Call 2025 a wrap, and as you prepare for 2026, here are some of my favorite quotes that apply to this year’s planning.
Pico Iyer, in his book, “Aflame: Learning from Silence,” wrote: “Luxury is defined by all you don’t need to long for.” What does it mean to be financially independent? Want what you have.
Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche: “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” In financial planning, the hows are simple. It’s the whys that twist people in knots. Why do you want a bigger home? Why do you want a certain return? Why do you want to help your children? Getting to why is about questions. How is the answers. All good planning starts with the right questions.
From Marie Howe’s poem, “Hurry,” she muses: “Where do I want her to hurry to? To her grave? To mine?” When clients look back on their lives, they invariably reflect on the moments of connection. Planning helps create more of those moments.
From “The Way to Love” by Anthony de Mello: “There is not a single moment in your life when you do not have everything that you need to be happy. ... The reason why you are unhappy is because you are focusing on what you do not have rather than on what you have right now.” On to the next thing? Planning involves having goals and trying to reach them, but it doesn’t mean we can’t appreciate where we are now.
Columnist Sydney Harris: “Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.” Say yes more and sooner.
In “Think Again” from Adam Grant: “The purpose of learning isn’t to affirm our beliefs; it’s to evolve our beliefs.” Discerning where to have conviction and where to be curious will help you deal with the unpredictability of all planning. Plans are models, not maps.
Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius: “Objective judgment, now at this very moment. Unselfish action, now at this very moment. Willing acceptance, now at this very moment, of all external events. That’s all you need.” Planning starts from where you are right now. Some decisions, some luck, brought you here. The past is a lesson, not a sentence.
