The Motto of the Boy Scouts is "Be Prepared." But I feel that sometimes its simply better to float with the flow and not plan too far ahead. This is possibly a great change in Paradigm for me as I am a meticulous "planner" and believe in thinking about and preparing for every eventuality. Meticulous planning and review have been quite useful to me in professional and training work. But, as I said, too much of a concern for the future robs us of the here-and-now expereriential joy of living.
Moreover, in a very real sense, who can predict the future? And even assuming we can arrive at degrees of certainty abvout the future, external events cannot be foretold. The recent events in my life have helped me form this view. So many things are just happenstance. But they have a bearing on the quality of our life.
Does this mean that I am against planning as an activity. Not at all; There must be strong focus on a coherent long term strategy which is rooted in values and principles. But, micro-management of the details of day-to-day living may result in fussiness and frustration. Our approach should be robust enough to adapt to changing events while keeping in mind our long term vision and direction. The best metaphor is a river that uses every weakness in the terrain to cut its way through while never losing sight ofd its ultimate direction, the sea!
In the words of Lee Lozowick, " no preperation is the only preparation."
