“The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected.” — Robert Frost

They say that fortune favors the bold, and some of us use that belief to provoke ourselves towards greater boldness in our lives. But as Frost observed, things change, and so must our plans. We cannot be so rigid that we break when the situation requires flexibility, nor can we be so fluid that we don’t stand for something when presented with an abundance of options in our lives.

“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” — Dwight D. Eisenhower

In order to live a productive, focused life, we must plan for the future and set a direction for ourselves, then work that plan with urgency and purpose. We all learn that the universe doesn’t care a lick about our plans, and so we must be flexible enough to change and pivot when the universe laughs at us. Planning allows us to build contingencies into our plans for those times when things go awry. The more we are prepared the more we increase our options.

“Chance favors the prepared mind.”— Louis Pasteur

Remember, we are working towards a life full of experiences, contribution and purpose. In order to navigate this maddening world, we must build resilience and anti-fragility into our lives, that we may survive the roque waves life will throw at us and pivot towards a safer course. We can’t control everything, but we can develop the ability to navigate a lot of things.

This year has already been full of change and uncertainty, and it promises to be ever more so. The weather, politics, the markets and the people around us are constantly changing, and with it changing our plans. We can’t rely on anything to be constant but change itself. So it is that planning becomes indispensable, while plans tend to blow apart in the wind.