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.
I’m not myself today and everybody has noticed the improvement 77