The P ublisher Po stulates MAN PLANS, GOD LAUGHS I always planned to be somebody. I guess I should have been more specific. 34 TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE | MARCH/APRIL 2017 Publisher / Editor By Aaron R. Fodiman When I was small, it seemed that everyone advised me to have a plan. I slowly realized that they meant more than just where and how I would get my next candy bar. So I started planning, and when things did not go as I thought they would, I would look for the error in my plan so that I would not make the same mistake in the future. I still believed that to get to a goal, you must have a plan. As I continued to follow the course I had set for myself, I noticed that many of my plans didn’t come to fruition, so I would simply develop a new plan or alter the old one. My plan to become a doctor was aborted when I discovered that after four years of college as a pre-medical student, I had what the Mayo Clinic calls “vasovagal syncope,” which means I faint at the sight of blood. I didn’t know at that time that there was a technical name for it, but I did know that I needed a new plan. After deciding that I would go to graduate business school to get an MBA, I learned that my pre-med courses in chemistry and psychology would not get me into business school and that if I wanted to go in that new direction, I would have to go to law school first. Being a lawyer was never part of my plan, but I have consistently been flexible. That means if I came to a fork in the road, I took it. And so it went until finally, I stopped making plans and just kept plowing forward, or at least in whatever direction I found was the easiest way to flow, often letting the tide sweep me in and out of wherever I found myself. Despite this eventual surrender to fate, destiny or luck, I still held onto the belief that I should have a plan. I continued to go where my feet led me, reaching for the stars so that I might touch the moon. People would ask me about my plans and I would reply, “I’m working on them.” I am usually so tied up in the present that I have no time for the future. At this point in my life, my only plan is to consistently be thankful for what I currently have. I love being surprised by what each day brings and by not having a plan, other than to get through the day. I don’t have to wonder if it will work or not. I hate living with pressure, especially if I know I created it myself. Take my advice. Stop planning and just do what you want to do, when you want to do it, or just adopt that as your plan. I have. 9 My life is what happened while I was making plans. ELAINE ZAGAMI
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