Do you have a plan?

Someone asked that question on Linkedin Answers, so I answered it as you can see from the above screenshot.

So let me extend the same courtesy to you by asking you that powerful question: "Do you have a plan?"

This reminds me of the old joke: A woman was driving in Vermont on the countryside when she saw another driver being stuck in the mud. The driver kept pressing the gas pedal, but the car did not move at all. What was striking was that he did not seem to care whether his car was moving or not. So the woman stopped her car, stuck her head out the window and asked him: "Are you stuck?"

The man replied: "I would be, if I was going somewhere!"

The lesson, of course, is that if you don't have a goal or if you don't know where you're heading, then you wouldn't mind being stuck.

I see a lot of people being "stuck" in life, yet it doesn't seem to bother them. They just go through the motions every day, yet they are not getting anywhere.

This is why the question "Do you have a plan?" (or "Do you have a goal that you're working toward?") is so powerful. It clarifies one's perception so as to liberate one from the deadly trap of routinized inertia.