Why Seizing Opportunities Is Better Than Planning?

Planning ahead of time comes with a lot of benefits concerning real-life situations. But is it always good to be a planner, or should we seize opportunities as they arise? Why seizing opportunities is better than planning? Let’s find out.

In a lot of ways, we value planning, organizing, and structuring things to make our lives easy and predictable. Planning has always benefited us through tough times.

A planner is very smart and resourceful as he calculates everything that could go wrong in a particular situation. It is at this point that planning gets its credit for being a loyal servant.

I have followed many schedules until now to incorporate my planning and organizational skills in tasks that require a framework to deal with. Honesty, I must say that planning has always helped us deal with things in life. 

But, we can’t be planning every time to tackle every circumstance. Certain things require on-the-spot thinking to understand and deal with them in a time and resource-efficient way.

I wasn’t always a planner but became one due to the stability and predictability it provided me with. However, it made me very sophisticated with my way of handling things, which forced me to think otherwise.

“What if your planning or strategy fails?”

“What should you do then?”

Planning is a good way to deal with things when we have enough time to process our thoughts and structure them. But when planning fails, it is the opportunities that we have to consider to get out of a destructive loop of failure.

Hence, seizing opportunities is also important.

So, let’s find out why seizing opportunities is better than planning.

Why does planning fail?

My father used to say, “Those who have a plan are the ones to form a clan.” It is true to some extent. We have always planned to form a community or a society and stick with it. This community has helped us survive through tough times.

If we ever consider forsaking planning altogether, I fear we would be in serious trouble.

But, “What if trouble comes irrespective of planning and strategizing?”

Well, in that case, we have to seize the opportunties at hand and make use of the available resources.

Even the most well-laid or thought out plan fails when situations demand otherwise. It is our job to find out how things can go haywire and what we can do to prevent it from happening the next time.

So, “Why does a well-laid-out plan fail?”

Well, here are 3 reasons why a well-laid-out plan fails.

1. Things do not turn out to be in our favor:

The simplest reason why a well-laid-out plan fails is that things do not turn out to be in our favor. We might wish for many things to happen, but in the end, it is all up to how reality is.

We can expect to meet an accident tomorrow and plan to deal with it.

But, “What if the accident occurs today instead of tomorrow?”

In that case, any planning, no matter how good it is, fails, and we are left with open ends.

Hence, when things do not turn out to be in our favor, planning fails.

2. Lack of resources to carry out the plans:

If there is anything that prevents the perfect execution of plans, it is the lack of resources to carry out the effective strategy in real-life applications.

For instance, you come up with various backup plans to support your actions. However, the lack of resources to make your plans successful makes it a hurdle or a barrier in the way of strategic progress.

Therefore, the lack of resources stops us from carrying out plans and any sort of strategizing becomes fruitless.

3. Creating less effective plans:

One obvious reason why planning fails is that the plan is not effective in the first place. If you carry out an imperfect and half-baked plan and depend on it, you are ultimately setting yourself into disappointment.

Eventually, one has to realize that carrying out effective plans is significant to make them successful. If possible one has to identify ways to carry out a well-laid-out plan, carefully dissecting all details in the surroundings.

Hence, we need to be creative and carry out effective plans to prevent them from miserably failing.

So, we have discussed the limitations of planning and how it backfires in certain cases. 

Now, let us find out why seizing opportunities is better than planning.

Why seizing opportunities is better than planning?

Opportunities are the stepping stones towards effectively dealing with situations. You can be a planner or a strategizer, but in the end, all that matters is how good are you at coming up with solutions to your problems.

Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean that one has to always be without a plan or strategy, and believe me, it has its drawbacks. Fortunately, I did not have to learn it the hard way.

A lot of people miss out on the opportunities that have always been there right in front of them. While it is good to be a planner and strategizer, yet missing out on the opportunities isn’t truly wise either.

So, “What are the reasons behind utilizing opportunities?”

Well, here are 5 mind-blowing and shocking reasons why seizing opportunities is better than planning.

1. Opportunities help us change things that do not favor our plans:

Not everything turns out to be in our favor. Especially when it comes to plans, nothing is certain. You might have thought about ways how to effectively carry out the tasks with a good enough backup, in case you need it.

But, even then, things change, situations change, and all you are left with is a limited time to think about something else. It is where insignificant and petty opportunities could help you.

You might have thought about many things that could go wrong, but in the end, opportunities help you realize the effectiveness of your plans. 

Hence, opportunities help us change things that do not favor our plans.

2. Opportunities turn out as backups when we have a lack of resources:

Resources are valuable. Undermining their significance is like having a body without a heart. When you know that resources will help you deal with things, it gets easier to turn out any situation in your favor.

But, if you lack resources, you cannot help yourself with the planning. It backfires, and you end up with regret and sadness. Ultimately, the situation would compel you to seize small opportunities that come your way so you don’t entirely lose out on yourself.

Therefore, opportunities turn out as backups when we run out of resources and help us in dealing with the situations.

3. Opportunities come to aid when the plan is ineffective:

Now, here comes the most important thing. 

“What if your planning is ineffective? How are you going to deal with the situation?”

You might have thought out millions of ways to make your plans successful. However, you realize that those million ways did not help you as your plan is half-baked. It was ineffective, and you ended up utilizing opportunities in desperation.

So, this is what happens when you carry out ineffective plans and do not know what to do when they fail. Abandoning the situation isn’t an option too and you are left with no choice but to utilize opportunities.

Hence, opportunities come to aid when the plan is ineffective or half-baked.

4. Opportunities help us adapt to situations:

Adaptability is one of the significant traits to improve the quality of life. If you are highly adaptable, nothing can affect you mentally and emotionally. When we plan accordingly, we do not route for adapting to situations, we try to deal with them.

But, “What if dealing becomes impossible?”

“What then?”

In that case, adapting to situations is our best weapon. Adapt to the situations to consider the chances and opportunities no matter how small they are and utilize them to get a hold of things.

Therefore, opportunities help us adapt to situations when dealing with plans eventually fails.

5. Lastly, seizing opportunities makes us tactful and efficient:

Opportunities help us to be more tactful and efficient when we deal with and adapt to situations. Not only it is a good way to make use of unexpected events, but it also makes us more open-minded to considering possibilities.

Utilizing opportunities broadens our out-of-box thinking and dealing with situations creatively. Traits like diplomacy, cleverness, and intelligence are highly correlated with opportunities.

Moreover, opportunities also help us in gaining experience and wisdom with time.

Final Words:

To sum up, planning is very effective and resourceful when things are largely predictable and under control. However, when they are unpredictable, it becomes difficult to rely on planning and strategizing alone.

In that case, it is better to seize opportunities and improvise with limited time and resources to make yourself more tactful and efficient.