Not everything goes according to plan

The other day I was talking with a friend, and we realized that we both do the same thing on a daily basis. Its a daily activity, but I'm not talking about how we both realized that we wash our hair every other day and cut our sandwiches into triangles instead of squares. What we realized is that we both make "to do" lists everyday, and write things down on these lists that we have already done -- just to cross them off to make ourselves feel better. Funny huh? I guess as friends, it would make sense that we would have some of the same quirks; I know that she and I aren't the only two people within our circle of friends who do this, as I am sure that there are a lot of people who do also. But this got me to thinking about goals and how people, including myself, have a need to set goals for ourselves.

These different ambitions that I set have an independent meaning. Sometimes, it is solely to feel like I accomplished something--if anything. Like getting started on a project for school, or taking extra initiative when cleaning the house by vacuuming the stairs. I also set goals for myself that work toward the larger scale of things. For example, I plan on blogging every Monday from here on out and reading articles from various magazines and writers that are associated with what I want to do post-graduation, and then write about them on a second blog that I (again) plan on starting. Hopefully, if everything goes according to plan, these experiences will help me to eventually become a writer for a larger publication.

These are some of the things that I want to achieve. Why? Because I am laying out the foundational groundwork for my life. Having a goal in mind helps me to stay focused.

I'm human though, we all are. And with being human, comes the struggle of actually achieving some of these goals and not beating myself when things don't go the way that I had originally planned. However, last week, I came across a really interesting quote by a guy named Joe Sugarman. Well, to say that he is just a 'guy' wouldn't give him the sort of credentials that he deserves, as he is (as I discovered last week) a very well-to-do copywriter and made a very good life for himself in the 1970's by doing ad work. I suppose you could call him one of the original "mad men." All of these things aside, he said was something that will keep me from losing sight of what is important. He said:

"Never be attached to any particular outcome. If something fails, it fails. Do everything in your power to succeed and to avoid failure from happening. But if it does occur...just get on with your life and learn from it."


Setting goals is important. But, it is also important for me to keep in mind and understand that when working and striving for something, not everything goes according to plan... life happens, things change, and goals evolve. I sometimes lose sight of this at the end of the day.

So, my motto for the week is to keep working for what I want post-graduation. If something happens this week that gets in the way of that, then I am just going to go with it and get on with my life, hoping that I can find another route to achieving it.