How to Get Punched In The Face

Planning Well and Surviving When Plans Fail

“I love it when a plan comes together.” - Colonel Hannibal Smith (from the A-Team)

I started with a blank whiteboard, and wrote the strange new number “2026” at the top. I’m a chronic planner, so the start of a new year was an irresistible occasion for a to-do list. But even as I started listing priorities and plans, I started thinking of all the things that might render my plans doomed or irrelevant. I thought of all the unexpected things that have happened since I wrote “2025” at the top of my whiteboard.

Hannibal lived in an 80s TV show, so his plans always came together, and left him with a smile. In real life, plans often fail and leave me with some mix of disappointment and self-loathing.

So how do I reconcile my Hannibal-like love of a plan with a world that seems bent on using those failed plans to whack me in the face? It turns out, whether a plan is a burden or a buoy comes down to where I place my trust.

Planning Is A Good Thing

“When the going gets tough, the tough make a to-do list.” - Someone’s Mom

Plans are an essential tool for stewarding our lives. Psychology tells us making a plan reduces the anxiety we feel about an uncertain future.

Proverbs says, “Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty.[1]” Judaism celebrates planning as participation in tikkun olam, the repair of the world. Jesus taught the value of careful consideration, “But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it?[2]”

But while planning to steward my future can help me reduce stress and achieve good things, planning to control my future can have exactly the opposite result.

A Good Thing Gone Bad

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” -Mike Tyson

No one plans to get punched in the face, but we all do. Plans are not a contract with the future, they are a respectful request. So what happens when things do not go as planned? If we place too much importance on our plans, or link our self-worth to outcomes, the face punch of reality can leave us worse off than if we had never planned at all.

A few years ago I poured myself into a business plan that ultimately did not work out. I wrestled with self-doubt for months, questioning decisions, even questioning my abilities. It wasn’t just that the plan had failed, it felt like I had failed. This dynamic is so common that psychologists have a term for it: A “catastrophic attachment”, when the failure of a plan feels like a personal failure.

Ecclesiastes says, “The fastest runner doesn’t always win the race, and the strongest warrior doesn’t always win the battle. The wise sometimes go hungry, and the skillful are not necessarily wealthy. And those who are educated don’t always lead successful lives...[3]”

Ability and effort do not guarantee outcomes.

Buddhism teaches that attachment to outcomes is a source of suffering. In Hinduism, the Bhagavad Gita teaches taking the right actions without fixating on results helps us preserve inner stability. Linking my self worth or my emotions to the success of my plans is a recipe for misery.

Trust: The Secret Ingredient

“You have power over your mind—not outside events.” -Marcus Aurelius, Stoic philosopher

In other words, I should focus on what I can control, not external outcomes. The Bhagavad Gita says “You have a right to perform your prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions.[4]” This wise mindset offers relief from stress via a peaceful detachment.

But sometimes I want more than peaceful detachment. What if I find myself facing an obstacle or situation where detachment is not enough? What if I want to reach towards the future with more than resignation? What if I want hope?

In that case, to my well-crafted plan, and my healthy detachment from outcomes, I must add one more ingredient. I must trust. But not in my plan. We have already established that the future is unknown and untamed, so it would take a lot of hubris to suggest my view of the future is worth trusting. I must find something bigger, something that will endure no matter what unexpected turns the future takes.

As a Christian, I must trust God. It is important to note that trusting God does not require knowing or understanding God. A God that can be fully understood by a human mind is not God at all. But even if you do not believe in a traditional concept of God, you must trust something with your future - your efforts, karma, humanity, the universe, or even fate.

Even abandoning any claim on the future requires faith that focusing on the present is sufficient. The Islamic concept of Tawakkul teaches that once a plan is developed, we should trust God with the outcome. “Tie your camel, and then trust in God.[5]” There is great wisdom in this: do your best, then let go of the rest.

But, if I really believe God exists, then trust goes beyond making a plan on my own and tossing the rest to God. Trusting God means inviting the divine into my plans. Judaism tells us, “Make His will your will, so that He will make your will as His will.[6]” In Native American traditions, planning is less about controlling the future, and more about aligning oneself with the rhythms and will of the divine.

Aligning With God’s Character

Before I ask myself what my plan is, I must first ask myself who my God is. We each have bits and pieces of knowledge of the divine, based on experience or study or something deeper inside.

• If I believe God is eternal, then I pursue a new opportunity, but I am not dejected if it fails.

• If I believe God connects everything, then I build an addition to my house, but I do it in a way that is mindful of others.

• If I believe God prioritizes the poor and the weak, then I seek a promotion but determine to share some of the increase with those in need.

  
  

Jesus taught that the best plans with the greatest outcomes were those that were aligned with the will of God. “Your heavenly Father knows [what you need]…desire first and foremost God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.[7]” Notably, this does not say that God gives us everything we want, or even everything we ask for.

He gives us everything we need. This might be physical provision, encouragement, relationships, even a new perspective. If I know nothing at all about God, this passage provides a great place to start. God is aware of me, wants good things for me, and invites me to align myself with that plan.

So, before I list my plans for 2026, I must first consider what I know of God. Because 2026 at some point will punch me in the face. Unexpected things will happen. But I can still have peace. Tomorrow may defy my plans, but the future bends to the gravity of God’s nature.

And in that truth, I can trust.

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[1] ‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭21‬:‭5‬ ‭NLT‬‬

[2] Luke‬ ‭14‬:‭28‬ ‭NLT‬‬

[3] ‭Ecclesiastes‬ ‭9‬:‭11‬ ‭NLT‬‬

[4] Bhagavad Gita 2:47

[5] Hadith, al-Tirmidhi

[6] Judaism (Pirkei Avot 2:4)

[7] Matthew‬ ‭6‬:‭30‬, ‭32‬-‭34‬ ‭CEB‬‬