"A goal without a plan is just a wish"

I came across a great quote the other day (full disclosure, the political analyst Matthew Dowd tweeted the quote and I looked it up to see who originally said it).  The French writer, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said, "A goal without a plan is just a wish."  Wow!  That really does sum things up nicely, doesn't it?  Having a vision, the so-called "true North" of where you want to be is only the first step.  You have to set individual goals for yourself, which, if achieved, will help get you to your "true North."  However, setting goals is not even close to being enough.  Having a plan to help you achieve your goals and then executing on that plan are the next steps. 

In other words:

1. Set a vision
2. Set goals based on that vision
3. Develop a plan on how to achieve those goals
4. Execute the plan
5. Evaluate how you did

If you don't have a plan to achieve your goals, they are only empty, meaningless statements.  How often do we hear about how our friends, co-workers, and family members make "New Year's Resolutions" only to fail on or about January 15th?  It happens all the time - it's happened to me personally!  But if we develop a plan on how we will work towards those resolutions, we are more than half way there! 

I started this blog last year based upon a personal New Year's Resolution to "write more."  I did pretty well for the first week or so, and then I took a rather long hiatus and wrote nothing on the blog until the Spring.  Why?  I started out with a goal of writing a blog post at least once per week.  Nothing too specific - and I certainly did not have a plan.  When I resumed writing, I came up with a plan to write a blog post on every Wednesday and Sunday evening.  Looking back, it appears that I have done reasonably well, with only a few exceptions.  I have established a rhythm where I sit down every Wednesday and Sunday evenings to write a blog post.  In other words, I came up with a more robust plan to reach my goal!

I am not sure what prompted Matthew Dowd to tweet this quote, but I am really glad that he did.  There is an important lesson here.  Develop a vision.  Set a goal.  Make a plan.  Execute the plan.  Evaluate.  It's really that simple.