The Plan

John Lennon said that "life is what happens while you are busy making other plans."

I pretty much feel that I lead a fairly simple life. I'm not one to go through each day and plan out what's going to happen. In the past I've tried to do this. I went to the store and bought myself a nice little day planner in the attempt to organize my life, but it's never worked out for me. Because no matter how neatly I would plan out my weeks, things always, inevitably, got in the way. Life got in the way.

I can't say that I never plan anything anymore. That would be lying. But I can say that in the day-to-day hustle and bustle, I don't make those plans. I have my routine, sure. I get up, I go to work, I drive home. But even that is flexible. What if something happens to me or a loved one? The plan to stay at work the full 8 hours would definitely be thrown out the window.

I know that all those gurus who stand on their soap boxes and tell us how to be successful will say to set goals for ourselves and then strive to reach those goals. I'm really not a goal oriented kind of person. I guess that means I won't be successful. At least, not in the way that the gurus view success.

I suppose, at this time, I do have one big plan, but that's about it. Along with the daily living stuff, I plan to finish a book. Right now I don't care if it ever sees life in publication, I just want to know that I can start and finish something that someone besides me will care to read. And I'm working on it, but not at the expense of living my life.

I think it's a good point that John Lennon made. "Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans." Did he mean that, though we make plans for our lives, things will come along to change those plans? For example, without thinking about it I made a plan this morning. I planned to drive to church without incident. Little did I know, a squirrel had planned to commit suicide by darting out in front of my car. I still made it to church, but not without incident. Plans changed.

Or did Lennon mean that while folks are busy planning out their lives, that life would simply pass them by? Instead of living their lives, they've been busy making arrangements, hoping that things would fall into place, while they themselves remain inactive.

See, I could plan on writing a book all I want, but that doesn't mean that a book will be written. To complete a book will take action. It will take me sitting down in front of the computer and actually typing words onto the screen. It will take more than just sitting and thinking about the ideas I have in my head. It will take me moving beyond the planning stages and taking action.

So where do you fall? Are you a planner? Or are you a doer?