“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” Allen Sauders and in a song by John Lennon.

Our oldest son has always been a planner. Even as a little kid he would spend HOURS planning. He’d take cars and line them up, decide how to group them, or plan future purchases. But he never really got to doing much with the cars, more time was spent planning what to do with them. He’d collect action figures, like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or sports figurines, but when it came down to actually playing with them, he was pretty much done.

When he was in high school, he decided to start a band. He bought a guitar, spent hours on the internet downloading the chords for songs. He had two three-ring binders full of songs.  He met with friends and they came up with a name, designed a logo, what kind of music they’d play, and talked about becoming famous. They spent hours planning, but not much doing. Sort of forgot a key component – actually playing the guitar.

Most of my work experience has been in schools and church-related organizations. I’ve watched exhaustive hours being spent on strategic and other planning that end up in dusty binders on shelves.

I think that many people in professional settings like the planning, because it keeps them from the hard work of doing.