December 8, 2014 Greetings from the better idea, “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” Robert Burns Like most people, I strive to carve order out of chaos. Gather my lists ‘to do’, marshal my desired outcome, consult my long term goals, and then kick open the door and wage war on the random vagaries which the day presents. However, I do not live in a vacuum. The world, and its other inhabitants, will occasionally ignore my intentions, or worse, plot against them. In small ways and large, circumstances can line up as obstacles to thwart Plan A. Today it should not surprise me, since it has been so for all of history. And so a wise person always has a Plan B. If you were paying attention when you started reading, you would have noted that this essay is not written by someone named A.Wise Person. There are times when it seems having a contingency is like hedging your bets, not really committing to what you want to happen. If you want Plan A to work, then put your mind to it, roll up your sleeves, and make it work. Even writing those words this morning makes me chuckle. Of course, life has no regard for what you label your plans. Traffic will snarl, solar flares will jam your phone, the toast will burn, your button will fall off, your son will oversleep. And then you must innovate. To varying degrees we have this desire for order, some strategy so that we can control our environment, bend the activity of the day to our will. We set out to rule our day, to get what we want to accomplish. It is a little bit about efficiency, a little bit about minimizing stress, and ultimately, expressing our ego. All around us is this enormous math problem, of which we are merely a small element. Each day we fight for space in the solution, and we make a difference, but many times how we get to the end of the equation is not how we intended. Enter Plan B. The best chess players anticipate the moves of their opponents, thinking several steps ahead, working out escape plans, alternate strategies, and counter attacks. They keep their plans fluid, always prepared to react with new direction, depending on what challenges are presented. You’d think I could see how sensible that is. Fact is I am a lousy chess player. I am lucky to be able to rub two brain cells together long enough to beat a houseplant at checkers. Or marbles. Even so, I try to think about contingency plans and alternate solutions. So my problem is that I’m too in love with Plan A. There was a reason I named it that, because it was the best choice. I don’t want to give it up; it’s my creation, I thought of it and it’s good. I gave it an ‘A’ for crying out loud. Many years ago I was traveling on my bike and came to a place where a bridge was out. There was no practical way to cross the river in front of me. The only solution was to back track several miles and go several more miles out of my way to find another bridge. For a while the reality paralyzed me. I railed against the unfairness, cursed the circumstances that interfered with my route, mourned the waste of the day going places I did not plan. Going back over miles I had already earned appalled me. But eventually I saw that this version was different. This perspective was new. Before the end of the day I was resting on the other side of the river marveling at a view I could not have planned for, and would not have missed for the world. In truth, being able to create a really good Plan A is not as important as being resilient enough to modify it on the move. To be resourceful, to be able to re-create a series of Plan A’s that will serve the ultimate purpose of the day. It is naïve to think that our plans will survive every circumstance unscathed. There is no failure in changing. The only loss is in suffering the change. Our quality of life, said a wise man, is not determined by what happens to us, but how we choose to react to it. I am going to keep trying. My best plans will get all the passion and determination they deserve, but I will think of them as a work in progress. Plan A may be only the beginning of something really better. “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” Charles Darwin (attributed) Hope this finds you making plans, David Copyright © 2014 David Smith
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 11:04:02 +0000
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