Planners vs Wingers

In life there are generally two kinds of people. I call them: Planners and Wingers.  Planners are people who like to, well, plan things out. Wingers are people who tend to fly by the seat of their pants.  I am definitely one of the Planners, but then in my family we are all a little OCD and like things neat, tidy and arranged.  But, we all have friends, relatives and even husbands who are Wingers. Marriage between a Planner and a Winger can be an interesting balancing act or a disastrous mismatch.

I firmly believe in the "5 P's Principle" - Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance.  I like to know what is going to happen, when, where, how, etc.  For me a good plan helps create success in life.
Planners are people who choose a career and stick with it, set aside money for retirement, and rarely get lost. Planners don't like surprises, good or bad, but particularly not bad. They tend to think that giving up on good surprises is worth the cost of not having to deal with bad surprises.We feel  life will throw you enough curve balls on its own without creating them yourself.

Wingers, on the other hand, tend to enjoy life without the worry of thinking ahead and hope that things just go right for them.  Wingers often chafe at Planners, declaring them stuffy and boring. Wingers are more spontaneous and enjoy the good surprises in life. Unfortunately, they tend to experience more bad surprises and when this happens, run to us Planners asking for help. We use these opportunities to utter the infamous phrase "I told you so".

Most great accomplishments by mankind have been done by Planners.  After all, you can't accidentally get to the moon.  But to give them their due, Wingers have contributed their share of discoveries, after all Columbus was looking for a new route to India when he discovered America. Except that he didn't actually set foot on the North American continent. He actually discovered the Caribbean and we can thank him for all inclusive resorts and rum.

I believe that all great men and women have been Planners. I'm sure our founding fathers were Planners as they developed a great plan for how our country should be run. Unfortunately, the Wingers are running it amok. But let's not go there right now.

Well, I'm off to plan my day.