Who's Plan Was It?

Many of those who know me, or have known me for a long duration have come to acknowledged that I hate planning things. I find that the majority of times, decisions (equally as good) can be made on the spot, and are often motivated by the deadlines themselves. However, when I do attempt to make plans, its inevitably a disaster. Either the plan falls apart, in which case it was a lot of effort with no gain, or the plan was flawed and things need to be adjusted. What I find most frustrating is when plans can be made time and time again, and they STILL don't help things actually happen. As a result, I offer many people lots of "probably"s and "maybe"s. Most of the time the time these words are synonymous with "yes", but they still allow for the leeway to adjust plans.

Now, my personal battles that exist with making plans are not the purpose of what I have to say right now. In actuality, (or what I had planned to talk about) is the phrase "planning ahead". Now, before you read further take a moment to think about that statement.

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Have you thought about it? Notice anything wrong? Well, the phrase is used by a HUGE percentage of people and is completely redundant. I myself use it, and having made this realization, it bothers me every time. The Oxford English Dictionary defines "plan (verb)" as the following:

"decide on and make arrangements for in advance"

At this point I hope its clear that if you are indeed planning (as you presumably are if you said you were "planning ahead") then it is by definition ahead. Ask yourself this: When was the last time you sat down one afternoon and decided to plan yesterday? That morning? Last night? Never! The thought not only seems ridiculous but sounds wrong. So instead, we as a society go around notifying our peers that we are planning ahead. Well done.

So, the next time you are going to make yourself a plan for yourself, think ahead, and tell everyone that you are merely goign to go plan.