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The Best-Laid Plans…
Might be something where you totally fake it ’til you make it, and/or make it up as you go along.
I am a pantser. What does that mean? It means that I write by the seat-of-my-pants. Plans? Outlines? Yeah, I get the concepts — I just don’t use them very often, if at all.
Watching a favorite Christmas episode of Doctor Who the other night, the Doctor said something particularly profound that struck a nerve with me.
“Do what I do, hold tight and pretend it’s a plan.”
People who are planners, I know, find this idea dreadful. Pretend it’s a plan? But what about actual planning?
Twenty-eight years of medieval fencing has taught me a lot of different things. One, though, applies directly to melee combat (a multi-player fight rather than a one-on-one duel): No plan will survive contact with the enemy.
Why is this true? Because you have control over your thoughts, feelings, and actions. And that’s about it. You have ZERO control over the weather, environmental factors, other people and how they think, feel, and act, and anything else having to do with anyone or anything other than yourself.
One of the best ways to accommodate this idea is to live in the present. Right here and now is when and where you can take control over your…
