The Way You React to This May Be The Best Indicator to Your Level of Success
“Plans are worthless; planning is everything.” -Dwight Eisenhower
As a person who helps clients make plans for a living, Dwight Eisenhower’s famous quote on the importance of planning rings true. It doesn’t matter what walk of life they come from, the constant message that I tell my clients after we have spent several meetings constructing a financial plan: the chance of their future unfolding just as we have laid out is within a few decimal points of zero. Yet, it is the process of planning that allows adjustments to be made in a clear mind while others may be panicking. With a solid plan we know where we are going. We know where we are coming from. We do our best to predict potential problems and we are practical in realizing there will be obstacles that are not even on the radar presently. This act of planning allows us to meet the obstacle with action rather than frustration.
The ability to accept reality for what it is, and not what we wish it to be, is a superpower that can separate us from the masses. The sooner reality is accepted, the faster we can move past the setbacks. Long ago, the Stoics concluded that happiness was found in the pursuit of one’s own potential-not in the arrival of a destination. Instead of hoping for a particular outcome, the Stoics would accept that all outcomes are possible. This mindset softened the blow of disappointed. It was believed that an outcome was purposely laid before them as a means of helping them reach their full potential. It was the obstacle and not the clear path that caused them to grow, and eventually surmount the obstacle with full energy and focus.
Seneca, who was one of the more famous Stoic philosophers, wrote that, “A person who has been at constant feud with misfortune acquires a skin that is calloused by suffering. This person fights all the way to the ground and never gives up.” The only way this person stops is through death. This person is like a stream, as long as they are moving, they will find a way. It is not a matter of if, but when, because quitting is not an option.
If you want to know what level of success you will achieve in life, look to how you respond to disappointment. This characteristic will tell you all you need to know.
“Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail.” -Confucius
