Make a Plan, Any Plan, Even a Bad Plan Is Better Than No Plan

Jordan B. Peterson Recommends that You Make a Plan. Any Plan. Even a Bad Plan is Better than No Plan!

Primary Category: Scam Victim Recovery Psychology

Authors:
•  Tim McGuinness, Ph.D., DFin, MCPO, MAnth – Anthropologist, Scientist, Polymath, Director of the Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc.
•  Based on the works of Dr. Jordan B. Peterson, Psychologist.

About This Article

After a scam, your recovery begins not with the perfect solution but with a simple plan. As Jordan B. Peterson emphasizes, making any plan, even a flawed one, creates structure, reduces anxiety, and reclaims personal agency. Without a plan, you stay stuck in emotional chaos and confusion, unable to move forward. By organizing your thoughts, building emotional routines, securing your financial life, and tracking your progress, you bring order to a deeply destabilizing experience. Planning allows you to confront what happened, make small daily decisions, and begin rebuilding both confidence and control.

You do not need to be perfect or feel fully ready. You only need to start. Each plan, each step, and each intentional action moves you away from victimization and toward stability and growth. Recovery is not immediate, but it becomes possible when you commit to movement, even when that movement feels slow or uncertain. With each plan, you prove to yourself that healing is both achievable and already underway.

Note: This article is intended for informational purposes and does not replace professional medical advice. If you are experiencing distress, please consult a qualified mental health professional.

Jordan B. Peterson Recommends that You Make a Plan. Any Plan. Even a Bad Plan is Better than No Plan!

Jordan B. Peterson strongly supports the idea that making a plan, any plan, is better than having no plan at all, even if it’s imperfect. His views on this are rooted in his broader psychological and philosophical approach to order, meaning, and personal responsibility.

Making a plan, even a flawed one, is almost always better than making no plan at all because the act of planning initiates structure, forward motion, and mental engagement. A plan gives your mind a framework to work within, allowing you to assess options, anticipate obstacles, and establish priorities. Without a plan, you drift. You react instead of act. You lose the ability to measure progress or adjust intelligently because there’s no baseline to begin with.

A poor plan can be corrected. A vague intention can be sharpened. A wrong direction can be redirected. But when you make no plan at all, there is nothing to fix, nothing to adjust, and no clear way to evaluate what’s working or what’s not. Even a bad plan creates a starting point. It gives you something to test, something to critique, and something to refine. This process alone builds insight and momentum.

In psychological terms, planning also reduces anxiety. When you have a plan, even one with flaws, you create predictability and perceived control. Your brain shifts from helpless rumination to active problem-solving. And that shift makes a critical difference, especially in crisis, recovery, or complex decision-making. Planning does not guarantee success, but not planning almost guarantees drift, stagnation, or collapse.

The Plan Basics

Here are the key points of Peterson’s perspective:

Order Over Chaos

Peterson sees life as a constant balancing act between order and chaos. Chaos represents the unknown, unpredictability, and existential uncertainty. Order represents structure, discipline, and stability. According to Peterson, making a plan, even a bad one, is a way to push back against chaos. It brings order to your experience and gives your actions purpose, even if they require later revision.

“You have to have a plan. It’s a plan to confront chaos. That’s what makes life manageable.”

Aim at Something, Then Refine

One of Peterson’s core teachings is that you need an aim. He emphasizes that having a direction is more important than being right at first. Even if your goal is wrong, the act of pursuing it teaches you how to correct course. What matters most is movement.

“If you aim at nothing, you get nothing. You have to aim at something, even if it’s wrong, because then you’ll learn what’s wrong and adjust.”

This is foundational to his views on self-development: progress happens through iteration, not perfection.

Responsibility Creates Meaning

Peterson argues that personal responsibility is the foundation of meaning in life. A plan is an expression of responsibility. It means you are willing to take ownership of your circumstances, however uncertain. Planning forces you to confront your situation honestly and decide how to act within it.

“Pick up the heaviest thing you can and carry it. That’s where meaning is found.”

Planning is the intellectual version of picking something up. It is a commitment to engage with the future intentionally, rather than letting it happen to you.

Planning Combats Paralysis

He often discusses how inaction breeds anxiety and planning breaks paralysis. People who feel lost, overwhelmed, or stuck often believe they need the perfect solution before they act. Peterson argues this is a trap. Planning, even badly, gives you traction. It’s the antidote to nihilism and despair.

“You don’t have to have everything figured out. Just do the next best thing.”

Hierarchy of Goals and Micro-Plans

Peterson teaches that goals should be hierarchical. If your big plan is unclear, start with small ones. Clean your room. Fix your schedule. Map out your week. These small acts of planning build competence, and competence leads to confidence.

“You have to start where you are, not where you wish you were.”

Small plans build the skill of planning, and they give you data to revise your path.

Summary of Peterson’s View:

• • • Planning is a tool to create order out of chaos.

    • A flawed plan is better than drifting aimlessly.

    • Direction matters more than precision at the start.

    • Taking responsibility through planning brings psychological stability and meaning.

    • You should plan in small, manageable ways to build momentum.

In essence, Jordan B. Peterson sees planning, any planning, as a fundamental human necessity. Without it, you surrender your future to randomness. With it, even imperfectly, you begin to impose structure, meaning, and potential onto your life.

Creating a Plan After the Scam: Addressing Emotional and Financial Needs

Start with Emotional Stability

After a scam, your emotional state may fluctuate between panic, shame, rage, and confusion. This kind of emotional volatility is normal after a traumatic experience, but if left unmanaged, it can lead to poor decision-making or complete shutdown. Your first priority should be to stabilize your inner world. That does not mean forcing yourself to feel okay; it means building small anchors that keep you from spiraling further into distress. Emotional stability creates the foundation for the rest of your recovery plan.

You can’t heal when you’re stuck in survival mode. Stabilizing your emotions allows you to make clearer choices, ask for help, and begin to rebuild trust with yourself and others. The goal isn’t perfection; it’s consistency. You want to create a baseline of emotional safety that gives your brain and nervous system space to regulate. Even simple acts like turning off scam-related notifications, taking five minutes to breathe deeply, or limiting your time on social media can create noticeable shifts in how overwhelmed you feel.

To begin stabilizing emotionally, you need a few reliable tools and habits that ground you in the present. These tools will not erase your pain, but they will make it manageable. Once you have that, you’ll feel less like a victim and more like someone reclaiming agency.

Practical steps for emotional stability:

• • • Limit your exposure to emotional triggers. Avoid overexposing yourself to scam-related media or online discussions until you feel stronger. Too much input keeps your stress response activated.

    • Create a quiet, calming space at home. This could be one chair, one room, or a corner where you can read, journal, or just rest without stimulation.

    • Use grounding techniques daily. Try things like deep breathing, cold water on your hands, or describing five objects you see and hear to bring your attention back to the present.

    • Establish a sleep and wake routine. Sleep disturbance is common after trauma. A consistent schedule helps your brain start to heal.

    • Talk to one emotionally safe person. You don’t need a big circle. One calm, nonjudgmental person is enough to begin feeling understood and supported.

Create a Safe Routine

Your daily structure matters more than you might think in the aftermath of a scam. When your life feels shaken, your nervous system seeks predictability. A consistent routine brings stability by giving you something to count on, even when everything else feels uncertain. It helps your mind feel less chaotic and gives your body cues that it is no longer in danger. This doesn’t need to be a strict schedule, just repeatable, calming patterns that signal safety and reduce overwhelm.

A safe routine begins with simplicity. Start your day the same way each morning, even if it’s as basic as brushing your teeth and making a cup of tea. Choose a set time to eat, rest, and move your body gently. Add one small, grounding habit to your evening, like reading a book or turning off screens an hour before bed. This rhythm calms the fight-or-flight response and supports emotional healing. Without a daily anchor, your thoughts can spiral, leading to more confusion and fatigue.

When you build a routine, you slowly reestablish a sense of control over your environment. That control is essential. It reduces impulsive reactions, improves your ability to think clearly, and helps you cope with both emotional distress and practical decisions. This is not about becoming hyper-productive; it’s about reducing internal chaos so that you can move through your recovery with steadiness.

Key elements of a safe routine:

• • • Start and end your day with structure. Wake up and wind down at the same time every day, even on weekends, to give your brain consistency.

    • Build in low-effort, repeatable habits. Use simple rituals like drinking water when you wake up, stretching for five minutes, or writing down one thing you’re grateful for.

    • Set time limits on digital exposure. Limit time spent reading about scams or scrolling social media. These overstimulate your mind and delay recovery.

    • Incorporate gentle movement. Take a walk, stretch, or do slow yoga. Physical activity helps release stress stored in the body.

    • Use reminders or checklists. Simple visual cues help your mind stay focused and create a sense of accomplishment, especially when your memory feels scattered.

Include Emotional Processing

Emotional processing is different from emotional survival. Once you’ve created some structure and calm in your daily life, it’s time to begin working through the feelings the scam brought to the surface. These emotions may include shame, anger, guilt, betrayal, grief, and fear. If you do not acknowledge and engage with these emotions intentionally, they will continue to influence your decisions, energy levels, and relationships in the background. Emotional wounds do not go away just because you ignore them, they stay unresolved until you actively process them.

The most important part of emotional processing is permission. You must give yourself permission to feel without judging what comes up. You may not like the fact that you’re angry, that you cry easily now, or that you replay the scam in your head on loop. That is normal. Your brain is trying to make sense of something that violated your trust and safety. The way through is not to suppress those feelings but to make space for them in safe, time-limited ways. Processing does not mean drowning in your emotions; it means noticing, naming, and understanding them so they lose their control over you.

To do this effectively, use tools that create emotional awareness. Writing, therapy, and somatic practices like breathwork can help. You don’t need to talk to a dozen people or disclose every detail publicly. Start with private reflection or trusted professionals who can guide you. When you allow yourself to process your emotions regularly, you begin to feel lighter. The confusion and rage don’t disappear overnight, but they stop running your life. This clarity becomes essential when you begin facing more practical tasks in your recovery.

Ways to support emotional processing:

• • • Set a specific time to feel and reflect. Block out 20 minutes a few times a week where you can journal, cry, or sit with your feelings intentionally without distractions.

    • Use guided writing prompts. Questions like “What changed for me after the scam?” or “What do I wish I could say to the person who deceived me?” help focus your attention.

    • Consider trauma-informed therapy. A licensed therapist familiar with scam trauma or betrayal trauma can help you safely unpack complex emotions over time.

    • Try mindfulness or somatic practices. Body scans, breathwork, or gentle tapping (EFT) help move emotional energy through the body when talking isn’t enough.

    • Avoid emotional numbing. Be aware of using food, alcohol, shopping, or constant scrolling to avoid how you feel. These may delay healing and create new risks.

Outline Immediate Financial Actions

Once the emotional shock begins to settle, your attention will likely shift toward the financial damage caused by the scam. This part of your recovery can feel overwhelming, especially if you lost a large sum of money, fell behind on bills, or had your identity compromised. That’s why the first step in your financial plan should be clarity, not panic. You need to understand what happened, what is still at risk, and what resources you have left. Writing it all down helps bring structure to what feels like chaos.

Start by listing the full scope of the loss. This includes direct money sent, fees charged, items purchased under false pretenses, or accounts accessed without your consent. Then list any related fallout: canceled cards, late payments, or suspicious activity. Once you see it all in front of you, the fear often becomes more manageable. Most victims assume the financial picture is worse than it is because the stress magnifies every detail. Clarity is power. It allows you to make smart, timely decisions that protect what remains and begin the slow work of rebuilding.

After that, outline your available financial tools. These may include emergency funds, lines of credit, employer support, or family help. Even if those options feel limited, it is better to document them than to assume you have none. The goal is not to fix everything right away. It’s to stabilize what you can and reduce the risk of further harm. Financial recovery takes time, but every step you take now strengthens your position and restores a sense of control.

Steps to take for immediate financial action:

• • • Make a full list of losses and known fraud. Include dates, amounts, account names, and any transaction numbers or screenshots that support your case.

    • Document remaining assets and income. Know what you have left in your accounts, what money is coming in, and what you need to protect.

    • Contact your bank or card issuer. File fraud reports on any affected transactions and ask what protections they can offer, such as reversals or account freezes.

    • Check your credit report. Look for new accounts or activity you don’t recognize. If needed, place a fraud alert or credit freeze through one of the major bureaus.

    • Report the scam to official channels. File a complaint with the FTC (in the U.S.) or your country’s consumer protection authority. This helps build a record and may assist in recovery or legal action.

Secure Your Accounts

After a scam, one of the most urgent priorities is protecting your digital identity. Scammers often collect more than just money, they also gain access to your passwords, contact lists, or personal information they can exploit further. Even if the scam seemed isolated, you must assume your data could be reused or sold. Securing your accounts is a key part of stopping additional damage and rebuilding your sense of safety. This step should happen as early as possible, ideally within the first few days after discovering the fraud.

Begin by identifying which accounts may have been exposed. This includes email, financial institutions, social media, online shopping, and any service where your login credentials may have been reused. Even if you don’t see immediate signs of tampering, change those passwords right away. If you used the same password on multiple sites, change each one separately to a strong, unique version. Use a password manager to help organize and track the changes. Doing this reduces your risk of future breaches and prevents the scammer from using your identity again in new ways.

Once you’ve secured the vulnerable accounts, update your account recovery settings, especially your email and phone number on file. Enable two-factor authentication wherever possible. This added layer makes it harder for anyone to gain access, even if they obtain your password. Monitor your email and text messages for verification alerts or new device logins. If you notice anything suspicious, report it immediately. Securing your digital identity is not a one-time fix. It’s an ongoing part of your post-scam recovery that reinforces your control over your life and privacy.

Key actions to secure your accounts:

• • • Change passwords immediately. Start with email, banking, shopping, and social media. Use a password manager to create and store secure, unique passwords.

    • Enable two-factor authentication. This requires a second step (like a code to your phone) and helps block unauthorized access even if a scammer has your password.

    • Update account recovery information. Make sure only your current, trusted email and phone number are listed for password resets and login alerts.

    • Review recent login activity. Most major platforms allow you to see where and when your account was accessed. Sign out of all devices you don’t recognize.

    • Scan your devices for malware. Run security software on your phone, tablet, or computer to ensure scammers haven’t installed spyware or remote access tools.

Build a Short-Term Budget

After a scam, you may feel uncertain about your finances and unsure how to regain control. A short-term budget helps you stabilize during this vulnerable time. It gives you a clear plan for managing what you have while avoiding further risk. Unlike long-term financial planning, this kind of budget is focused on the next 30 to 60 days. Its goal is simple: cover essential needs, reduce pressure, and stop financial bleed-through. When you put numbers on paper, you replace panic with structure.

Start by identifying your absolute necessities. This includes rent or mortgage payments, utilities, basic groceries, medications, and transportation. Eliminate or pause all nonessential spending, even if it’s only temporary. Cancel subscriptions you don’t need, delay purchases that can wait, and avoid emotional spending. A scam often disrupts your sense of security, and spending impulsively can feel like a way to cope, but it often makes recovery harder. Give every dollar a job. If the scam left you with little or no cash flow, seek out community programs, support funds, or financial relief services in your area.

The purpose of a short-term budget is not just to survive, it’s to give you breathing room. When you can see where your money is going and how long it will last, you can make better decisions. You also protect your emotional health by reducing the mental strain of uncertainty. Once your basic needs are covered and you’ve created some space, you can begin rebuilding your long-term financial goals. A short-term budget is the bridge between loss and recovery. It gives you direction when the path forward feels unclear.

Steps to create your short-term budget:

• • • List all essential expenses. Include only what you need to survive for the next month: housing, food, utilities, transportation, and medical needs.

    • Pause or cancel nonessentials. Review your bank and credit card statements. Cancel subscriptions, automatic charges, or luxury spending that can wait.

    • Create a daily or weekly spending cap. Break your budget down into manageable periods to avoid overspending in emotional moments.

    • Use cash or a separate debit card for necessities. This creates a physical boundary between critical funds and discretionary spending.

    • Reach out for help if needed. Look into nonprofits, food banks, housing aid, or scam victim support funds. These can provide short-term relief while you rebuild.

Plan for Emotional Setbacks

Even after taking positive steps, you may find yourself hit by sudden waves of grief, anger, confusion, or deep fatigue. This is not a sign of failure. Emotional setbacks are a normal part of trauma recovery. In fact, they are expected. Many scam victims report feeling relatively strong for a few weeks, only to fall into a slump later. That drop in energy or optimism can be jarring, especially when you thought you were making progress. Planning for these moments ahead of time allows you to respond rather than react.

You cannot avoid emotional dips completely, but you can prepare for them. Just like you would pack a bag for a storm, you can create a toolkit of responses for when your mood or energy crashes. This might include a list of grounding practices, a phone number of someone you trust, or a written reminder of what has helped you in the past. You can also reduce the impact of setbacks by noticing patterns. If you tend to feel worse on weekends, anniversaries, or when alone, adjust your schedule to include support on those days.

A setback is not the end of your progress. It is a sign that your body and mind are still processing the experience. Give yourself permission to rest. Accept that healing does not happen in a straight line. Write down what the setback felt like, what triggered it, and what you did to move through it. This helps you learn from the experience and prepare better next time. With planning, you can meet these difficult moments with compassion and confidence, rather than fear or shame.

How to plan for emotional setbacks:

• • • Create an emotional first aid kit. Include calming activities, supportive contacts, a favorite playlist, grounding exercises, or comfort items.

    • Write yourself a note for hard days. Use a positive tone to remind yourself that these feelings are temporary and that you’ve made progress.

    • Set realistic recovery expectations. Remind yourself that trauma healing takes time and includes both forward steps and regressions.

    • Avoid big decisions when triggered. Delay major actions, such as spending money, making accusations, or quitting a job, when emotions are running high.

    • Track patterns and triggers. Use a journal or app to note what leads to emotional dips so you can prepare support in advance next time.

Track Your Progress

As you begin rebuilding after a scam, it can be hard to notice progress from day to day. The emotions are intense, the tasks are many, and the future can feel uncertain. This is where tracking your progress becomes essential. It gives you visible proof that you are moving forward, even when you feel stuck. Recovery is not just about fixing what was lost, it’s about acknowledging each step you take to reclaim your time, energy, and decisions. When you track what you’re doing, you create a trail of your own progress.

Tracking doesn’t need to be complicated. You can use a notebook, a calendar, an app, or even sticky notes. Choose one format that feels easy to maintain. Write down each action you take toward recovery, no matter how small. Did you change a password? Journal for ten minutes? Talk to a support person? Add it to your record. Over time, this list becomes evidence of your strength. When you feel discouraged, you can look back and see just how much you’ve done since the scam ended.

Keeping track of your actions also helps you identify what works and what doesn’t. You may notice that journaling brings relief, but scrolling social media makes you feel worse. You might realize that certain days or routines make you feel stronger. These patterns are important. They help you build habits that support your recovery and avoid ones that delay it. Most importantly, your progress log helps you stay grounded. It reminds you that you are not powerless. You are actively creating your path forward.

Ways to track your progress:

• • • Use a notebook or journal. Dedicate a few minutes each day to write what steps you took, how you felt, and what you learned.

    • Create a visual tracker. Use a calendar or chart to mark completed actions like financial tasks, therapy sessions, or support group attendance.

    • Break goals into steps. Make a list of recovery goals and divide them into small actions. Check off each one as you go.

    • Reflect weekly. Once a week, read back through what you’ve done. Note any changes in how you feel or how you respond to challenges.

    • Celebrate small wins. Acknowledge even modest progress, completing a call, saying no to something unsafe, or getting a full night’s sleep.

Commit to the Process

Recovery from a scam is not a quick fix or a straight line. It is a process that unfolds over time and in stages. When you commit to that process, you accept that healing will include setbacks, plateaus, and victories, sometimes all in the same week. Commitment does not mean forcing yourself to be strong every day. It means choosing to keep going, even when you feel tired or discouraged. It means making space in your life for healing to happen and not abandoning yourself when progress feels slow.

Committing to recovery is also about staying involved with your own well-being. You do this by showing up for your routines, by taking action even when it’s uncomfortable, and by staying open to support. You will need patience and consistency more than perfection. The habits you build now, checking in with your emotions, budgeting with care, and avoiding impulsive behavior, are the foundation for a safer and more confident future. By keeping the process active, you slowly replace crisis with clarity.

When you treat recovery like a long-term effort instead of a one-time repair, you build resilience. You gain the tools to face future challenges, not just this one. Even if you don’t feel like it today, continuing to act in service of your well-being adds strength to your identity. You stop defining yourself by what happened and start defining yourself by how you respond. That shift is where real recovery begins, and it’s within your reach as long as you stay committed.

How to stay committed to your recovery:

• • • Set realistic timelines. Expect recovery to take months, not days. Create flexible plans that reflect that pace without discouraging you.

    • Remind yourself why it matters. Write down your reasons for wanting to heal, security, peace of mind, trust, or simply a return to normalcy.

    • Accept imperfection. You will miss steps, forget tools, or have bad days. That does not undo your progress. Show yourself compassion and keep going.

    • Surround yourself with support. Connect with people who validate your experience and encourage your effort. Avoid those who pressure you to “just move on.”

    • Revisit and revise your plan. Check in every month to see what’s helping and what needs adjusting. Recovery is not static, it changes as you grow.

Conclusion

When Jordan B. Peterson says that even a bad plan is better than no plan, he is not being careless, he is being practical. A plan gives you structure. It gives your actions shape and your thoughts direction. Without it, you leave your life up to chance, emotional drift, or chaos. For scam victims, this advice is more than philosophical. It is essential. In the aftermath of a scam, the emotional, psychological, and financial damage can feel paralyzing. But paralysis only deepens the damage. Planning, even in small, imperfect ways, breaks that cycle. It shifts your mind from helplessness to problem-solving. That shift is not abstract. It is the starting point for healing.

The goal is not to create a perfect strategy from day one. It is to reclaim your ability to move. Making a simple daily routine, writing down financial facts, or identifying the feelings you need to process, all of these are plans. They may not feel bold or ambitious, but they are acts of order in the face of chaos. They remind your nervous system that the worst is over and that your response now shapes what happens next. As Peterson teaches, responsibility is the root of meaning. When you take responsibility for your healing, you are not blaming yourself for what happened. You are choosing to rebuild your life intentionally, instead of waiting for it to fix itself.

No one expects you to recover all at once. But if you can build emotional anchors, restore a daily rhythm, process your grief, and make a list of financial actions to take, you are doing what most people avoid: facing your life with honesty. This process takes courage. It also takes repetition, revision, and the patience to keep going through setbacks. But it leads somewhere. Each plan you make, even when it’s messy or incomplete, brings you closer to clarity. It restores a sense of control, not over the past, but over your direction moving forward.

So if you feel stuck after the scam, don’t wait to be inspired or fully ready. Don’t wait for the perfect moment or the flawless solution. Make a plan. Any plan. Start with what hurts most or what feels most out of control. Write it down. Take the first step. And then another. You can fix what isn’t working. You can revise the plan. But you cannot revise nothing. You cannot improve drift. Your future deserves more than passivity. It deserves direction. And you can provide that. Even now. Even here. Start today.

Please Rate This Article

Please Leave Us Your Comment
Also, tell us of any topics we might have missed.

Thank you for your comment. You may receive an email to follow up. We never share your data with marketers.

-/ 30 /-

What do you think about this?
Please share your thoughts in a comment above!