YOUR PLAN IS ALREADY WRONG
- Derek Hagen
- 7 minutes ago
- 3 min read
❝Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.❞ -Dwight Eisenhower
The plan will change. The planning never stops.
My wife and I are hiking down a steep path to a creek with our dog. We planned the route yesterday using the park map. We enjoy hiking with Bingo and finding a brewery or winery afterward.
We get to the creek, and there's no bridge. That's odd; we're on the listed trail. We look for rocks to step across, but the deepest, fastest section has none. We wonder if we've drifted onto an old path that's no longer on the map, so we hike back up and take a different section. After fifteen minutes, we spot what looks like the trail heading back down to the creek. A hint of optimism.
No bridge here either.
I walk up and down the shore looking for a crossing. Nothing.
My wife had the answer. We took off our shoes, rolled up our pants, and walked across.
The plan was wrong. The planning got us there.
THE PLAN IS ALREADY WRONG
Every plan is built on assumptions about a future that doesn't hold still. Think of a plan as a snapshot; a straight line drawn from where you are to where you want to be, with a lot of assumptions holding it in place.
Some of those assumptions will be wrong in big ways. You assumed you'd keep your job, but a merger changed that. You assumed you'd stay in the same city, but a sick relative needed you nearby. Some will be wrong in small ways. You assumed you'd still love the same hobbies, but you grew tired of them. You assumed you'd keep the house the way it was, but you redecorated.
Either way, the future doesn't cooperate with the plan. That's not a flaw in the planning. That's just life.
ACCEPT AND MOVE ON
Time only moves forward. You can't navigate from where you wish you were; only from where you are.
Knowing something will happen and living through it when it does are two different things. You can nod along to "markets crash eventually" in the abstract. Then one does, and it feels like the world is ending... even though you knew.
That's why there are so many teachings, parables, and quotes about acceptance. Irvin Yalom puts it plainly: "Sooner or later, you have to give up hope for a better past."
The most familiar version is don't cry over spilled milk.
Acceptance doesn't mean you like what happened. We didn't love taking off our shoes to walk across a creek. It just means you stop pushing against what's already true and start using the new information to chart the best path forward. It moves you from "why did this happen?" to "where do we go from here?"
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Resilience is the ability to bounce back (or grow) from stress and adversity. The ability to maintain physical, mental, and emotional well-being in the face of setbacks. Learn more about how resilient you are. |
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PLANNING IS THE PRACTICE
The plan will be wrong. That's fine. That's where the ongoing process of planning comes in.
As time moves forward, new information arrives: what worked, what didn't, obstacles you didn't see, and assumptions that turned out to be false. Planning is the act of accepting what's happened and moving forward with what you now know.
It's not a document you create once and hope for the best. It's the ongoing practice of reorienting toward what matters from wherever you actually are. Tomorrow you'll be in a different place. The planning starts again from there. You have a new "now."
GET THE BEST LIFE POSSIBLE FROM WHERE YOU ARE
This is what financial life planning is actually for. Not to execute a fixed plan. Not to predict the future. But to keep asking: given everything we know right now, how do I get the best life possible with the money and time I have, from exactly where I am?
Your values are the destination. The route is always subject to revision. The planning keeps you oriented toward what matters even when the path changes.
We took off our shoes and walked across. The hike still happened.
You get one life; live intentionally.
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REFERENCES AND INFLUENCES
Housel, Morgan: The Psychology of Money
Housel, Morgan: Same as Ever
Richards, Carl: The One-Page Financial Plan
