Written by a human, for humans, always.
When most people begin to work toward their goals...
They go from a state of not doing something...
To suddenly doing a lot of something.
All change is a form of stressor (positive or negative depends on the context)...
Which means we, as humans, have challenges committing to change.
It takes effort up front to begin to create habits that lead to our goals.
What most people do to accomplish this change...
Is that they begin to create plans.
Plans are great.
I'm a gigantic fan of designing plans.
But here is the thing...
Most people approach this with what is known as "dichotomous thinking".
This is where they falsely believe, consciously or subconsciously, that two things exist in opposition to each other, without other possibilities existing.
There are many ways this type of thinking plays out...
But for our purposes...
The two things are...
"Planned produces results" and "Unplanned produces nothing."
The result of this...
Is that when people become more serious about getting results toward their goals...
They plan more.
They begin to create a schedule...
And that schedule gets filled up with time blocks...
Until the entire day, week, month, and even year becomes scheduled...
From waking to sleep...
Everything gets planned...
Often because there is a subconscious fear that leaving something unplanned means it will never get done...
Meaning the goal will never be reached.
Here's the problem with this dichotomous thinking, though...
Life is complicated.
Things happen unexpectedly.
Situations change over time.
Opportunities arise or are lost.
Forces outside of ourselves, such as the economy, can flip everything in ways we never could have planned for.
When you plan everything to an extreme...
It can become problematic.
You can get locked into processes that are not serving you.
You can miss new opportunities that could be vastly more beneficial because they don't fit into the current plan.
You can lose everything because your plans are no longer viable in a world that is changing.
You can fail to live a fully human life because you are more dedicated to a schedule than you are to experiencing what life has to offer.
Plans can be extremely beneficial...
But not when dichotomous thinking causes us to become cogs and slaves in a machine of our own design.
What this means...
Is that we need to understand that there are more perspectives to consider...
Including...
Overplanning can be more harmful than helpful...
And...
We can still do productive things, even when we do not plan them exactly.
What this allows us to do...
Is still gain the benefits of planning certain things...
While also allowing us to be adaptable...
To change the plan.
Let me give you an example.
This article is number 1,345 that I have written in an equal number of days.
I have a plan to write a daily article.
But...
I do not have it time-blocked on my schedule the vast majority of days.
Certain situations, such as vacation, may require me to plan my day more specifically...
But many days I simply know that I have to write.
I was expecting to write this article much later in the day...
But things changed.
Things I was expecting to do earlier in the day ended up getting pushed to later in the day...
My spouse needed extra time this morning.
For me, that is not a problem.
Instead of writing later, I simply started writing now so she had the time she needed.
My plan is adaptable.
It allows me to give my spouse the time she needs.
It takes pressure off of both her and me.
If I were locked into a tight schedule...
It could have created more problems when things did not go "according to plan".
But I have no such problem.
I made a quick change to what I was expecting for the day.
Even though I do not have a specific plan...
I knew that I would write my daily article today.
Whether I did it now or did it later really had no impact on the final result...
It would get done.
What I was expecting to get done earlier will now get done later...
And what I was expecting to come later is getting done now.
Life continues, and I do not have to worry about stress or being controlled by a schedule.
All because I have adaptability in my plans.
I continue to work toward my goals...
But the plans do not have to be my slave-master.
I can be free and flexible to adapt my life based on whatever happens.
Plans can be very powerful.
Especially in the beginning of doing something where you need to overcome the habit barrier...
The average of 66 days of consistent work to build a habit, when the energy (Mg-ATP) pathways have become better optimized to do something rather than not do something.
But once the habit is established...
You can begin to allow adaptability to guide your plans.
You can still make incredible progress toward your goals...
Even if things are not perfectly planned out in an unnatural and obstinate way...
That detracts from your ability to experience a full life.
There is an incredible value in having adaptability in working toward your goals.
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