No plan survives first contact with the enemy
That is true but it is no reason not to plan, instead it is an excellent reason to take your plans and examine every area for weaknesses and how you would respond to the circumstances which are likely to occur. Plans change all the time and need to be revisited and updated on a regular basis.
You may not think that any plans we put in place here should need revision. After all we are planning for an event in the future and the plans we have in place should still be valid. That may actually be true but there are many items in those plans which are impacted by a wide variety of changes outside our control.
For example you may lose your job. The food we have put aside may be used to keep us fed now. Your house could burn down, your stores may be lost. You may get promoted and thus be able to look at different options which were previously out of your reach. You may be able to move to somewhere better, you may be forced to move somewhere worse. For all we know our government may get things under control and the biggest risk could be something totally new such as a fascist regime. Thus all our plans change to adapt to whatever new circumstances have presented themselves.
I think that most of us do adapt to changes OK, mainly because our life changes are not that significant but no matter what happens we should look at our plans from the bottom up at least once a year as well as after any life changes we have.
We must also make sure that we explore all options while we consider the plan. For example if your first action is to Bug Out in your 7 tonner then you need to keep it full of stores, what happens if it doesn’t start, what if the road outside your house has been excavated by the utilities company. I heard of a guy who built a boat in his garage and had to diassemble it to get it out and down to the sea. Now that may sound funny but it could very well have been the best option. He had thought it through and planned.
So, bottom line, for every change that occurs we need to consider the impact on our plans. If they need changing for the new circumstances then change them in line with your objectives. Make sure they achieve your objectives and are flexible enough to adapt to likely changes in circumstances. Unlike our normal everyday plans like what pudding we will have we won’t be able to wait till we save up for something we missed, we won’t be able to start again. It needs to be right first time in enough areas to ensure we achieve our objectives whilst we are not sure what is going to happen. It is a big task. The key is flexibility. Make sure there is enough.
Plan, plan and plan again. When you are finished, implemenent the plans that you can and make sure you keep checking that they are achieving what they should do. A plan for prepping, a plan for event 1, a plan for event 2, a plan for long term. A plan for everything and then backups of those plans, for the key ones backups for those and so on. Our lives are worth it.