So What's Your Plan?

 

August 16, 2022

As life so often does, it gave me this week’s post topic.

My one sister has been working at her job since this spring, through summer, mostly to gain experience. This past weekend, she announced that she was going to quit the job for a number of different reasons. Not a surprise, but the immediate response to that announcement was “Okay, then what’s your plan?”

What's Your Plan?

Isn’t that a question that we’re asked all the time? I don’t know about you, but for me, ever since high school it seemed like everyone and their mother would ask me “what’s your plan?” Which was terrible because I didn’t have one.

As much as I disliked the question, I’ve asked plenty of people the same thing because it’s how we express interest in other people’s lives and situations. Especially in transitional phases of life like going off to and graduating from college.

But that one question supports the idea for the need to have a plan. Everyone’s asking for the plan, the next steps, my next ten years in writing and when we don’t have that we start to question and doubt ourselves. Because, everyone’s asking for the plan, doesn’t that mean I need to have one? Everyone’s asking what the next step is, doesn’t that mean I need to know what it is? And we give ourselves a lot of stress and pressure to figure it out and put together an acceptable plan.

However, I think when we come to these transitional places in life; these diverging cross roads of choices where nothing is set and you can go in any direction, there are two things we can do.

The first being to wait, step back, and plan a course of action. For example, before starting a business, generally a person outlines the steps they need to take to get their business up and running. I’ve done this and probably spent more time than I should have in the name of “planning” and “figuring things out.” 

The second choice is to take action. When the future is unclear and everything looks like a nebulous fog, sometimes things won’t become clearer with more planning. Sometimes, the only way to move forward is to take action. Step out in faith, no matter how small. 

Using the metaphor of fog, sometimes that’s the way life is. Where nothing will happen, change, clarify until you take a step. Because just like being in a cloud of fog, your visibility moves with you. As soon as you step forward you’re able to see two or four feet more than before. 

You never know what door and opportunities may open with a small step of faith.

Of course, everyone’s situations are different and it’s up to you to decide if it’s better to step back and plan or take action.

To bring it back to the question “what’s your plan?” I don’t think you necessarily always need to have a plan. Actually, it’s impossible to always have a plan because life changes in unexpected ways. 

It’s more important to keep going and maintain (or start building up momentum) than it is to have a ten year plan you can spout off to anyone who asks.

It also depends, I think, on what stage of life you’re in. Some high school students, some college students know what they want to do with their life, but may I take a stab in the dark and say that many don’t? And dare I say that’s normal. Because in these transitional phases of life (and this can apply to anyone, people looking to start their second career, go back to school, retire, etc.) we’re gathering life experience and testing out the possibilities out there. 

Some advice I heard on a podcast said to just start trying things. By doing that, doors will open, other ones will close until eventually a path will open up.

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