Your Plan For Life Keeps Missing Life Itself

I was driving the other day, had my route all mapped out - best roads, least traffic, optimal time. And then I missed the exit. Not because I wasn't paying attention... but because I was too busy paying attention to the plan.

Here's the thing about life plans - they're seductive, aren't they? We make them, refine them, optimize them.

Five-year plans.

Career trajectories.

Relationship timelines.

Investment portfolios.

We become architects of futures that don't exist yet, spending our present moments building blueprints for tomorrow.

And somewhere in all that planning... life is happening. Right now. This moment. The one you're in as you read this.

I'll tell you what I've learned - the plan isn't the problem. It's when the plan becomes more real than reality itself. When we're so committed to the script that we can't improvise when the music changes. And the music always changes.

You know what the real tragedy is?

We postpone joy.

We say "I'll be happy when..." - when I get the promotion, when I find the right person, when I have enough saved, when the kids are older, when the project is done. We're always one milestone away from permission to actually live.

But life doesn't wait for your plan to catch up.

That sunset you missed because you were emailing about next quarter's goals? That's not coming back.

That conversation you half-listened to because you were mentally rehearsing tomorrow's presentation? Gone.

Your kid did something adorable while you were optimizing their college fund. The irony writes itself.

Now, I'm not saying throw away your plans - I'm not some zen master telling you to float through existence on vibes alone. Plans matter. Direction matters. But here's what matters more: staying loose enough to pivot when life offers you something better than what you planned.

The best moments of my life? None of them were scheduled. None of them were on the roadmap.

They were the detours I almost didn't take because they weren't "part of the plan."

There's this beautiful tension we have to hold - being intentional about the future while being present in the now. It's like... you're steering toward a destination, but you're actually experiencing the drive. Both things. Simultaneously.

What if the point isn't to execute the perfect plan, but to live fully while moving in a direction that feels true? What if the plan is just scaffolding, and you're allowed to build something completely different once you're up there?

Your plan is useful until it becomes your prison. Until you're so invested in the script that you forget you're allowed to ad-lib.

So yeah, plan. Dream. Build toward something. But don't let your plan for life become a substitute for living it. Don't spend your whole life in the planning phase, waiting for everything to align before you actually show up.

Life is happening now. Not when everything falls into place.

Now.

Are you here for it?