I do not like Plans and Budgets

Much is to be learned from the passing of the years. Some may call it wisdom, I call it self-knowledge.

Every day brings a new beginning. Every day brings new challenges and opportunities. Yet the day has still to dawn which will encourage me to put pen to paper and devise a plan for my future.

I have never had a plan and I disagree with budgets. How is that for a controversial statement!!

To me a ‘plan’ for life is but a wish list. Budgets are not really worth the time devising them nor paper they are printed on. For starters we can never foretell the future (read Wall Street catastrophe)!

The real problem with plans and budgets is that most people become too attached to them. The ‘plan’ and/or the ‘budget’ becomes their life – they must follow the plan and must adhere to the budget. Plans and budgets divert the mind from living NOW and concentrate attention on the past (the basis for most budgets) and the future (plans). The past is history and the future has not yet arrived. Yet NOW is the only time we can actually live, when things happen, when we can experience life.

What we do now has no effect on the past but will have an influence on the future. This is why I hammer away at ethics – do the right (ethical) thing now and the future will look after itself. Stuff up what you are doing now and you will spend many future days trying to hide or correct your error(s) which provides fertile ground for corruption and unethical conduct.

I personally know of civil servants and business people who having made a significant error, or conducted themselves in an unethical manner, who have sneaked in to the office after hours, taken the offending file or files and destroyed them. This, to destroy the ‘evidence’ and to try and save their backsides. These people will carry the burden of their actions for the rest of their lives.

See what I mean? Plans and budgets can become devouring monsters, consuming time, energy and man power for what end? Just do the best you can now, today, and tomorrow will work out just fine.

To please your bank manager or your local financial analyst by all means put something together but don’t put your life on it – as I say the future cannot be foretold. We are not soothsayers.