As humans, I believe it is in our nature to make plans. Maybe for the short term, others for the long. Some are ambitious while some may be just enough to get the next dollar in your pocket. Plans are great things that can guide us on our way to achieve success. They serve as references by which to measure our worth. Have we achieved what we set out to accomplish with our plans?
But sometimes circumstances change and things don’t go according to plan (please excuse the cliche expression… not to mention the nebulous writing). For that reason I am tempted to exclaim that plans don’t even matter. Too much of life is unsure. There are too many variables constantly in motion. You can’t predict the future and there is no way to account for events unseen. Regardless of how well you dictate your plans, life always throws something at you. Sometimes it’s a bone and sometimes it’s a monkey wrench, but regardless of what it is, it rarely coincides with what you’ve already laid out for yourself.
So though, yes, I am tempted to say that plans don’t matter for all the aforementioned reasons, I just can’t do it. I know that I don’t really believe that statement. While I do agree that all are valid factors that interfere (and are a little trite too) that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make plans anyway.
They give you structure; they give you a goal. You should always be striving to attain something, and the more difficult that goal is to attain, the better you’ll become in your efforts to accomplish it. Even if you don’t reach it, you will become better.
Maybe your plans don’t come to fruition. That’s okay. The way I see it, the most successful person doesn’t have a plan and just sticks to it. They have a plan and then change it every time something new comes up. They adjust to the unexpected. Plans need to be amorphous. If you lay out a plan and never encounter a difficulty along the way, then you didn’t challenge yourself enough. You never grew from the experience.
In the last year I have had more intentions than accomplishments, something I hope to soon reverse. Few of my plans have ended how I first thought- both in terrible and incredible ways. I didn’t plan to have long bouts of unemployment, but I didn’t plan to fall in love either. The plans I was pursuing most recently have changed even again, but while my directions have altered in a way I didn’t expect, I am excited for the unknown life that awaits me.
To what end do these newfound challenges lead? Not even the wisest of people can predict. But I do know that the plans that I have will become the plans that I had, and they will guide me to the plans I will follow.
(How’s that for a wordy end-sentence?)
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