Definiteness of Plans Emerges in Uncertainty

Years ago, I heard a story of a traveler stopping at a farmhouse along a country road to ask for directors. As the traveler spoke with the old man sitting on the front porch, he noticed that the dog laying beside him was constantly moaning, albeit quietly. The traveler asked the old man if there was something wrong with the dog. The man replied, “He’s laying on a nail.” That made no sense to the traveler so he asked why the dog didn’t move. The old man explained that it apparently didn’t hurt enough yet to be worth moving.

I had been working seventy or more hours each week for two straight years with none of the fulfillment I had drawn from the role I held prior to accepting the human resources position. I was that dog and my weekly routine was that nail. The 2013 performance review drove the nail a little deeper, but the glowing 2014 review that led to a promotion and 20% cut in overall compensation was exactly what I needed to realize my only option was to get up off that damn nail.

As we looked at the ripple effects of scarcity, I shared how tight personal finances forced me to master details I would have preferred to ignore and to create a definite plan for digging out of that situation. Just so it’s fresh in your mind, let’s take one more look at how Napoleon Hill defined this fifth leadership attribute in Think and Grow Rich so many years ago: “The successful leader must plan their work and work the plan. A leader who moves by guesswork, without practical, definite plans is comparable to a ship without a rudder. Sooner or later they will land on the rocks.”

When that nail was finally driven deep enough for more to recognize a career change was necessary, having experience in developing clear and definite plans for moving forward served me well. The promotion and subsequent pay cut forced the creation of a concrete rebuilding strategy instead of laying on that same old - in what I hadn’t been willing to admit was complete misery. When resources or titles shrink, definite plans become the rudder that keeps us off the rocks; clarity of purpose, which I had drifted away from through all the busyness of my daily routine, grows in the grind of transition.

Hill listed Definiteness of Decision as the fourth leadership attribute, defining it by saying, “The person who wavers in their decision, shows that they are not sure of themselves, cannot lead others successfully.” While I had come up with a definite plan immediately after learning that my new title and increased job responsibilities were worth $1,000 less each month than I had been earning, and I had been carrying out that plan with vigor by applying and interviewing for nearly any position I was even remotely qualified for, I still hadn’t made a firm decision to move on. We’ll dig into how that unfolded next. First, though, think about a scenario where you may need to lean a little bit further into Definiteness of Plans. What seed of purpose have you drifted away from and what’s one small step you can take to nurture it?