I had a plan. I always have a plan. Ask me how often the plan turns out exactly the way I imagined it would. I’ll wait… Exactly, zero percent of the time. Am I a poor planner? Are the plans any good? I usually think so. The exact one thing that usually goes wrong is that execution takes waaay longer than I thought.
So, I build more time into my plans and they still take longer than I thought. It leads me to ask several questions. Am I planning the wrong things? Is my execution poor? Am I even on the right journey? Oh yea, I get real philosophical real quick.
There are times when my plans turn out really well. I live in a city with a lot of traffic, and I do mean a lot, so I always give myself plenty of time to get to my destination. 99% of the time, I’m early. Exactly right doesn’t seem to be an option for me when it comes to my plans.
The real truth about plans is that they can give you a sense of being in control when you don’t really feel that way. They give your world a structure. The trick is to relax when the plans you made don’t work out the way you thought they would. Going with the flow of whatever is happening and trusting that you can handle whatever happens becomes the plan.