Why this girl’s plans ain’t fixed…

I wonder how many people, on a daily basis, utter the words, “we need a plan”. I bet it’s bloody loads. I bet that someone says it every minute. Maybe even every 30 seconds. In fact, as I type this, I reckon millions around the world are in the throes of writing out a to-do list. Or, maybe they’re colour coding their calendar, and double and triple checking its sync’d up to a briefcase chock full of personal devices designed to help them to feel organised.

How utterly exhausting.

Everybody just loves a “plan”.

I’m guilty of it. I write out a to-do list pretty much every day. Of course, I’m human, so the minute it’s on the page I ignore every point other than the ones that are easy to tick off. I’m making the all important “plan”, and that’s all that matters.

But is it? Is it the plan that matters…or is it the getting there that’s way more important?

I may plan to write a whole chapter in a day but what am I basing that aim on, other than my desire to see it through? I might as well write that I plan to become Queen of all the world’s cats, or France’s No.1 cheese consultant.

Another example…

Plans are all very well, but they also cause us unnecessary anguish. Yes, knowing what you want in your heart of hearts is a great thing, but must we all be so frantic about it, and so set on getting to it, that we rarely stop to consider the things we see, and learn, en route to getting there.

Plans can be unrealistic. They can also monumentally stress you out. We need to remember that rogue spanners get lobbed into our works, seemingly out of nowhere, on a daily basis. We need to protect our heads from these nuisances by giving ourselves a break when they happen, and sometimes even stopping to pick up that spanner to check whether it’s one you want to keep for your collection, or one you want to lob into someone else’s works.

So, there’s a brief (and somewhat confusing), summary of why I’ve called this blog No Fixed Plans. I’m going to write about the little things that usually get bypassed by people stampeding towards the end goal. The seemingly insignificant bits that aren’t celebrated enough. I’m going to write about the things that happen when plans get derailed, and the lessons that you can learn if you take the time to pay attention.

Some things you just can’t plan for, and normally, they’re the best bits.