These days all my plans have been useless, whatever I do, the plan changes all the time. So I start to think: do we really need plans to get ahead? Don't get me wrong, I love making plans, I am right now making a shopping list (nothing glamourous, tomorrow's dinner and that summer skirt I want, maybe a dress too).
My latest plan was to go to Liberec this weekend, but the plan was abruptly changed and instead I spent a wonderful weekend in Prague and Plzen. I'm not sorry for it, in fact, I'm quite happy it all turned out like this, I went barhopping in Plzen, showed Prague to a friend, which is always one of my favourite activities, watched a movie, had interesting discussions, ate good food and drank enough to make me cheery. But what I ask myself now is whether it makes any sense to make plans if you don't stick to them?
We get all excited about a plan, or at least I know I do. We make our life around it sometimes, make plans on top of plans, link them to other things in our lives. We spawn a web of plans, all in a desperate effort to give ourselves the illusion we are in control.
And then we get disappointed because we didn't see our plan come true. Our world seems a tiny bit destabilized, abnormal, spinning out of (our) control even. The plan made it look all that better, made us feel in control, masters of our destinies. And the bubble bursts and we are not gods anymore, we don't know exactly were the road takes us.
In some rare cases - like mine, this time - when the changed plan goes better than the original would, we forget things didn't go as we wanted and can end up saying this was what we always really wanted. Anything to keep the appearence of control.
But does it really help us, to have all this control? Life is so full of surprises and twists out of our reach that no matter how well we prepare everything, it will never be 100% sure. I didn't go to Liberec because of events that were independent to my will or power and that I could not have predicted no matter my preparation (maybe a very very wild dream would have imagined that knock on my door close to midnight, that made me go to Plzen in the morning, but I was completely taken by surprise, and it was a nice one).
My latest plan was to go to Liberec this weekend, but the plan was abruptly changed and instead I spent a wonderful weekend in Prague and Plzen. I'm not sorry for it, in fact, I'm quite happy it all turned out like this, I went barhopping in Plzen, showed Prague to a friend, which is always one of my favourite activities, watched a movie, had interesting discussions, ate good food and drank enough to make me cheery. But what I ask myself now is whether it makes any sense to make plans if you don't stick to them?
We get all excited about a plan, or at least I know I do. We make our life around it sometimes, make plans on top of plans, link them to other things in our lives. We spawn a web of plans, all in a desperate effort to give ourselves the illusion we are in control.
And then we get disappointed because we didn't see our plan come true. Our world seems a tiny bit destabilized, abnormal, spinning out of (our) control even. The plan made it look all that better, made us feel in control, masters of our destinies. And the bubble bursts and we are not gods anymore, we don't know exactly were the road takes us.
In some rare cases - like mine, this time - when the changed plan goes better than the original would, we forget things didn't go as we wanted and can end up saying this was what we always really wanted. Anything to keep the appearence of control.
But does it really help us, to have all this control? Life is so full of surprises and twists out of our reach that no matter how well we prepare everything, it will never be 100% sure. I didn't go to Liberec because of events that were independent to my will or power and that I could not have predicted no matter my preparation (maybe a very very wild dream would have imagined that knock on my door close to midnight, that made me go to Plzen in the morning, but I was completely taken by surprise, and it was a nice one).
Isn't it better sometimes to go with the flow? See what happens next and improvise? Sometimes life can be fun like that too, scary, but fun. So Liberec is for another time, I'll make plans for it when the time comes, but I won't be dissapointed if I get another offer.
Control is just an illusion, all we can do is make a plan, don't get to attached to it and hope for the better. And be open to all possibilities.
Control is just an illusion, all we can do is make a plan, don't get to attached to it and hope for the better. And be open to all possibilities.
Posts
The conclusion is just perfect. :)
ReplyDeleteI think that the plan gets you into that magic feeling, excites you and helps you focus on the things you really want to do or see once you get to that place. But the unknown has a mind of its own and it's lovely when everything ends well :)
jane.