It’s a great feeling when things go as planned, isn’t it? The perfect roadmap, the seamless execution, the predictable outcome. The satisfaction of hitting the bullseye.
And when things don’t go as planned? Well, it’s just not a bullseye.
But what if none of it actually matters?
See, a plan is only an idea of what you want. Whether it’s for an organization, a business, a school, or a vacation, a plan is simply the strategy, the direction, the map. It’s a static blueprint in a dynamic world.
When I was a school leader, planning was at the forefront of everything. It was a necessity for public transparency and accountability. Every initiative was a meticulously crafted map.
But when I traveled oceans on a sailboat, there was no such thing as a plan. Everything was about adapting to the current, the tides, and the wind. You go where the wind blows.
These are two extremes, and for most of us, reality is somewhere in between.
We build our plans. We set our goals. We even put time into those plans—no goal feels real without a due date.
But that’s just the plan.
The reality is, a plan has very little to do with success.
Because a plan is limited by the one constant that limits everything we do: time.
And the one thing that helps you beat time is velocity.
Velocity is not a concept found in a static plan. It’s a force made of two attributes: direction and speed.
Direction is the plan. Without it, you’re just burning your wheels, wasting energy with no purpose. You can be running at top speed, but if you don’t know where you’re going, you’re just spinning out.
But without speed, you lose out against the very resource that limits every one of your plans.
You can have the perfect direction, the most elegant strategy, but if you’re not moving quickly, time will simply expire. The world moves on, the market shifts, and your perfect plan becomes an irrelevant museum piece.
A plan without velocity is just a wish.
The real power is in moving forward with both purpose and pace.
…just food for thought.