“The best laid plans of mice and men so often go awry.” – Robert Burns
I recently overheard a conversation between two young women at the coffee shop.
One was distressed by the fact that she wasn’t already married and having her first child by the age of 23, because she wanted to be done with children by the time she was 30 since that’s, well, you know, so old.
It made me smile. And it made me think of all the surprises life’s brought me … big and small … happy and not so happy. Things I could never have imagined in my wildest dreams … or nightmares … when I was 23.
Hey, it’s great to plan. I’m a planner. If you don’t have a plan, you’re lost. As Yogi Berra said, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you may end up somewhere else.”
And yet, here are some equally true words from former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson … “Everyone has a plan ‘till they get punched in the mouth.”
You just never know what life will bring.
Life doesn’t have a set path. There are no guarantees. You set out on a course and you either go with the flow and adjust, staying focused on the present … or you crash on the rocks, distressed that things didn’t turn out the way they were supposed to.
We all want things to go our way. That’s a given. It’s what we do when they don’t that really counts. It’s what defines our character and determines if we’ll be happy.
My best advice … Love the life you’ve been given. Love the life you have … even if it isn’t the one you chose.
And then plan to make it better.