Plan vs Strategy

I am a kind of person who plans everything in life. Year by year, each months, each day, even every hour of the day. It feels good to know what exactly that I’m going to do and where am I going to go. Sometimes I did everything I’ve planned. But there were times, plenty of times, that I missed my plans and ended up doing something else which entirely different. Good thing is that my plans changed because there were better things or opportunities for me. Or yes there were times when I just wanted to do nothing lol.

Lately I was wondering, why my life seems out of its path. I was not able to take control anymore. I did things which were not on my plans. And then I found the answers. It’s not the plan that wasn’t working, it’s about the planner; myself. Clever planning and planner doesn’t always work in the real world. It is not just a plan; I need a strategy. The idea is quite similar, but strategy is more thoughtful.

Planning is predicting, but strategy is about shaping the future. It’s about what I know, how I think, and how I get people to care enough about what I am going to do to achieve my goals. However, there is no guarantee that the future will turn out the way I want. Sometimes it does not. Just writing a plan or create a strategy does not mean the plan or the strategy will happen. The world is more complex than that, but that’s what I have learned to accept. I have learned that reacting and responding to events is just as important as planning.

As Max McKeown said, “The smart strategist allows strategy to be shaped by events. Good reactions can make greater strategy. Clever reactions can make greater unplanned opportunities.”

I realised, that is how I get into this level of life. I was not that good, but I took some great opportunities from events that happened in my life before.

I knew it because I found that some of the greatest achievements in the past year were not in any part of my plan at the start of the year. I recognise some fantastic new opportunities while there was time for me to react and know how to use them to better achieve my ambitions.

Now, I’m starting to understand the people who make events happen and the connections between what they do and those events. I believe it would inspire me to be a cleverer strategist.