action > planning > dreaming

I have to admit that I have many very good intentions. I just wrote about one good intention in my "dealing with soda addiction" writing. My wife noticed another good intention of mine the other night as we looked over our bookcase. I have probably 10 different cards that I purchased to give to her while we were dating. Inspirational cards. But they never were personalized nor did I give them to her. So the cards may be inspirational, but they didn't do any inspiring.

In the book, Good to Great, Jim Collins talks about some characteristics that they found in their research that surprised them. Here is one I also found surprising:

"Strategy per se did not separate the good-to-great companies from the comparison companies. Both sets of companies had well-defined strategies, and there is no evidence that the good-to-great companies spent more time on long-range strategic planning than the comparison companies." (page 10)

I don't know why, but I have always felt that the best plan always wins. Maybe that is why I'm constantly analyzing and reanalyzing my annual training plan for the triathlon season? In the end, the best plan is the one that is used. Triathlon is a perfect exemplar for the old say, "there is no substitute for hard work."

I recently was browsing the bookstore shelves and saw a title that said something like, x weeks to Ironman. My first thought was, "x weeks!" I hope the person buying that book is in great shape.

I'm a dreamer. I always have been and hopefully always will be. But dreams without a plan are just dreams. In the same way that plans without action are nicely designed charts and graphs.

Gordo recently said it quite well in his blog, I'll leave you with his thought. And hope to write more on characteristics that help define successful people.

We don't need a perfect plan -- we simply need to do a reasonable plan consistently. This applies in all things. If we can persist and enjoy doing what it takes -- we've won regardless of outcome and our outcome is much more likely to be positive. The most dangerous competitor is one that is willing to do everything to beat us but has a low attachment to outcome. Beware of the quiet smiling ones! -- gblog quote