Oh, It’s Tuesday: God is in the Blueprints

If there’s one folk saying that makes me gnash my teeth, it’s the one that goes something along the lines of “Want to make God laugh? Start making plans.”

Seriously, how many people do you know who have been blessed with unplanned success? The vast majority of successful people are successful because they set goals and made actionable plans to achieve them. When you dig, you’ll find that there really isn’t really a lot of dumb luck when it comes to succeeding at something.

What really makes this piece of conventional wisdom regretful is that it gives people an excuse not to plan ahead. I wish the saying went, “Want to make God laugh? Don’t make any plans whatsoever.” I think that God is in the blueprint you make for your life. Planning is good. Planning helps you achieve goals. What’s bad is inflexible planning.

For example, I set a writing goal to finish this current draft of my novel by October 15th. When I made this plan, I didn’t think I would need any time off for six weeks, but as it turns out, that’s a recipe for burnout. So this past Saturday, I adjusted my plan, and now I’ll finish the next draft by November 1st, because I’ll be taking off on the weekends. I don’t feel like my plan failed, I hear no rumbling laughter from the heavens above. I’m just glad that when an obstacle (like burnout) got thrown in my way, I was able to adjust my blueprint. Voila!

Speaking of obstacles, we’re going to talk about those tomorrow. Meanwhile I”m wondering if there’s a piece of conventional wisdom that you just don’t believe to be true. Let me know in the comments.

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