this. Maybe you have to replan your goal, or you have to replan the way to your destination.</p><p id="dd7d">Plans should help us to make progress. As long as you make progress at all, you are a winner. It doesn’t matter if you are slower than you expected or if your goal is less ambitious at the end than it was at the beginning.</p><p id="8263">Progress is the only measure that should really

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interest you.</p><p id="ed86"><a href="https://readmedium.com/d855be749e6c?source=post_page-----834577ca2b4a----------------------"><b><i>René Junge</i></b></a><b><i> a published author writing on <a href="https://medium.com/illumination">ILLUMINATION</a>.</i></b></p><p id="fbd4"><b>Receive weekly updates, and don’t miss any of my articles.</b></p><p id="c111"><b>subscribe here <a href="http://bit.ly/ReneJunge">http://bit.ly/ReneJunge</a></b></p><p id="5463">Read also:</p><div id="6a77" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/how-to-start-with-nothing-and-end-up-with-something-f4e2f8909206"> <div> <div> <h2>How to Start With Nothing and End up With Something.</h2> <div><h3>You can’t make something out of nothing, they say. That’s true. But if you have nothing to make something out of, you…</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/0*IJZ8Zk0eaT41z2ro)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><div id="d311" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/my-wife-earns-more-than-me-and-that-is-perfectly-fine-with-me-6c67f6a55034"> <div> <div> <h2>My Wife Earns More Than Me And That Is Perfectly Fine With Me</h2> <div><h3>The society used to say that a man must be able to feed his family. Fortunately, the times when only the man makes…</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/0*56eRJ6-3VzJiv8bj)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div></article></body>

Plans should help us to achieve our goals. But goals sometimes have to be adapted to reality.

Do you sometimes feel pressured by all the advice articles that try to show you how to reach each goal in the shortest possible time? I have felt this way for a long time.

There’s tons of information out there about managing your time best, increasing your productivity, and setting realistic goals.

Some of this advice is valuable and good. If you follow them, you will become a better version of yourself. The problem is that none of these methods is infallible. Under ideal conditions, you can follow all of these pieces of advice, but ideal conditions are scarce in our hectic lives.

In the past, I used to think it was up to me if I couldn’t consistently follow through with this great new time management system. I was convinced that I was a failure if I couldn’t at least double my productivity. I had all the necessary tools at hand. How could I fail and miss deadlines that I had set myself?

Today, with more experience in life, I know that you can’t prevent life from sometimes interfering with the most beautiful plans.

It is impossible to plan all eventualities. Even with the time buffer of twenty percent in each plan, which is recommended in many time management systems, sometimes you can’t get by.

When this happens, we often get under stress. We believed our plan was perfect and would deliver precisely the results we wanted. Now, if the plan could not be implemented, we think it is our fault.

The mistake we make here is that we think that there really is such a thing as a perfect plan. But this is not the case.

Of course, the moment we make a plan, we don’t know the future in every detail. We have to start from assumptions that may later prove to be right or wrong.

If they turn out to be right, we believe that we have done a good planning job. But if some of our assumptions turn out to be wrong, we blame ourselves. We think we should have known better, even though we could not have had the slightest influence on the changed circumstances.

If we put ourselves under such pressure with our plans, the plans do not help us but make our lives more difficult. As long as we regard our plans as set in stone, we are slaves to our plans, even though it should be the other way around.

How do we avoid falling into this trap? We should see every plan we make as provisional. A plan tells us what is ideally possible, not what will actually happen.

So it is a good idea to continually update our plans and adapt them to reality rather than rigidly adhering to them.

As you can see, if your plans do not work out, you have to give up the idea of being a loser. Plans fail every day. It is crucial to find an appropriate answer to this. Maybe you have to replan your goal, or you have to replan the way to your destination.

Plans should help us to make progress. As long as you make progress at all, you are a winner. It doesn’t matter if you are slower than you expected or if your goal is less ambitious at the end than it was at the beginning.

Progress is the only measure that should really interest you.

Receive weekly updates, and don’t miss any of my articles.