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How to Ruin Your Best Laid Plans

I have a real bad habit I’m trying to break, and it’s incredibly difficult to do so.

You know those people who have their life plans all laid out?  The know exactly what they’re going to do, when they’re going to do it, what they want out of life, etc.

That’s me, and been me for quite a long time now.

But I’m also learning that it might not be the most advantageous to be that kind of person.

Consider your possibilities

Generally, when I start working – I have a specific end goal in mind.  It might be a dollar amount for a business venture.  It might be the idea of the perfect sound, workflow, software, whatever.

I strive until that thing becomes real, one step at a time.  The vast majority of the time, I reach my goal.

But have you ever considered that stepping from thing to thing, automatically, actually leaves you with blinders on to what’s available if you simply zoom a little further out?

If you take what you’re doing and consider a bigger picture, you might actually be traveling the “wrong way”.

It might blow your mind even further to consider the possibility that there isn’t even a “right way”, but the scope of vision for your ideas is still so small that you don’t see where you could be going.

You might be thinking very small when you could be thinking bigger, or just different.

Stress

This idea is most important to consider when you are actually failing to achieve your goals.  You might be working harder than you’ve ever worked, but it doesn’t seem like you’re getting anywhere.  Or, you might even be able to prove that you’re not reaching your intended goal!

For me, this causes crazy stress.  I literally mentally label myself as less of a valuable person when I don’t land what I strive to achieve.  As if I don’t work hard enough, I’m literally worthless – couldn’t actually be further from the truth.

I’m learning, at this point, that it’s best to consider your whole story.

Perhaps you’re not exactly where you wanted to be, but are you somewhere?

In fiction, the middle of the story is when a character encounters hardship, confusion, loss, or whatever gripping issue that drives the narrative.  Sometimes, the story doesn’t end up where you think it would – but lots of times it concludes positively.

In times of turmoil – where there’s no clear path, and you haven’t achieved what you set out to do – consider yourself in the middle of your story.  Keep working and don’t stop, but realize two things…

First, you may not end up where you originally planned and that’s okay.

Second, most stories resolve themselves positively.  I’m fortunate that I’ve been through enough real life issues that I generally land on my feet wherever I go.  No matter the story, it’s nearly always possible to change your perspective and view it positively for you.

By doing this and releasing your perfectionist demand on where you end up, you’ll probably end up in a much better place than you could’ve imagined in the first place.  You’ll stress a hell of a lot less about the situation too.


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