#40 The 6 Ps

This is a phrase I first heard from my late step-father. At the time I thought he’d come up with it but have since learnt that lots of people use the phrase. Nonetheless I still like to think of it as one of his phrases (he had many).

So what is ‘The 6 Ps’ phrase that has stuck with me all these years?

Prior Preparation and Planning Prevents Poor Performance.

Now, clearly ‘prevent’ is a bit strong here, but it makes the alliteration work. And sometimes life throws a curve ball and despite all of the preparation and planning there isn’t just Poor Performance but an utter shit-show.

However, if you have done some prep and made some plans, then at least you’ve done what was within your control to reduce the chance of poor performance (however that is construed).

Take our recent holiday as an example.

Alongside the usual booking of flights, parking, accommodation and boarding for the dog, we did some research on the area and the things we’d like to do. (Thanks to my friend Caroline’s amazing tip, I even plotted these on Google Maps and shared them as a list with you and your father.)

Yes, that church did have a massively long name!

This bit of prior preparation and planning meant we had a list of things to pick from each day to construct an itinerary. That didn’t stop the aquarium from being a bit crap, or our feet from aching because some of the things were a teeny bit further apart than we had realised, but it did mean that we did almost much everything on your list and not had to start from scratch with our plans for each day.

So keep in mind the 6 Ps, just don’t expect perfection!