The idea that something always leads to something else can be applied to anything in our lives.   Let’s consider the concept as it relates to planning, goals, and success.   Most people desire to be successful, but fail to plan and develop meaningful goals.   In our professional lives, the “something else” is success, and the “somethings” are all the things we need to do to make success happen.   So if we are not planning, budgeting, goal setting, searching for new innovations, etc., the odds are that we will not achieve our highest level of success.

Conversely, the “something else” can also be failure or mediocre performance.   And the “something” in those situations would be doing nothing or little to nothing to influence future outcomes.   The types of organizations that operate this way end up having many surprises – some good, but many are bad and could have been avoided.   Most organizations take the natural and easier route and choose to not stress themselves out proactively; they end up just dealing with things as they come.  They also end up getting surpassed by organizations that purposefully and proactively do the things that lead to a higher level of success.

The reality is that what we proactively do or don’t do leads us to future outcomes.   So, would you rather have some stress in planning all that needs to be done to influence the future, or deal with much more stress by reacting to what happens in the absence of planning and doing all the little things to effect future outcomes?