I am absolutely notorious for hyper-planning. I am that friend that wants to know where to meet and at what time and for how long three days in advance. Most people will tell me it’s unnecessary for me to do this and even more unnecessary to plan my life out the way that I have. I know what I want to do as a career, I know where I want to go to grad school, I know where I want to live, et cetera, et cetera. But I have grown to realize that while planning the way what I do may not be for everyone, it’s something that I’m incredibly grateful to myself for anyway.
There seems to be this stigma about planning your life that implies it hinders you from living in the present. Honestly, I think it’s quite the opposite. Because I know exactly what I want to do, I know how I need to live and what I need to do for my goals. I worry less about the future and more about the present because while there’s nothing I can do in the future, there is so much I can do for my future. Trust me, I’m completely capable of enjoying my life as it is while also having the huge weight off my shoulders of deciding what I want my life to be like.
On the other hand, because I know what I want, I am able to prepare myself for it as best as I can. For example, I personally know I want to go to law school and because I know this so early, I can care about my GPA early in my college career, I can join clubs that will help me with this goal and even apply for leadership roles in those clubs.
I can start preparing to take the LSAT and I can feel ready and sure of myself before I even start applying. While this might sound contradictory to the idea that I can live in the moment without hyper-planning, it’s really not. I’m still comfortable being spontaneous and doing things just for the experience and that can be completely separate from working toward my goals.
The important thing to remember if you are a person who plans like me is that your plans will change. It’s just a fact of life and something that everyone has to accept. Sometimes your life will be out of your control and you will have to change everything or maybe just one little thing.
But change isn’t always a bad thing, in fact it can set you on an even better path that you hadn’t even thought of before. Planning for the rest of your life can be a great way to alleviate anxiety about the future, but only if you can accept that life will change. As long as you are willing to understand that your goals are not always going to go according to plan, plan anyway!
