The One Plan You Can Have

This article was originally published in July 2016.

If you know me personally, I like to plan. I constantly want to know what I’m doing the next day, what I’m eating for dinner, and what I want to do in the future. This sort of self-diagnosed OCD in me just wants to know exactly what I’ll be doing later in the day, the next day, and in the future in general.

As I’ve gotten older though, I’ve noticed that plans seldom work out exactly how you want them to. More often than not, you end up doing something completely different than what you planned.

When I was younger, I always wanted to be a doctor. My 13-year-old self would research about different health topics, watch videos on open-heart surgeries, and even bought and read a book from the 1850’s called “Gray’s Anatomy” (I was kind of a nerd back then, and probably still am…).

I planned on living and working in New York City as a cardiothoracic surgeon. But as I got older, I experienced new things, met new people, and my plan shifted.

All of a sudden, I was programming and had my eyes set on becoming a developer at Google.

Now I’m really into entrepreneurship and plan to create a software company.

I think you get the point.

As we all go through life, our thoughts/ideas are shifted by our experiences. Read one book and you’re set on doing one thing, meet someone new and you’re set on something totally different, the process continues.

That’s why I stopped planning.

Rather than focusing on exactly what I’m going to do, I’m focusing on the life I want.

I know in the future that I just want to be happy, live a good life, and be with people that I like being around.

My desire to have these things will shape what I do in life. It doesn’t matter if I’m a surgeon, working at Google, or managing my own company. At the end of the day, what I value will remain the same.

I think that’s really the only thing you can plan. It’s your core values that don’t completely change.

I don’t know what the future holds, but I do know that I’ll have that life when I get older. It’s just a matter of what else I’m doing to maintain that lifestyle.

Be happy (live in the moment and enjoy yourself), live a good life (don’t let a day go by without doing the things that you love), and be with people that you like being around (friends/family).

That’s the plan.