R and J in the USA

”Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.”

This is the quote that both of us took special note of at our visit to the Eisenhower Museum in Abilene, KS. After we both left the museum, Ryan had said to Julie,

”Did you see that quote about planning?”

Julie repeated it verbatim. Yes, she had seen it. We both smiled at each other in mutual recognition of how much we had both appreciated this quote.

This is pretty much a central principle by which we live our lives. It is a huge part of how we are pulling off this ambitious trip, both in the execution of it and in the fact that we were able to take the time to do it in the first place.

A respect for the power of planning is at the heart of our trip in many ways. While would say that the plans we have made for our trip have, in fact, been extremely useful, but, at the end of the day, as Eisenhower says, it is the planning that we have done to create them that is really what has mattered most. It’s that planning that has allowed us to not only stick to the plan and save time and energy by doing so, but also to deviate from the plan with ease, shaping and reshaping it to fit the moment and its changing dynamics thanks to obstacles, inspirations and opportunities alike. 

A lot of times, in our experience, planning gets a bad wrap.  We have found that many have the misconception that planning is unromantic or restrictive of the heart or the inspiration that can flow from it. We have found that planning is often seen as the opposite of being spontaneous. In our experience, that is the exact opposite of the truth. We’ve found that planning is what allows inspiration to build and spontaneity to arise in ways that are constructive, executable and generative towards what matters to you. Our adventures, so far, have been wonderful. For everything we have executed according to plan, there are a litany of downstream unexpected delights and surprises that we have been exposed to and freed up to pursue without restraint or concern for its downstream impacts, thanks to our planning.

Any challenges we have faced that detracted from our experience have always been the result of planning we didn’t do. Through our planning, we have been freed, rather than restricted, to follow our hearts and enjoy pockets of wonder and wandering where, otherwise, the weight of tremendous obstacles that show up in a vacuum of planning could interfere. 

We both value effective planning and preparation. Spreadsheets are a huge part of our mutual love language. We are both believers in other popular sayings like, “fortune favors the prepared” and “opportunity+preparation=good luck”.  We encounter so much magic and synchronicity and, while you could say it is just coincidence, we would argue it is the freedom and availability to the moment that our planning (not our plans) affords. 

Julie has often found frustration in life when talking about or engaging in one of her great passions of planning. She loves doing it and values it tremendously. Many times when she mentions it to others, she has often gotten responses she finds annoying at best about how “you can’t plan for everything you know” or, “you never know what’s going to happen” – as if she is unaware and as if a commitment to planning is in any way counter to either of these obvious facts of life. You may detect a little residual annoyance.  The amount of moments in life where Julie has listened to a loved one lament an outcome in their lives that Julie had seen coming from 100 miles away because of this terrible misunderstanding so many people seem to have about what planning is and isn’t that makes them averse to it are too many to count. She has often found it frustrating to witness these lamentations when just a teeny bit of thoughtfulness invested up front in life can open up unbelievable opportunities for so much to come. Of course, this is all just our own experience and preferences for how to move about in life. But, we were enjoying the camaraderie in this value that the quote expressed.

It’s not about the plan. It’s never about the plan. It’s about the planning. And Dwight understands. History makes it obvious that he did, but still, it was so lovely to see it written out so clearly and succinctly at the museum. And it was delightful to be at the museum built to pay homage to such an unbelievably impactful and humble human being that recognized the true power of planning – that, done well, can result in what would otherwise look like a miracle.

And, not only did he understand, he understood it so well and so masterfully that he turned the tide of World War II as a result and made it possible for thousands upon thousands upon millions of brave young men and women to save the world from darkness – a darkness that, otherwise, appeared unstoppable in its murderous, fiery rage and hatefulness. 

Right in front of that quote was a table. It was the very table where Eisenhower and other world leaders had sat to map out and plan out D-Day – a single day that would change the direction of the entire world. Many people have heard of that day, and of those, many understand its profound significance. But, of those, it is even a smaller number that have looked closely enough to understand that the scale and scope of this operation required a level of planning, cooperation and coordination to not only attempt, but to pull off successfully that is almost beyond comprehension. 

Some quotes sound nice and serve to inspire. But, at least as far as we can see, perhaps, there is no quote that has ever been so legitimized by the person that uttered it, as this one. 

Julie stood in front of the table where history turned with her hands and forehead on the glass like the arrival on a pilgrimage. She looked, in awe, at a table where she knew her own life had been saved, and the lives of so many others and the world as we know it with as much freedom and prosperity as is present today. Not to say that either are completely ubiquitous or anywhere near perfect, but they are so much more shining then in the world towards which we were once headed. And she looked at those two little sentences with gratitude. She thanked those words and the people that were committed to them for saving her life and opening the world to the infinite possibilities that have had a chance to live as a result of great planning.