It's planning and budgeting time around the Mary Kay office right now. That means we're all thinking about our most important initiatives for 2010, our revenue forecasts for all of our markets around the world, and what we think we'll be spending to accomplish our goals. It's a process that goes on for a few months each year. We each begin at the individual department level, but eventually all have to come together to make sure that our goals are in sync overall and that our company-wide budget is reasonable. No one particularly enjoys the process, but everyone understands how important it is to plan. As I was thinking about this, I was reminded about two things: (1) Mary Kay Ash always said that one should " plan your work, and work your plan ", and (2) that many young women these days don't have a plan for their life, but wish they did (as we learned from our 2009 What Women Want research study). It occurred to me that as individuals, we don't often take...