A few weeks back, I expressed my fondness for planning season. It is true. This is the reason we exist; how do we take our results, improve them, and take more control over where we will be in the future?

A friend of mine reached out to express how much she disagreed and hates budget season—a typical communication gap. I was referring to planning, and she started thinking about budgeting. I agree budgeting is a pretty boring mathematical exercise. You look at historical results and set expectations for the future. The fun part is the planning, which provides the adjustments applied when converting history into the future.

Budgeting is the process of crunching the numbers; planning provides the knowledge of reasonable expectations so budgeters can input the data.

Budgeting identifies financial results; planning identifies the path to your desired future.

A budget is typically for only the next twelve months. Planning should look further, past the visible horizon and beyond.

Planning should be strategic and realistic; it should identify roadblocks or obstacles and move on to solutions and the resources needed. Planning identifies opportunities and then helps set the path. Planning will allow the budget to have color and communicate the expectations of an easy reach or a stretch. Thus, planning is still one of my favorite activities.