No matter how we try we can never plan everything to go exactly the way we want. Any project manager or event coordinator knows to plan on the unexpected, which means leaving yourself open to plan B. Our challenge is to behave as if plan B was plan A, especially when you actually execute on plan F. The audience doesn’t know so we have to let go of the past and move forward into the future, no matter what version of the plan actually comes to life.
Life comes to us in pieces as Virginia Wolf highlights in her words here. It can be fun and exciting to put all the pieces together to create the grand scheme of things; and it can be frustrating and an unmitigated mess to have to go back and redo things as new pieces are added into the mix. We never know what life is going to dish out so we need to keep an attitude of flexibility and self confidence as the disarray of pieces fall into our lap. We also need to process our own disappointment and put on a happy face when life changes in ways we do not always like.
It is at these moments that we have to let the perfectionist within ourselves die a quick death in order to be able to handle the new adventures life hands out. If we keep trying to make plan A work we never experience the glory that is watching plan F wow the world! It is a balance between giving up, rearranging and letting go of our need for control. Tomorrow another new piece may arrive and bring with it the need for plan G to emerge. Remember that the people have no idea that what was delivered was not plan A, to them it was. Delivering plan G is not a six time failure it is a triumph in adapting and flexibility which requires courage, imagination and the ability to be open to altering the plan.
I must admit I am glad I am not living what was my plan A…yuck! I am probably on plan FF by now and loving it. Maybe today is the day you let go of the plan you are on and rearrange to discover a fabulous way for your life to move forward. It’s all about arranging the pieces and being open to what is possible.
Ann Art Gallery Blog 