365QOD- Day1222

Whose Plan is It?

“Ester asked why people are sad.
"That’s simple," says the old man. "They are the prisoners of their personal history. Everyone believes that the main aim in life is to follow a plan. They never ask if that plan is theirs or if it was created by another person. They accumulate experiences, memories, things, other people's ideas, and it is more than they can possibly cope with. And that is why they forget their dreams.” ― Paulo Coelho, The Zahir

For most of our lives we are mostly followers. This is a prehistoric instinct that assures survival.  We follow what our parents tell us so that we do not get killed when we are little.  We follow what our teachers teach us because we see them as all knowing gods. This continues into young adulthood and later.

As Paulo writes, we are the prisoners of our personal history.  We are even prisoners of other people’s plans for their life.  No wonder we are sad.

I believe the wisdom is in the line about accumulating experiences, memories, things, other people’s ideas.  But then we have to take those and process them to create our own personal plan.  Just because everyone is doing X maybe we should be doing Y?

In my world this takes wisdom and courage.  The wisdom to sort through those and even force yourself to experiment with new adventures.   The courage comes into play to be strong enough to actually pursue the plan we have generated.  Just because you create a plan does not mean it will be enough for you to accomplish it.  It is just a start.

Keep in mind that if the plan is not aggressive or cannot fail then you might be back to doing other people’s plan.  It should be an adventure without certainty.  It should scare the pans off you while being nurturing enough to keep pushing you forward.

Today’s question is:

“Whose life plan are you executing?”