I’m Reid! I write about my life experiences and how we can all live in brave new ways. Dare You is a reader-supported publication. To receive weekly posts and support my work, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
I did it. It’s happened. My life has officially not turned out as I had planned. THANK GOD. If everything had gone the way I had originally wanted it to go, that would have been wildly boring and predictable. You know what’s cool? Unpredictability. You know what’s chic? Literally not having a clue what is going to happen next.
Does anyone feel like their life has gone as they had expected?
Exactly… nobody.
What’s the point then? What’s the point of planning or dreaming or hoping for anything if inevitably your life will not turn out the way you had expected?….here’s why we SHOULD plan.
When we plan and things obviously don’t go as planned, that’s the space where we grow. We form resilience in how we pivot, how we react, and how we choose to move forward after the letdown. By allowing the plan to morph and change course, we create space to be surprised, to raise our glass ceiling, to fall in love with a new skill or person who is even shinier than we could have ever imagined.
Planning gives you a starting-off point. A place to lift off. The process of creating plans gets your creative juices flowing and expands your perception of what is possible. However, the key to planning is accepting that inevitably your plans will be challenged and you will be forced to pivot. And when you are forced to pivot, THERE is the WIN! You have been gifted the opportunity to challenge yourself and be surprised. The moment your plans don’t go as planned, THAT’S when you know you are on the right path. Personally, the moment I accepted that things will surely not go as planned, thats when I was able to take bigger risks
By accepting that things will likely not go as planned, I allowed myself to take more risks because the fear that things would “go wrong,” which kept me from starting in the first place, was now nonexistent. I was able to enjoy the journey in a whole new way. I now see the detours stemming off from my original plans as gifts and opportunities. It’s a far more enjoyable way of living.
It’s not like any one thing that didn’t go as planned has inspired me to write this… but last night I did enjoy lifting my head up from my pillow at the stroke of midnight to reach for my phone and write down these words… which were definitely not what I had planned.
-Reid
Love it when inspiration hits! So glad you wrote it and didn’t go back to sleep, otherwise we wouldn’t have had this piece to enjoy!
Midnight writing strikes (successfully) again! This was awesome and so well put. Keep on planning, knowing something better is probably (maybe), but also usually in storen