Pearls: Have a plan, do your best

EDITORIAL MUG: Matt Pearl

I chose not to make any New Year’s resolutions this year.

I chose instead to make a list to organize and execute in 2024 all the existing resolutions I’ve been making for my entire adult life.

One thing I have learned from my years of failure – sprinkled intermittently with little patches of success – is that a person can become addicted to making plans. When this occurs, you tend to fall out of love with your plans once it’s time to make things happen.

It’s fulfilling to chose a workout, for example. You look at your fitness goals, your body type, the available equipment and you write down what you’re going to do. And then you don’t stick with it, because you satisfied your brain with the planning. It would have been better to set the alarm, get out of bed without a plan and do something – instead of meticulously planning a workout and then doing nothing.

I encountered a book a few years ago entitled Good is the Enemy of Great, and the major contention the author, Kurt Reece-Peeplez makes in its pages is that we embrace mediocrity when we make ‘good enough’ our standard of performance. And I agree.

But I would also contend that perfectionism is the enemy of accomplishment. We have a tendency to imagine our actions being (or at least ending) perfectly, just as we have planned them. When we fall short of perfection, we assume that we have failed. Sometimes, though, it is important for us to take note of our progress made.

Here’s an example. Let’s go back to the workout that you didn’t plan, but we were able to roll out of bed and actually start. You got on the treadmill for 20 minutes and began a new habit. Now, I fully believe that a 40-minute regimen of weight training this day and cardio that day would be a better plan. But here’s the thing: The imperfect workout that you do will always be superior to the better planned workout that you skip.

So I didn’t set a resolution. I wrote down all the things I want to do with my life, put daily time allotments on a piece of paper, and am just doing my best to live by what the paper says.

If I do a great job and finish every task every day, then that’s great. If I do a good job and get several things done in a day by living more purposefully, then that’s good. I have finally figured out that making a plan that puts me on the right path – whether I am perfect or not in executing the plane – will leave me better off than I was before.

Who’d think it would take a person four and a half decades to figure out something so simple. But still, starting in my mid-forties should theoretically yield me several years of improved living. Would I have grown more had I begun the plan in my mid-thirties? Yes. My mid-twenties. Abundantly more, yes.

But if I begin to view my goals in terms of time lost rather than potential gains, that thinking only leads to despair. When we think we have spent years losing already, it’s pretty tough to readapt our mindset back toward winning.

My family and coworkers do not expect perfection from me, but I fully believe they deserve my best effort each day. And folks, let me tell you: there’s a big difference between my operating with intent as opposed to my approaching my day without any kind of plan.

I’m not telling you to tear up your resolutions. I’m not asking you to be like me. But what I would suggest to my own kids in regard to making resolutions is that it is better to keep a promise you never made to yourself then to break a promise that you did make. Have a plan and do your best.

Matt Pearl owns and operates The Tri-County Ledger.