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How to review your plans

The act of planning doesn’t shelter you from the possibility that things might go wrong. Every event can hold surprises every day, and the world is too unpredictable to plan for every eventuality. Whatever else you do, hold your plans lightly and be prepared to improvise, adapt and overcome.

If your plan doesn’t work, that doesn’t make you a failure. It means one thing, and one thing only – that your plan could be improved. So if things didn’t go to plan, don’t blame yourself, and don’t beat yourself up. Instead, take it as an opportunity to learn and try something new. It can be super helpful to reach out to the Club Soda community on Facebook or Telegram for support. We have all been there.

So, how do you review a plan that hasn’t worked out? In your mind, start in the present and go backwards in time through the events that unfolded. As you do this, remember to be kind to yourself – we’re not looking to blame or shame ourselves, we’re taking stock so we might improve future plans:

  • Where were you?
  • Who were you with
  • When did things start going wrong?

These are all questions about context. Sometimes, your plans won’t work out for reasons genuinely beyond your control. As you pay attention to the things you’d previously not noticed or things that came up that knocked you off course, you will increase the likelihood of your future success. Next time, instead of being blindsided, you’ll be aware of a potential pitfall and may even be able to see it coming.

When we’re considering our actions and what we did in response to whatever happened, we can ask ourselves what we might do differently in the future. Don’t fall into the trap of beating yourself up for not foreseeing what happened or not responding in a different way. Use what you have uncovered to make better choices in the future.

Whilst the context around you has an impact, you never lose your power to choose. You can always take action. The choices open to you may not always be perfect or palatable, but you can always take control. You are never powerless.

The final part of our review is playing the tape forwards again from where we noticed things starting to go wrong. Were there moments in which you could have rescued the situation but didn’t? Did other things happen that knocked you further off course? Or at some point – be honest – did you just give up?

If you find it helpful, take some notes about everything you’ve noticed. This is all excellent material you can use to inform your next WOOP.