What separates a plan from a drift

The difference is not what they intend to do — everybody intends to do something. It is whether there is a specific thing, with a date, that somebody other than them is expecting. A job that starts in October. A course with an enrolment date. A commitment made to a named person.

"I will figure it out" is not a plan, and it is not a moral failing either. It is usually exhaustion after an intense year, or genuine uncertainty about the choice in front of them. Both are legitimate reasons to take a year. Neither survives twelve months without a structure, because a year with nothing fixed in it disappears faster than anyone believes it can.