Don't Plan On It

I’m taking a project management course this week. My head is filled with SMART objectives, work breakdown structures, project requirement documents, and schedule planning.

While detailed planning is the right way to proceed before embarking on many types of projects and activities, it isn't the only way to move forward. Sometimes we need to press on even when we don’ t know what each step in the process will look like, or what the end result will be. 

An example of when we need to move ahead without knowing necessarily where we are heading is parenting. When our children are young, we have no idea what kind of teenagers they will be, or what kind of people they will ultimately become, yet we have to continue doing the best we are capable of doing to raise them. When they’re infants, we can’t imagine how we’ll handle it when they are 17 and we find pot in their bedrooms, but by the time it happens (if it happens), we will. There’s no project plan you can write for parenting.

A friend wrote to me today:  “It feels like an important time in my life and it seems to be on the right track. I read a quote sometime in the past year that has been guiding me: "Go as far as you can see; when you get there, you'll be able to see farther."* As much as possible, I'm enjoying the journey.” My friend has recently ended a several year relationship, is looking for a new place to live and for new ways to expand his consulting practice.  He’s moving ahead without knowing how his business is ultimately going to look, where he’ll be living, or who he’ll be living with. But he knows that as he takes action, more will become clear. And I admire his approach; how he’s chosen to be while waiting for that clarity.

Here’s hoping as you move forward, your vision expands,

~ Sophie

* Quote attributed to Thomas Carlyle, Scottish historian and essayist in the Victorian era and/or to American banker, John Pierpont Morgan. Gotta love those Internet quote sites!

COACHING EXERCISE

What do you desire (or need) to move forward with, even if you don’t know where it will lead? Is it doing some writing, even if you don’t know if you’ll ever get published? Is it thinking about some sort of move, even if you don’t know yet where you want to go? Is it making a big purchase? Getting married? Getting fit? Taking on a work assignment you have no idea how you'll accomplish? 

Your assignment: Go as far as you can see, and see what more you can see when you get there.

QUOTES I LIKE RIGHT NOW

• “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” ~ John Lennon  
• “To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.” ~ Anatole France, French poet, journalist and novelist.  
• “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” ~ Robert Lewis Stevenson, author  
• “It is far better to foresee even without certainty than not to foresee at all.” ~ Henri Poincare, French mathematician, physicist, engineer and philosopher