Plan it, Cuff it

Or, why 50% of a plan is all you need...

Readjusting your course to go with the flow is one of the most useful skills you can develop. Why? Because your intentions get you halfway there until life gets in the way. Well, that’s one way of looking at it. To put it another way, the universe can provide very elegant solutions and intricate webs of connections which can propel you towards your aim in a fitting and life-enhancing way, as long as you remain open enough to experience peripheral vision and learn to discern distraction from enhancement.

The best stuff in my life has happened when I have been open to a new opportunity, rather than closed off due to over-focus on existing or preconceived ideas.

The longer I live, the more I experience this phenomenon. The best stuff in my life has happened when I have been open to a new opportunity, rather than closed off due to over-focus on existing or preconceived ideas. I could never have dreamt up some of the great stuff I have been fortunate enough to enjoy. Or maybe I did dream it - but didn’t ever imagine it was feasible, but held on to a few bonkers dreams and leaned into them anyway.

But none of this was really planned. Well, not exactly. I knew kinda where I was headed and did what I thought was appropriate to lay tracks and trundle off. But I think that, by maintaining and cultivating connections with people and ideas that bring me joy, and being open to new experiences and open to learning new mindsets and ways of thinking, it has brought me to places I could never have arrived at by myself. I have allowed myself to be influenced into exercising discipline when I recognise the prize for doing so. I have left behind habits which left me unresourceful, because I have been open to feedback. I have altered my course many times, and hurray for that! Ready, fire, aim can be better than ready, aim, fire. It’s less boring and creates momentum when you might otherwise have been crippled by procrastination. I trust myself, by and large, to do the right thing but also I know when I get it wrong I can dig myself out.

Planning is good. But you are confined by your own experiences and imagination. Doing is where it’s at - as long as you are detached from the outcome sufficiently as to remain objective, so you can correct your course. Have an aim, be clear how you want to FEEL as a way of measuring success, but refrain from over-engineering that plan. Fuck watertight, embrace the leaks and let them inform you. Trust me.

You have to be prepared to scare yourself witless once in a while in order to grow.

You have to be prepared to scare yourself witless once in a while in order to grow. That’s where you can really learn the art of backing yourself up. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, as my Dad would have said. Learn to get comfortable in those uncomfortable places. Make friends, deploy your charms, amaze yourself, be audacious. You never really needed that plan to pan out as you intended. Life is more bountiful than that, so keep paying forward and trust yourself. It’ll be a blast if you let it play out.