No Plan Survives Contact With Reality
"No battle plan survives contact with the enemy"
...wrote Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, the Chief of Staff of the Prussian army before World War 1.
We can co-opt this military phrase for our own use when it comes to scaffolding or any change you want to make, because I think there is about a 100% chance that it will not survive contact with your week.
Or, in more positive language, we can say that the planning your carefully put together for food and exercise in your diary prep will not survive in its present form.
Helmuth's assertion above is so true for so many areas of life. Business plans. Lesson plans. Birth plans.
What I found interesting was the lack of articles online expanding on Helmuth's wisdom. I would have thought that every blogger and podcaster in every area from fitness to finance to fluffy chinchillas would have had something to say about it. All I found was this great article
and a Fast Company piece on Motorola brick phones that now seems to have disappeared!
Then it struck me that accepting the no-plan-survives-in-its-beginning-form principle requires us to think more nimbly, to pivot, to take 100% responsibility for implementing the plan in question. Not so great for all those bloggers hoping to become motivational gurus with a quick Seth Godenesque 200 word blog post.
But absolutely a game changer for you.
Week 2 is all about optimising the diary prep planning of this week. I want you to go in eyes open with Helmuth's words ringing in your ears. Your plans will not survive in their present form. Reality will help you optimise them.
