On the Pointlessness of Over Planning

May 12, 2011

Adam

The challenges of rigid planning and the transformative potential of a flexible approach to life's uncertainties.

Reflections

It is a situation that unfortunately everyone is familiar with. Think back to the last time you had a plan so long in the making, that the different steps were etched into your head in meticulous detail. Then, without warning, some unforeseeable event jumps out of nowhere and wipes away those plans like a stranger effortlessly kicking down a sandcastle you’ve spent all day building.

Of course, when our long-held plans are derailed in this way, it is usually a lot more difficult to come to terms with than just grieving over a sandcastle, flattened before its natural end. Perhaps a lower-then-expected grade derails an otherwise promising medical career, a cheating spouse puts an end to plans for a happy family future, or unpredicted economic change puts a sudden halt to business plans that were long in the making.

When such unforeseeable events rear their heads, their unexpectedness incites horror inside our hearts. We may have even accounted for a few obstacles when putting together our plans, but of course it is never these planned-for obstacles that the universe ends up presenting us. The disruption of the unexpected and the subsequent loss of control over the situation is often too much for us to bear.

Perhaps a radical solution to this common quandary is - dare I say it - not to plan? Or more realistically, not to plan in quite so much detail. Naturally, life requires that we have some essence of a framework for our future, as having no direction whatsoever can send a person adrift and make them feel lost. However, having a less stringent (and maybe ‘vaguer’) sense of the direction we want to head in has the strength of imbuing us this necessary guidance, but also gives us more flexibility when fate conspires to work against us by derailing our plans.

We can look to the example of a rambler to lend credit to this idea. The rambler (or journeyman) knows of his desired final destination, but he only has a rough idea of how to actually get there. This rough idea gives him a sense of the direction that he must head in, but his lack of rigorous planning offers two benefits. Firstly, the world doesn’t seem like it is caving in when an obstacle suddenly appears in his path. Since he is taking the journey one step at a time, the obstruction in front of him hasn’t swept away all subsequent steps and so he is able to more easily adapt his route and move on.

Secondly, it also means that he is released from being occupied by the thought of all upcoming steps, every few metres that he walks. As a result, he is able to enjoy the journey as it unfolds around him, as opposed to keeping his gaze fixed constantly forward making sure the next step is where it is supposed to be.

And so maybe we can save ourselves a lot of frustration and unhappiness by not setting ourselves complex plans that are guaranteed never to go exactly as desired. Instead, perhaps it is better to set ourselves an end-point, think about a general direction and otherwise let the journey unfold before us. Who knows, this approach might make life less stressful and a little more enjoyable!