Planning Quotes To Take Control of Your Life

Need some planning quotes to help you out?

Life is filled with the unexpected and you never know what could happen.

From positive experiences like achieving your dreams, to the more negative, like unexpected expenses–it’s safe to say you never know which way life will take you.

That’s why it’s so important to make sure you put time aside to plan your future.

Why is planning important?

Why not put together an action list of tasks that can help achieve your goals and aspirations?

Having a good outline will lead to a good outcome, as it helps you set organized goals and stay focused on the task at hand.

What feels too far away today may be even closer tomorrow, with a little preparation.

Don’t let life do the driving for you, take control and stay the course!

There’s no time like the present to get ready for your future.

In order to help you do so, we’ve compiled a list of insightful planning quotes for inspiration.

Also check out these priority quotes that will help you clarify what’s important to you in your life.

Check out our most popular quote article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily inspiration. 

If you enjoy this collection, check out our inspirational quotes category page.

Planning quotes to get you ready for the future

1. “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” ― Yogi Berra

You will also enjoy our article on Benjamin Franklin quotes.

2. “Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential.” ― Winston Churchill

You will also enjoy our article on future quotes.

3. “A man who does not plan long ahead will find trouble at his door.” ― Confucius

You will also enjoy our article on smart quotes.

4. “Don’t wait until you’re in a crisis to come up with a crisis plan.” – Phil McGraw (Dr. Phil) 

You will also enjoy our article on intention quotes.

5. “Without leaps of imagination or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all is a form of planning.” ― Gloria Steinem

You will also enjoy our article on quotes about possibility.

6. “The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance, but live right in it, under its roof.” ― Shannon Alder

7. “Speaking from my personal experiences, setting goals, along with a detailed action plan, has actually changed my life from one cast in frustration to one of purpose.” ― Catherine Pulsifer

8. “The trouble with many plans is that they are based on the way things are now. To be successful, your personal plan must focus on what you want, not what you have.” ― Nido Qubein

9. “Without goals, and plans to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination.” – Fitzhugh Dodson

10. “Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.” ― Tom Landry

You will also enjoy our article on preparation quotes.

Planning quotes to help with your goal setting

11. “Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you ready or not, to put this plan into action.” – Napoleon Hill

12. “I ain’t Martin Luther King. I don’t need a dream. I have a plan.” ― Spike Lee

13. Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success. – Pablo Picasso

14. “It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt

15. “The man who is prepared has his battle half fought.” – Miguel De Cervantes

16. “Make time for planning: Wars are won in the general’s tent.” – Stephen R. Covey 

17. “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” ― Abraham Lincoln

18. “Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” ― Warren Buffett

19. “Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning.” ― Thomas Edison

20. “The backbone of success is hard work, determination, good planning, and perseverance.” – Mia Hamm

You will also enjoy our article on God’s plan quotes.

Planning quotes about preparation

21. “Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.” ― Alexander Graham Bell

22. “He, who every morning plans the transactions of the day, and follows that plan, carries a thread that will guide him through a labyrinth of the most busy life.” – Victor Hugo

23. “Chance favors the prepared mind.” – Louis Pasteur

24. “The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those which fail.” – Napoleon Hill

25. “If you have accomplished all that you have planned for yourself, you have not planned enough.” – Edward Everett Hale

26. “I always say don’t make plans, make options.” – Jennifer Aniston

27. “The wise man bridges the gap by laying out the path by means of which he can get from where he is to where he wants to go.” – J.P. Morgan 

28. “The end we aim at must be known, before the way can be made.” – Jean Paul

29. “Having a sense of purpose is having a sense of self. A course to plot is a destination to hope for.” – Bryant McGill

30. “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” – Peter Drucker

Planning quotes to inspire success

31. “It is a bad plan that admits of no modification.” – Publilius Syrus

32. “For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned.” – Benjamin Franklin

33. “If I can create the minimum of my plans and desires, there shall be no regrets.” – Bessie Coleman

34. “The Most Successful People are those who are good at Plan B.” – James Yorke

35. “Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.” — Jack Welch

36. “Once you’re more aware of people’s needs, you can create action plans for others to follow. That way, you’re responsible for your own well-being, too.” – Deepak Chopra

37. “The finest plans have always been spoiled by the littleness of them that should carry them out. Even emperors can’t do it all by themselves.” – Beretolt Brecht

38. “Goal setting is the most important aspect of all improvement and personal development plans. It is the key to all fulfillment and achievement.” – Paul J. Meyer

39. “In games, you have plans, you have strategies, and you follow them.” – Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

40. “Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be realized.” – Daniel Burnham

Other insightful planning quotes

41. “A good plan is like a road map: it shows the final destination and usually the best way to get there.”  – H. Stanely Judd

42. “Everybody has to take curveballs as they come in life and hopefully have the ability to adjust their plans.” – Chris Sullivan

43. “Short-termism is no good: plans must be carried through to the end.” – Frank Rijkaard

44. “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

45. “Plans are things that change.” – Fujio Cho

46. “Big goals get big results. No goals get no results or somebody else’s results.” – Mark Victor Hansen

47. “If you’re bored with life, if you don’t get up every morning with a burning desire to do things, you don’t have enough goals.” – Lou Holtz 

48. “Goals are dreams we convert to plans and take action to fulfill.” – Zig Ziglar

49. “Always plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.” – Richard Cushing

50. “An average person with average talents and ambition and average education, can outstrip the most brilliant genius in our society, if that person has clear, focused goals.” – Mark Kay Ash

More planning quotes and sayings

51. “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower

52. “Life is what happens to you while you’re planning on doing something else.” – John Lennon

53. “Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.” – Henry David Thoreau

54. “Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.” – Peter Drucker

55. “A goal without an action plan is a daydream.” – Nathaniel Branden

56. “Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.” – Alan Lakein

57. “Those who plan do better than those who do not plan, even should they rarely stick to their plan.” – Winston Churchill

58. “If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.” – Abraham Maslow

59. “Think ahead. Don’t let day-to-day operations drive out planning.” – Donald Rumsfeld

60. “Plan for what is difficult while it is easy, do what is great while it is small.” – Sun Tzu

Planning quotes to learn and live by

61. “Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans.” ― Allen Saunders

62. “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” ― Benjamin Franklin

63. “Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes; but no plans.” ― Peter F. Drucker

64. “A clear vision, backed by definite plans, gives you a tremendous feeling of confidence and personal power.” ― Brian Tracy

65. “The intelligent have plans; the wise have principles.” ― Raheel Farooq

66. “The more time you spend contemplating what you should have done… you lose valuable time planning what you can and will do.” ― Lil Wayne

67. “Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

68. “The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.” ― John F. Kennedy

69. “A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.” ― George S. Patton

70. “Proper planning and preparation prevents poor performance.” ― Stephen Keague

Planning quotes when you wanna take charge of your life

71. “If plan A doesn’t work, the alphabet has 25 more letters – 204 if you’re in Japan.” ― Claire Cook

72. “Spectacular achievement is always preceded by unspectacular preparation.” ― Robert H. Schuller

73. “Always have a plan, and believe in it. Nothing happens by accident.” ― Chuck Knox

74. “Plan your next move because every step contributes towards your goal.” ― Sukant Ratnakar

75. “Plan your work for today and every day, then work your plan.” ― Margaret Thatcher

76. “To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time.” ― Leonard Bernstein

77. “Just because you make a good plan, doesn’t mean that’s what’s gonna happen.” ― Taylor Swift

78. “You can always amend a big plan, but you can never expand a little one. I don’t believe in little plans. I believe in plans big enough to meet a situation which we can’t possibly foresee now.” ― Harry S. Truman

79. “I am prepared for the worst, but hope for the best.” ― Benjamin Disraeli

80. “Every minute you spend in planning saves 10 minutes in execution; this gives you a 1,000 percent return on energy!” ― Brian Tracy

Planning Quotes To Help You Strategize 

81. “There is a time to plan, a time to act, and a time to rest; it is wise to know which is which.” ― Emily Rodda

82. “Plans are the essential means by which we chart a course for our collective future.” ― Elizabeth Warren

83. “Poor planning on your part does not necessitate an emergency on mine.” ― Bob Carter

84. “There are dreamers and there are planners; the planners make their dreams come true.” ― Edwin Louis Cole

85. “Planning is good but planning is just an illusion when you are not working on your plan.” ― Anuj Jasani

86. “Running straight into whatever trap is laid out is not a plan. Hope is not a plan.” ― C.M. Martens

87. “With adequate planning, passion and perseverance, you can achieve the God-given goals.” ― Lailah Gifty Akita

88. “Plan on the go. Go with the flow.” ― Haresh Sippy

89. “Not planning enough is like preparing for failure even if you are extremely passionate about your idea.” ― Pooja Agnihotri

90. “Goals without planning are like praying without believing.” ― Michael Corthell

What did you learn from these planning quotes?

While planning may seem like a waste of time to some, it’s necessary to the process of achieving any goal or aspiration.

It’s easier to tackle big dreams when you break the process down into bite sized pieces. 

If you need more ways that making big plans can have big impacts upon your life, why not look into a savings plan or ways of organizing yourself on a daily basis?

By putting more effort towards your planning goals, you are setting yourself up for success.

Remember to stay focused, your feet on the ground, and your eyes on the prize – the only one who can plan the path to success for yourself, is you!

What’s your biggest takeaway from these wise planning quotes?

Do you have any other inspirational quotes to add?

Let us know in the comment section below.