“Plans are useless, but planning is invaluable.”
-Winston Churchill
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Are you confusing your plans with planning?
Are you mixing your dreams with dreaming?
Are you not clear between love and loving?
This has everything to do with your marketing.
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James Was Planning To Make $70K
At 19, my best friend James left to work on a fishing boat outside of Delacroix. He was planning to make $70K in four months then use the loot to attend college and snow board in Montana. But instead, he brought home a new tattoo, a handful of stories, $2,500 in debt and an entirely new path to pursue in the Coast Guard.
I said,
“James! What the hell, man?!”
He said,
“You know what I learned, Eric…?
We’d sew and cast these humongous fishing nets out into the vast sea, and every time we pulled them back into the rig, it was a new surprise. We never really knew what we were going to catch.”
Turns out they didn’t haul that many fish. So little, in fact, that his time was cut short. He was sent home with empty promises.
But on one fateful day, James pulled a dead body from the nets. He spent the next week with the Coast Guard, fell-in with the “boys,” drank shots of whiskey, got a tattoo in New Orleans and signed up with the Coast Guard.
The four month, $70K fishing job actually lost him money. Yet he was THRILLED!
You
Planning can be helpful. But how much? When does it pass that cusp of usefulness and become another excuse not to start?
There is no perfect plan. There isn’t a static template to follow. Perfection is fluid. Perfection is simply doing it.
There is something so vibrantly alive in the momentum of “simply doing it” that unfolds your plan in ways that can’t be seen or measured from a stationary point.
I guess I hear myself telling you to LEAP! The net will appear. (pun intended :-))
Me
When I reflect at my plans over the last five years, nothing resembles the original plan. What I envisioned when I began this marketing journey has rarely – IF EVER – looked like what I’ve actually written.
The same for my career path. The most meaningful job experiences have arrived out of the blue, a combo of seizing opportunities and abandoning old ideas hatched a day dream ago.
Relationships too. Each person I’ve been blessed to love has come to life beyond all my imagining and expectations.
Me & You
Sure, we need to anticipate what is coming. We need to spend time enveloped within the planning process. But it’s not law, and you must embrace spontaneity.
Don’t make too much of either your plans or what happens when you take the road less traveled. Plans are kindling for fire, but all that is REALLY required to warm a room is your heart, and your light. Market that.
How Has This Been True For You?
Comment below with your thoughts. Pass this post onto a friend if it hits the spot.
Great Blog, Eric, and it helps me see beyond the overwhelm that could move in! “Spontaneity” is my middle name, planning is secondary. You’ve helped me see the value of both!
A good plan makes for great improv
Love your post Eric. Yep, it’s been true for me. In fact where I recognize I need to be careful is whether I’m making a plan out of fear and an attempt to control or influence an outcome, one that may not even be for my or anyone else’s highest good! We can’t always see the big picture, that’s often revealed way down the line. Embrace spontaneity, keep your heart and light alive and let your plans fit around that. Now that’s divine order in my book! Thanks
Amen! I think you make a good point about planning out of fear. Jeez, I’ve done that so much.
This rings true. Not everyone bears witness to the beauty of this, the power of this. I felt supported to leap at the beginning of the month. It’s been a serious amount of work, but also a journey of remembering. Remembering the power of spontaneity.
A journey of acceptance.
Accepting that spontaneity is deeply woven into who I am.
A journey of gratitude. Deep, deep gratitude to have found my place in a tribe. A tribe that keeps the fires burning, the heart and mind well fed. A tribe that nurtures the fertile ground of the intellect. A tribe that instructs with such excellence.
A journey of acknowledgment. Acknowledging all that came before. Before the husband, before the 1 child, before the farm, before the 2,3,4,6 children .
Bless.
“Journey” is your middle name, Courtney. Nice words.
Great post, Eric. I appreciate a THINKING person, and even more I appreciate one who shares their thoughts to perhaps influence others in a positive way.
As one of my mentors, Wallace Wattles, said, loosely quoted: “Perfection is in the imperfect and yet nothing is imperfect. Everything is unfolding as it should.” Essentially, planning is important so we know where we intend to go. Intentions drive so much of our behavior. We must have a target to aim for but also be okay if we don’t hit a specific target. Perhaps the target was moved for a reason; therefore, we must embrace this concept to be “in the flow.” Inflexibility will keep us from following our true path, a divine path.
We have inherent limitations as humans because of how we are influenced by society and the message we have received from our families. It’s up to us to search for our own truth and walk in our own truth, and therein lies the challenge… trusting ourselves.
I am grateful that while on this journey in life of learning to trust myself (constant growth process), I have the mentorship and fellowship of my fellow team members at The Daily Marketing Coach, who have my best interest at heart (success in business). They listen to me, guide me to the resources I need, and prop me up when doubts creep in.
Beautiful Wendy. And yes, we’re here for you. Thanks for your comment
God, what a good day. Eric, I’m not a pastor but it’s just my vibration to put God first in my life and activities because I noticed something in life. Since my mother delivered or gave birth to me, all the information have been receiving from TV, Newspaper, Magazine or any form of message delivery and transfer are all lies. I’m only saying that the world is filled with lies and liars.
80/20 Marketing Inc. is different in leading people. I love Ann sieg and 80/20 Marketing Inc. Team.
It is a stark contrast.
Eric, this message is just the pure or knowledge of the truth. I discovered it, that there is no time to be planned, when it has to do with networking business. It’s just to follow and participate in the current activities and events. Participation is the marketing.
Now it’s scaling up the marketing and become cash flowing in my personal management and then….. my Web presence will be felt.
Feel me.
Ann said I should join the conversation.
Thanks for your superb updating. I love you all.
Thank you Solomon. Glad you’re hear joining the convo.
Eric, what a wonderful perspective on plans and planning and spontaneity! I am great at planning but tend to execute with spontaneity….result is me feeling guilty for not following the plan…silly isn’t it?
You have given me permission to enjoy the journey….as long as we are clear on the destination. Reminds me of the Robert Frost poem, “The Road not Taken”.
Boy Eric you really hit a nerve with this post. It is so true that we can get caught up in the “non-productive” part of our business that we never get around to doing those things that generate the income we set out to earn. I loved the last part … the most important part of your post …” Plans are kindling for fire, but all that is REALLY required to warm a room is your heart, and your light. Market that”. I’m chewing on this one today, then swallowing it and allowing the energy it generates to pick up the phone and call some folks. Thanks, Eric…