DAY SIXTEEN – PREPARATIONS

Getting ready, making plans, gathering resources, anticipating what lies ahead – these require all kinds of different preparations. Much depends on whether we are designing something new, going on a trip, looking forward to a celebration or a holiday, cooking a meal, painting or repainting something, repairing what’s broken, or something as simple as going to the grocery store.  We make lists, we have tools and skills, we create schedules and timelines, we have a plan.  Sometimes we change the plan or sometimes changes elsewhere make us change our plans.

When we realize that the getting ready part may be as important as whatever it is that we are anticipating in the future, we tend to pay more attention and give more thoughtful time to preparing. As someone besides Arthur Ashe said, “The journey is more important than the destination.”  In other words, we do not want to miss the enjoyment along the way of getting there.  And as kids are wont to say, “Are we there yet?”  Why do you think they say that?

The next time you start to make a plan, consider how you go about the process.  From the beginning of an idea or a thought to the completion and end point, if there is one, think about the ratio of time between planning, getting there and the final outcome.  Then look at the specific steps you take, perhaps even writing them down, step by step, stage by stage, the evolving and unfolding process of getting there, wherever there is.  Now, consider your own development as your life plan, how you got here to where you are now, and where it is you would like to go next.

After all, life’s a journey too.  It has a beginning, a middle and an end.

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