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“Everyone Has a Plan Until They Get Punched in the Mouth”

By Jamie Long
Chief Patient Advocate
GolderCare Solutions

That was Mike Tyson’s reply when they asked him about his fight plan for a match with Evander Holyfield.

A couple of military strategists put it a little differently. According to Winston Churchill, “Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential.” Dwight D. Eisenhower’s version goes, “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.” We encounter this frequently in the fields of care management planning and asset preservation planning.

The point is this: Just because you have a plan doesn’t mean you’re ready for battle. This is especially true when the plan you have is the product of pre-planning, as distinguished from contemporary planning.

Pre-planning is exactly that: planning done significantly ahead of a possible or anticipated event. By its very nature, pre-planning is tentative and less specific. Think of moving a pawn as your first move in a game of chess. That is just the first step in a series of strategic moves you will take against your opponent. There are a whole series of strategic options you will be forced to choose among as the game progresses.

Planning ahead enables you to identify and prioritize the potential strategic moves and counter-moves you hope to make as you play. For that purpose, as Churchill pointed out, planning is essential.

But having reduced things to a specific plan significantly in advance of an event might work, or it might not. More often than not it doesn’t, because it failed to anticipate strategic moves your opponent took against you or other unforeseen adverse circumstances. In this respect, as Eisenhower said, plans are worthless. Or, as Tyson put it, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.

Does this mean you shouldn’t make a plan? Does this mean you shouldn’t have a specific plan? Does this mean you shouldn’t do pre-planning? No, no, and no. Remember, planning is essential. Planning is everything.

Just keep in mind that a plan is only a plan. It is only one plan among any number of options.

Keep in mind, as well, that planning done remotely in advance of a possible or anticipated event, such as the need for long-term care, will most assuredly need to be updated shortly before, on, or shortly after the occurrence of that event. That is the main point of this little essay. Pre-planning years in advance of an event is great. We highly recommend it. In fact, it is often essential in order to preserve all your strategic options in dealing with that event. But it does not, and cannot, negate the necessity of updated and additional planning at the time the event occurs.

Why am I writing this? Because we see it all the time. Many people think that pre-planning is enough. “We’ve done our planning,” they say, thinking that means they’re done with their planning. “We have a plan. That should be enough,” as though the realities of life are obligated to follow some sort of moral pattern. Full speed ahead they proceed, without stopping to update their planning, until they get punched in the mouth, at which point they are either forced to regroup (which usually means coming to see us) or forfeit some of their original planning options and goals.

Bottom Line: When the time comes to actually place Mom, you’ll need a full-fledged battle plan, not just a pre-plan. There’s a big difference between a pre-plan and an Action Plan which has been produced in the here and now of Mom’s placement. The pre-plan is an important component of the Action Plan, and the Action Plan is more powerful because of the pre-plan than it is in cases where there is no pre-plan. But the pre-plan alone isn’t enough. You’ve got to complete your planning to be as ready for battle as you possibly can in order to maximize your success.

GolderCare Solutions is an independent advocacy group for seniors, the disabled and those that care for them. GolderCare has offices in Moline and Bettendorf. You can reach GolderCare at (309) 764-2273 or learn more at www.goldercare.com.