I\u2019ve been doing a lot of rejigging of plans this week.<\/p>\n
I had big plans for a jam packed trip to the US in a few weeks, including day in Vegas to speak at a\u00a0leadership conference. Due to some pretty major stuff that\u2019s happened with the client organization, the event has been cancelled. Needless to say, I\u2019ve had to adjust my travels and rework my plans.\u00a0No more Vegas.<\/p>\n
The reality of life is that we\u2019re constantly needing to adjust plans. If you’ve got big plans (which I hope you do!) then even more so.<\/p>\n
A study by E.J. Masicampo at Florida State University found that the people who are most successful at achieving their goals are those who make plans but aren\u2019t rigid about them. His research found that\u00a0while committing to a specific plan to achieve a goal can improve the chance of success versus those with no plan, it can also cause people to be less flexible and not see better ways to achieve the goal. (I wrote about this in my\u00a0Forbes column<\/a>\u00a0and Stop Playing Safe.<\/a>)<\/p>\n People who are flexible and give\u00a0themselves permission to go \u2018off plan\u2019 when they come up against a road block or another route are those who do best.<\/p>\n It may sound like common sense but let\u2019s face, a lot of people get pretty attached to their plans and can be very resistant to letting them go or adjusting course. They spend a lot of time trying to control the uncontrollable and fighting reality.<\/p>\n