A Good Time or A Good Story: Sometimes You Don’t Want What You Think You Want

Your desire for certainty and control may be jobbing you of the adventure of life.

Photo by Brendan Church on Unsplash

You want to plan your life. To accurately predict the future, so you can prepare the perfect actions. In short, you want control of every aspect of your life.

Life has other plans. It’s complex, unpredictable, and chaotic. No matter how carefully you plan, you can’t anticipate the future and thus can’t control your life.

Lack of control can be a good thing. The unexpected moments often bring the most variety and awe to our lives. Without them, life would be drab and colourless.

However, despite the serendipitous benefits that often arise from uncertainty and losing control, we act as if achieving absolute certainty and rigid mastery is our highest aim.

Story of Two Trips

Let me illustrate this point with the tales from two airline flights.

I once took my kids to visit their grandparents. Our initial flight was just as uneventful as we wished. However, upon arriving in Denver, we learned that our connecting flight had mechanical problems, resulting in its cancellation. Unfortunately, we wouldn’t be seeing the…