I went through most of my life without having any plans. I used to think this was because I was too cool to have plans. But the problem about not having any plans is that you don’t go anywhere. You remain stagnant, you stay right where you are. In this day and age, staying stagnant is not cool- because the world will not stay stagnant with you. Staying stagnant is a quick way to disappoint and upset your friends and family, even if you’ve convinced yourself that you don’t care about yourself.

When you have plans, they will get fucked up. Sometimes you will fuck up your own plans with your ineptitude. Sometimes things that you could’ve prevented will fuck up your plans. Sometimes plans just fuck up anyway, even when you do everything right. My plans get fucked up all the time.

There are four things I want you to consider here.

1: Plans are worthless until you execute them. The world is full of people who spend all their time making whimsical plans that look pretty and perfect. Problem is, by the time you finish making that plan, it usually is obsolete, and needs to be re-worked. Ad nauseum.

2: It’s better to have plans that fuck up from time to time than to not have any plans at all. Have goals and work towards them.

2: You can and should minimize the fuck-ups caused by your own ineptitude. This is what I call being Effectively Lazy. Minimizing disasters minimizes the necessity for disaster-relief responses, which are incredibly taxing. I personally think it’s best to do this along the way. Craft better plans.

3: You can and should make an effort to roll with the fuck-ups when they do happen. Once a fuck-up happens, it has happened. Brooding does not help. Whining does not help. It is human nature to get upset, but human nature can and should be transcended.

Wise words from wise men:

“He, who every morning plans the transactions of the day, and follows that plan, carries a thread that will guide him through a labyrinth of the most busy life.”
-Victor Hugo

“Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably will themselves not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will not die.”
– Daniel H. Burnham (American architect and urban planner 1846-1912)

“A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.”
-General George S. Patton

“Everybody’s got plans… until they get hit.”
– Mike Tyson

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Do not brood over your past mistakes and failures as this will only fill your mind with grief, regret and depression. Do not repeat them in the future.”
– Swami Sivananda

TL:DR?

Have a plan, execute it, then embrace the detours.