Who expected and planned for 2020 being the year it was with COVID, lockdown, restrictions and our lives and plans basically going out the window? I certainly didn't. It has been a tough and unexpected year for everybody across the globe and that got me thinking about making plans.
I have always been a planner. I thought if you want to be successful you have to have a plan in place. At school it was drilled to me 'If you fail to plan, you plan to fail'. I didn't want to fail! So I would make plans. 5 year plans, 10 year plans. If I followed them I would be successful right?
It didn't work out that way. I didn't account for the fact that people change. If there is one thing I learnt in life it's that the only thing constant is change. 2 years after I made my plan my interests and dreams had changed. But I didn't account for that. So I doggedly stuck to my plan so I wouldn't let down the girl of 2 years ago. I completely ignored what my new desires were and forced myself to follow a plan I had made when I was younger and dumber.
“The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.” And by sticking to my plan I was refusing to let life happen. All so I could be loyal to the girl of years ago. But what did she know? Are we all doomed to have to stick to our goals when we were kids? Following her plan just made me miserable and (surprise surprise) unsuccessful in what she wanted. And do I regret it? I do actually. Maybe if I had followed what was natural for me and allowed myself to grow and change I would be more successful now in what I NOW want.
It took a while but I have since learnt that it is not a failure to change your mind. That's what life is. Life is constant experimentation, trying things, liking them, disliking them, changing your dreams and goals. Experimenting with new experiences, dreams, goals, hopes. You don't have to fear trying new things that way because you are allowed to change. Nothing is permanent. As 2020 has showed us, events can come out of nowhere and completely disrupt and change our plans. Life is short, don't spend it forcing yourself to do something you no longer want to just because you once did.
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