When I was young, I thought it was important to always have a plan.
Shortly after my college graduation, my dad and I sat in a Starbucks, and on a napkin we drew a timeline. It started with my desire to go to grad school, and had a few points to mark when I aspired to start a personal life which included others (marriage & kids) and when I would start a business. And that was it. I still have that napkin. It is framed in my home office. It wasn't much of a plan, but it gave me direction. And I think it's the only straight line I've followed in my adult life.
Today, we live in world that thrives on instantaneous knowledge. If we want to know something, we can immediately Google it to find the source, or missing piece of data that vexes us. That same need exists for people wanting immediate answers for their lives as well. To want to know the paths to our futures is likely normal, but we would be missing the point, and frankly, most of the fun.
I lived in Chicago for a summer when I was in college and I drove back and forth from Boston and the beginning and end of my stay there. It was okay on both ends of the drive, but the middle was awful. Why? Because it was flat. And straight. There was nothing going during those long tedious hours. And that was rough, because straight with no turns and or bumps along the way is really, really, boring.
We don't always know which path our life is going to take. We can carefully lay out plans, but they don't always come to fruition the way we expect. And I might suggest that even if we follow the plans we design for ourselves, we aren't truly experiencing our lives the way we should. Life is full of twists and turns. It's not about having a perfect plan mapped out. It's about being able to know where you ultimately want to go, and then being able to navigate along all the detours along the way. I never wanted my life to be like the middle states that I drove that summer.
Funny…I have a horrible sense of direction. But I really love figuring out how to get to the next place. At this point in my life, I don't need a map anymore, or a napkin with pen marks sketching out my future. But it's fun to refer to that original one created all those years ago, just to prove the point. It's not always about the destination. The journey is far more interesting.
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