The Perfect Plan

byNancymarie

233 followers

8 years ago

The past few weeks have taught me something VERY important. When we finally come up with that "perfect plan" there is going to be opposition in every direction and our "perfect plan" will ultimately become a distant memory. Sounds so sad when I read it aloud. This has actually be such a blessing to learn.

If you, like me (well like the old me), are a perfectionist you understand that things have to be perfect in our eyes before we move forward with anything. And, we can't let anything go until we have perfected anything that seems flawed. That always made sense to me and now I see how much it sucks! I like getting things done and being unstuck WAY MORE than I like just creating a pretty plan.

It is important to have a well thought out plan BUT...

• if we find ourselves working on the same plan for days then weeks then months...uhhhhhhh...stop it! We are driving ourselves completely nuts and nothing is actually getting done.

It's even more important to consider the "what ifs" and the "worst case scenario" and to be prepared.

• Over my life, I have been so fearful of the assumed bad or negative. I've avoided conflict at all cost only to explode when someone asks if I want doughnut knowing I'm trying to bring sexy back (even know I didn't tell them of my plan). My problem was I subconsciously thought all the bad things were going to happen anyway but I had no idea how I would handle them or if I even could so I tried to avoid them.
• The past few weeks have taught me how much stress we can take off of ourselves by voicing the worst case scenario, best case scenario, and everything in between. As we voice them we consider all the possible ways to handle it. Then, we move on and do it! Usually, all the stuff we thought could happen...DON'T. I accredit that to the past few years of working on changing my mindset and words.

It's most important to be open to life happening and being able to adapt and adjust without losing your crap.

• Everything that is unplanned is not bad! The unplanned events in life are the best opportunities for learning and growing IF we can keep our emotions in check and be open to something different.
• Our emotions can get us in so much trouble and make us completely irrational. By taking steps to learn how to control our emotions (especially when dealing with others) we actually gain power over situations in this adventure called life.
• It is totally ok to lose our crap sometimes but here is what I think is vital to remember when it comes to losing our crap:
• Own it: if we do flip our lid it really is ok and very human like. We just also have to remember that we have to completely own it which means:
• admitting that it happened
• accepting that it happened
• evaluating and taking responsibility for it happening
• humbling ourselves to offer any apologies we owe
• forgiving ourselves for it
• and moving on!
• BONUS: I know it sounds crazy but I ask God for another opportunity to handle a similar situation properly. If God is not "your thing", then challenge yourself to be aware of another opportunity to handle a similar situation better.

Our plan is usually not as perfect as we believe it is and that's okay because there are so many awesome ways to accomplish our goals. Today, challenge yourself to see the unexpected as an opportunity to accomplish your goals in a much cooler way!