There’s a distinction that occurred to me recently: There’s a difference between planning and being where you’re not. I will now attempt to flesh it out.

Planning is the easier of the two to explain because it’s something we conceptually know – a blueprint for our goal.

Some of us confuse planning with being where we’re not. Being where we’re not is getting ahead of the plan, whereas planning is a step-by-step tool to get ahead.

From experience we know that the best laid plans can fall apart. Either something was poorly planned or we ran into reality (read: “unforeseen circumstances”).

You can’t cross the river until you get there. You can imagine you’ve crossed the river in advance by rehearsing it in your mind, but you can’t actually be on the other side until you’re there. Being where you’re not has you believe you’re physically there when you’re not.

One version of History tells us that Columbus thought he was in the Indies (a reference at the time that meant south and east Asia) and named the inhabitants “Indians.” That’s a textbook example of being where you’re not.

Our version of being where we’re not has us live under the delusion that we are anywhere other than where we are. That causes a lot of avoidable turmoil.

When you stop and take an unbiased assessment of reality, you may find a giant gap between where you are and where you think you are. This gap is a giant hole that we fall into every time that prevents us from moving forward, even if we have a stellar plan.

Thinking you are where you’re not has the same result of lies catching up to you. There will be a price to pay.

You can certainly continue to daydream that you’re a King or a Queen – that may act as a carrot to move you forward. But if you think you are actually running the kingdom, you’ll get swallowed up by the moat between where you are and where you’re not.

Bottom Line: You’ll be where you are until you’re not. Perhaps an assessment and a plan will actually get you where you want to go.

All the best,

John