Avoid Faulty Assumptions (#3): We can flourish without a plan, right?

/ mkessenburg

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

Please note: Consistently pursuing a granular vision (aka vision script) of flourishing students, staff, and leaders helps international Christian schools to flourish. This post reflects my vision.

Plans. We make a lot of plans. We make plans in our personal lives: for meals, for exercise, for vacation, for finances. And we make plans in our professional lives: for lessons, for units, for school improvement, for meetings. (We even hear about making plans in the Bible—think Nehemiah!)

If you ask me if you can flourish without a plan, I’d respond with both “maybe” (as in it’s possible) and “no” (as in it’s improbable). So, basically no.

Let me explain my response by processing some related questions:

Question 1: What happens when you make a plan and when you don’t make a plan? In my experience, when I don’t make a plan, bad stuff happens more often. For example, when I don’t make a meal plan, I waste time and don’t eat as well. And when I don’t make an exercise plan, I don’t get enough exercise. Conversely, when I do make a plan, good stuff happens more often. When I make lesson plans, my lessons go better. And when I make meeting plans (aka agendas), my meetings are more productive.

Bottom line: If you want to flourish, make a plan. While having a plan is not a guarantee that you’ll flourish, having a plan makes it more likely that you’ll flourish. (Note: Not having a plan makes it more likely you’ll experience the blahs).

Question 2: What other faulty assumptions might you have about planning and flourishing? Here are 4 examples:

(1) “Planning takes time. Too much time. I’m not at a place where I can spend that much time on a plan for flourishing.” 

Your time is valuable. I think you’ll get more out of your time each day if you invest time in making a plan to flourish. It can take as little as a few minutes. Try this:

  • Identity 1 thing that would help you flourish (like eating lunch with a friend, getting enough sleep, or X).
  • Put it on your calendar—then do it!
  • Afterward, review what happened and choose another thing.

That process won’t take too much time. If you have a little more time, go for a Quick Win.

(2) “Flourishing is about feeling relaxed. For me, planning is stressful. Can you see why I don’t want to make a plan?”

Being relaxed is important, but some stress can actually help you flourish. And planning doesn’t have to be overly stressful. Turn on some relaxing music, then take 5 minutes to identify 1 thing that would help you flourish and put it on your calendar. Then, reward yourself—for me, that means chocolate or coffee!

(3) “Flourishing should be effortless. Like watching beautiful sunsets. Like eating my favorite meal. It shouldn’t take effort.” 

I get it. When you’re in the zone, things feel effortless. And when things feel effortless, you feel so good that you feel like you’re flourishing. But I also want to say that it does take effort to watch a beautiful sunset. You have to get to a good vantage point at the right time of day. It’s the same for your favorite meal—someone has put in the effort to make it.

Flourishing takes real effort, sometimes more and sometimes less, depending on what you’re working to achieve. Before working to flourish, be sure you’re ready:

  • Rate your commitment to get flourishing on a scale of 1-10 (1 being not committed and 10 being radically committed). 
  • If you rated your commitment as 8-10, proceed. If you rated your commitment as 1-7, find a way to raise it to 8-10, then proceed.

(4) “Trying to flourish works about as well as New Year’s resolutions—not a good success rate.”

You’re right. New Year’s resolutions don’t have a good success rate: 91% don’t succeed and only 9% succeed. But please note that 9% do succeed and that there are key steps you can take to increase the likelihood that you’ll succeed, for example:

  • Using the SMARTER format to turn your resolution into a goal.
  • Defining the actions needed to achieve your goal.
  • Getting those actions on your calendar—and following your calendar. 
  • Talking with someone each week (aka accountability partner) about the progress you are making on your resolution.

Just like you can achieve a New Year’s resolution, you can also flourish!

Photo by Covene on Unsplash

Question 3: How might documenting a plan help you flourish? In my experience, documenting a plan is helpful. Here’s why:

  • Documenting a plan includes goal setting. When I set goals, I get  increased clarity, increased focus, and a way to measure progress—all things that can help me move toward flourishing.
  • Documenting my goal increases the likelihood I’ll achieve it. Did you know that you’re “42 percent more likely to achieve your goals if you write them down”? (This Is the Way You Need to Write Down Your Goals for Faster Success)
  • Documenting my plan gives me a roadmap of how to get from where I am (X) to where I want to go (Y). Since it’s documented, I can look at it as I go from X to Y.

What about you? What happens when you use a plan and when you don’t use a plan? What other faulty assumptions might you have about planning and flourishing? How might documenting a plan help you flourish? 

Here are some related blog posts:

Get flourishing!

Michael