I NEVER HAVE A PLAN

People continue to ask me, “So what do you want to do with your life? What’s your plan?” I just put on a flabbergasted look and say, “Plan?”

I don’t know how to put this any more bluntly: I have no plan. I have no pre-set future. I have a whole lot of possibilities, but I certainly do not have a plan. I’m like the weatherman: I’ll give you a whole lot of estimates, but not a single certainty.

You see, “planning” just did not work out so well for me. I “planned” to go to college and learn facts and thinking skills, and in reality I just learned a whole lot about myself and what I value. I “planned” to teach a whole lot of math, but in reality I just taught kids how to grow up and pursue their God-given passions. I “planned” to ride my bike across the country, but in reality I made 7 great friends while sitting on a bike for 3500 miles. I “planned” to write a math book, but in reality I started a business and assumed a whole lot of responsibility in the process.

While I am not so keen on “planning”, I am a huge fan of “preparation”. Preparing just means that you are ready for what is next, planning means that you know what is next. I will prepare myself to be ready for any challenge, but I do not spend much time planning to overcome a specific challenge. I want to be a gymnast in the game of life: flexible, adaptable, responsive, prepared.

For the rest of my life, I have no intentions of planning. I have every intention of preparing. But for what should I be prepared?

Well, I can’t tell you everything that is going to happen in your life, but I can predict one thing that will happen: you’re going to die. You might want to prepare for that.

In the book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Steven Covey notes that Habit #1 is to “begin with the end in mind.” People who envision the ending will know the steps to take to get there. So don’t call me a psycho for focusing on preparing to die. I consider it a cornerstone to becoming a “highly effective person”. And I figure that if I am prepared for this reality, then I can handle pretty much anything else that comes along the way.

Bring it on.