Planning Life

How many people make plans just to have things work a different way? Honestly, I think this happens most of the time. Making plans has a way of attracting problems and causing things to go awry. But that is what makes life so interesting, the fact that we can never really be sure how things are going to turn out.

For example let’s say you plan a trip. If you take the trip and everything goes according to plan, which you never plan anything bad, then when you return you say it was good. But if you get to your destination and someone mugs you, and you manage to rustle a few dollars out of an old account and find some friends, then you have a memorable story. Now I am not saying I hope everyone gets mugged on their vacation but unplanned events are what really make life interesting.

Without these events we fall into routine, and everything becomes old really fast. These unplanned events keep us guessing, a flat tire, finding money, running into an old friend. They do not always have to be bad events and any event of this nature usually makes for a memorable experience. Most of the time nothing goes as planned, but it usually works out regardless, the road may be different, but the destination is the same.

There is no preparation for these events, you can only expect the unexpected and hope that you can deal with it when it happens. More often than not it will be something you can handle quite easily, but other times you are not so fortunate. A cop pulls you over, more often than not you will be upset, but these interactions are always interesting, and it really gives you perspective on driving.

I highly doubt anything has really ever gone according to plan in someone’s life. Really it would grow tiresome this way. I would hate waking up and saying nothing is going to happen to me today, and then nothing happens that day. I think these things keep us alive and guessing. Without them we would all be so careless and do whatever we wanted, because we would know there would be no consequences for our actions.

We feed off the fact that every decision we make has subsequent results. We thrive when things go differently from our plans. Most people try to fix them and get back on track, but really the events have changed your plans significantly. And I would not want it any other way. These events make life worth living, it causes people to show there true colors. It shows how people respond to spontaneous acts of randomness. Many people breakdown and can’t handle this sometimes, but I feel that all they have to do is expect it. The people that can’t handle the random events are often the people who live by plans. People that plan every step of their day. Then when something goes wrong they freak out and are not prepared. But you have to prepare for these events, they are unavoidable. There are too many factors in the world for everything to happen by design.

So why are we always so surprised by the unexpected? The truth of it is that no one welcomes the change, whenever we plan something we have it set exactly how we want it to play out. And when things start to happen that we have not planned for we breakdown, get angry and sometimes worse. But plans usually never escape unscathed, most of the time the things we plan are just a core idea by the time they are finished. Weather, vehicle trouble, financial trouble, all of these things affect our plans, but we never plan for them. In fact you can not plan for them, because the moment you do, it will change. Either it will not happen, or something far worse will occur.

In hindsight, we will never really understand why this happens. Some call it God’s will, others call it Chaos theory. In either case the point remains, that plans are only made to be broken. Never plan life, because it will be rudely interrupted by reality. Just go with the flow, and do not give up. Attack your objective fearlessly and results will come. And beware of plans, because nothing goes accordingly.