Are you a planner? Do you have your day mapped down to the minute? Do you know exactly where you will be on August 17th of this year?
Or are you someone who likes to see what the day brings you? Do you wait to find out what’s on fire at work or home, run from emergency to deadline, or simply go with the flow?
It doesn’t, as it turns out, have to be an either/or. You can make plans, then change them. You can plan a shape for your day, then adapt. In fact, I’ve found for myself that having sets of plans, things I want and need to do today, tomorrow, next week, even next year, to be very useful. And then when the moment has arrived I can decide if I’ll stick to my plans or if I’ll improvise.
I have plans for work, plans for plays, novels, short stories. When you are blessed with an idea, write it down, make a plan. You can decide in the future if you’ll do the work, or not. Your plans are like a safety deposit box for your dreams. Capture them, pour the details you can into them, and save them.
I can always pick my plans up again. I typically do. But I’ve also found this: the best times, the most fun, the most rewarding things have happened not because of my plans, but because of my planning. Planning means thinking about things before they happen or need to happen. And really good plans include alternatives. I know when to drop my plans and follow that alternate path, to find out what happens. Without a plan, I might have never gotten to that alternative, that possibility. And without plans, I might not know what to do when fate steps in.
Plan and dream. Then be prepared to go with the flow.
If my plans work out on August 17th I’ll be in Edinburgh, Scotland, watching one of my plays performed. Why not plan on joining me there?
