3 Ways to Plan for the Next Big Thing 

3 Ways to Plan for the Next Big Thing 

Key takeaways

• You can’t predict the future, but you can plan for it.
• Opt for long-term thinking (years) over short-term thinking (days, weeks, months or quarters).
• When you hit a roadblock, adapt rather than give up. The how may change but your what and why likely stays the same.
• Feel the feels but don’t get overwhelmed by them. Create some distance by figuring what what’s going on for you and why.
• Sustainability, adaptability and emotional intelligence are interconnected. You need all three to get ahead in uncertain times.

There’s a military saying that we can’t fight the next war with tactics from the previous one. The same holds true in business (and in life).

We can’t predict when the next recession, pandemic, disaster or disrupter might hit. Chances are that when it does happen, it won’t look or feel like the past, even if there are similarities. 

But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to plan. In fact, planning remains foundational to success. Here’s what we can do today to help weather the Next Big Thing.

Photo by Fauzan Saari on Unsplash

Eyes on the long-term prize

When we think about long-term versus short-term success, our mentality and metrics change: 

• We focus not only on the current quarter but also the next 20-plus quarters. 
• We think about the ripple effect of decisions and their implications down the line. 
• We understand we can’t solve one thing just to create ten new problems. 
• We work backwards from the end goal and calibrate our decisions accordingly. 

Long-term thinking tends to lend itself toward greater sustainability. Here’s how:

• We carry less debt because we’ve been proactive upfront
  • We aren’t robbing Peter to pay Paul
  • We don’t have as high of costs
  • We waste fewer resources
  • We don’t make shortsighted decisions that put us in a bind
• We make smarter investments
  • We’re focused on efficiency
  • We allocate resources wisely
  • Our results compound
  • We can meaningfully measure our progress
• We focus on relationships
  • We’re all on the same page in the same playbook
  • We make coordination and collaboration a breeze
  • We’re resilient to setbacks because we are focused on the goal

We might not get it 100 percent right, but we likely won’t get it 100 percent wrong either. 

The name of the game? Adaptation.

Change can be a welcome adventure. But when we’ve worked for months, years and even decades to get where we are, we tend to shirk change. We won’t allow all that time and energy to be wasted. It has to count for something. 

But here’s the thing: it does count. It got us where we needed to go. Having a plan is simply a map; it’s not the actual journey. 

When we come across a giant boulder that wasn’t on the map, we can’t simply keep on keepin’ on. We can lament the fact of the boulder and how it wasn’t a part of our beautifully rendered map, but eventually, if we want to get anywhere, we’ll have to alter course. We have to figure out a path around, over or through depending on our available skills, resources, tools and time. 

We’re still aiming for the initial destination, we’re just going about it in a different way. Cultivate a mindset of adaptability, and change becomes a challenge rather than a burden. Said another, your what and why stays the same but your how shifts.

Photo by Kit (formerly ConvertKit) on Unsplash

I’ve always wanted to be a writer because I loved reading. For too long a time, I believed becoming a writer would just magically happen. Finally, I got serious about it and started taking classes at Lighthouse Writer’s Workshop. 

I then applied to in-person MFA programs in Colorado, but got rejected from every program. I wasn’t sure what to do next, so I went to AWP. There I learned about low-residency programs that let you maintain your daily life while working one-on-one with an advisor during the semester and going to campus for in-person workshops and lectures every six months. I applied to VCFA and got in. 

I’ve since written a short story manuscript, essay manuscript, poems, arts criticism and have begun a children’s picture book series. Oh, and I write for a living. I’m a legit writer now!

The emotions have it

Meditators often talk about our lizard brains, that primal part of the brain that drives our basic needs, in addition to being jerked around by our emotions. We often mistake feelings for facts and construct entire stories for those emotions within nanoseconds. 

Rarely do we interrogate the stories we tell ourselves. Too often, we get stuck in our lizard brains—fight, flight or freeze—when things get uncertain. We make knee-jerk reactions based on emotions rather than facts. 

One study found that “anger increases perceived control and certainty—two key drivers of risk judgments. Consequently, angry individuals view risky situations more optimistically and make risk-seeking choices… In contrast, fear undermines a sense of individual control and certainty, leading to the opposite effect.” 

Photo by Nik on Unsplash

Instead of compartmentalizing or suppressing our emotions, we can work with them by investigating them and reframing the story we’re telling ourselves about them. We need to cultivate emotional resilience and adaptivity. We need to acknowledge what we’re feeling and why we’re feeling it before we can make sound decisions. When we make decisions in a state of calm, we’re more likely to think clearly.

Thanks to many years of mediation, therapy, Esther Perel and Bréné Brown, here’s what I try to ask myself:

• What’s the story I’m telling myself about this situation?
• Could there be other explanations for it? If so, what are they?
• Why is this affecting me this way?
• What’s this really about?
• Why do I feel that way?
• How can I respond rather than react?
• How can I stay cool on the outside when my insides go bonkers?

Everything is connected

Long-term sustainability, adaptability, emotional intelligence. It’s all interconnected. Trying to do one without the other is like rowing a boat without paddles. We just end up nowhere fast. 

It can be easy to succumb to anxiety and fear, to make hasty and/or bad decisions that prioritize the immediate future at the expense of the distant future and staunchly dig our heels in no matter what. It takes courage and guts to do things the better way, which is sometimes the harder way. But it pays. 

 Looking for more musings and metaphors? Tumble down our rabbit hole.