Plan vs Planning

I saw an article on goal achieving (yet again) and one of the items it mentioned was planning for the next day, week, etc. I casually asked my friend if he planned his days. He sent me this interesting quote from Eisenhower:

In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.

I asked him what he thought the difference between plan and planning meant and I like his explanation:

ME: "Does he mean it's more important to go through the act of planning and then dump the plan which comes out of it?"

Friend: "not dump the plan, but not to treat the plan as a set of instructions. Circumstances often invalidate the plan, especially longer term plans, but the act of planning prepares the planner for the future even when they have to stray from or abandon the original plan."

Anyway's, as a little reminder to myself to go through the act of planning, I've posted this entry. Thanks goes to my friend Drew.