Plans Are Just Mental Hugs
“Plans are bullshit.”
Not my words. The blunt wisdom from a combat veteran who watched friends die.
Men with detailed futures. Lake houses they’d build. Businesses they’d start. Families they’d raise.
Gone in seconds.
Plans don’t survive contact with reality. Never have. Never will.
The Planning Addiction
I was obsessed with planning for years.
Elaborate strategies. Multiple contingencies. Detailed timelines. Perfect scenarios.
I spent countless hours crafting the perfect roadmap. Anticipating every obstacle. Designing every solution.
Know what happened?
The board changed. The players moved. The resources shifted. The environment transformed.
And all those beautiful plans? Useless. Every. Single. Time.
What Plans Actually Are
Your plans aren’t roadmaps to success. They’re security blankets for your anxiety.
Mental hugs you give yourself to feel in control of an uncontrollable world.
They don’t navigate reality. They temporarily soothe your fear of uncertainty.
And that temporary comfort comes at a massive cost: wasted mental resources, false confidence, and blindness to actual opportunities.
The Combat Perspective
When the veteran was asked what changed after seeing so many deaths, his answer was immediate:
“Plans are bullshit.”
He elaborated: “Guy’s like, ‘Yeah man, I’m gonna be out in two weeks after my service, and then we’re gonna build this lake house with my family.’ Dead the next day. Doesn’t matter.”
This isn’t pessimism. It’s clarity.
Death doesn’t respect your timeline. Life doesn’t follow your script. Reality doesn’t read your memo.
The Planning Loop Trap
Here’s where it gets truly dangerous:
Planning creates the illusion of progress without the risk of action.
It feels productive. It feels responsible. It feels smart.
But it’s often just sophisticated procrastination.
You can spend years planning the perfect business, relationship, or life transformation without ever taking the first actual step.
Clear Destinations, Fluid Paths
What’s the alternative to detailed planning?
Simple: Be crystal clear on what you want. Be completely fluid on how you get there.
What I realized after years of wasted planning:
What I want to accomplish? Crystal clear. How I get there? Super vague and irrelevant.
This isn’t reckless. It’s strategic.
The 80/20 of Effective Direction
Replace your complex plans with these four elements:
- North Star Clarity: Know exactly what you’re trying to achieve. Not the path, but the destination. Make it so clear you could explain it to a child.
- Next Action Focus: What’s the very next physical action you need to take? Not the 17th step. The next one. Focus there.
- Environmental Awareness: Stay alert to what’s actually happening, not what your plan says should be happening. The map is not the territory.
- Rapid Adaptation: When conditions change (they will), adjust immediately. No attachment to the previous path.
The Chess vs. MMA Reality
Most people approach life like chess—a game of perfect information where optimal moves can be calculated in advance.
But life is more like mixed martial arts—dynamic, unpredictable, requiring instant adaptation to whatever’s happening in the moment.
Planning in detail is playing the wrong game.
The Resource Shift
Every hour spent creating complex plans is an hour not spent:
- Building actual skills
- Taking concrete actions
- Developing adaptation capabilities
- Creating real-world momentum
These are the resources that actually determine success—not your ability to predict an unpredictable future.
The Planning Detox
If you’re addicted to planning (like I was), start here:
- Audit Your Planning-to-Action Ratio: How many hours spent planning versus doing? If it’s more than 1:5, you’re living in fantasy.
- Shrink Your Planning Horizon: Plan no more than 1-2 steps ahead. Beyond that lies pure fiction.
- Convert Plans to Principles: Instead of detailed roadmaps, develop robust principles that guide decisions in any circumstance.
- Schedule Regular Reality Checks: Weekly review. What actually happened versus what was planned? Learn from the gaps.
The Warrior Mindset
Warriors throughout history knew this truth.
They didn’t succeed through perfect plans. They succeeded through perfect presence. They succeeded through perfect adaptation. They succeeded through perfect clarity of purpose.
Plans gave the illusion of control. Presence gave actual control.
The Only Plan That Matters
Want a plan that actually works?
- Know exactly what mountain you’re climbing.
- Take the next step up.
- Reassess.
- Repeat until summit.
Everything else is just mental masturbation.
Life doesn’t care about your 5-year plan. Death doesn’t check your calendar before arriving. Opportunity doesn’t follow your preferred timeline.
Be clear on the destination. Be fluid on the path. Be present for what’s actually happening.
And remember: Plans are bullshit. Purpose isn’t.
