Saturday Special Edition: Hope Is Not A Plan!

Most of us “hope” better times are coming.

But hope isn’t a plan.

Do you know the difference?

From the Cognigen Times, September 2006 edition…

Hope Is Not A Plan

One of the philosophies of successful business people is the reality statement that “Hope Is Not A Plan”. This is even addressed with dozens of examples in the new book by Anderson Cooper, television news anchor.

Do you see the difference? Hopefully you do, since the difference between “hope” and “plan” is even more stark than the difference between day and night. You can hope that you ace your physics exam at school. You can hope you get that raise at your job. You can hope you have enough month left over at the end of the money where you can still make your car payment. You can hope that the hurricane sighted in the Atlantic does not make landfall near you next week.

There is nothing wrong with hoping. The very act helps us to understand what we want to accomplish, what we wish for in our lives, in personal relationships, in various activities and endeavors, and yes, frequently in terms of our future financial situation.

But hope is not a plan.

Hope without action almost has negative value. Some experts say that hope in and of itself, with no accompanying plan is nothing more than day-dreaming, and does not really constitute one’s real hope or dreams or goals. Why? Because if it was a REAL hope, then a plan of action would accompany it. Without a plan of action, the hope is nothing, a waste of mental energy.

You can hope you ace your physics exam, but to make that hope a reality, you study, you research, you learn, so that your hope can become a reality. There is the action that can enable your hope to become real. You can hope for a raise at your job, but the action is to know and understand what is required of you to get there and to put that understanding into action. You can hope for financial comfort for yourself and your family, but without a plan to get there — a plan that you create, endorse, and PUT INTO ACTION, that hope is nothing more than a daydream or a passing fantasy.

The people who are most successful in the world today have deployed their action plan. That does not mean that the first plan they came up with is the one they need to live with. Rather, as situations change and circumstances change, the plan is changed accordingly. The key is that they put their plan into action, every day, without fail.

Are you committed to your plan or simply “involved”? As an analogy, think of a good breakfast of ham and eggs. The chicken was involved in making that breakfast possible, but the pig was committed.

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In say 3-5 years from now, if you keep doing what you are doing now, can you honestly say that you will be where you want to be at that point in the future? If not, then today — right now — is an excellent time to implement your PLAN.