No matter how carefully we craft our plans, they sometimes go awry. Or there might be things beyond our control that just don’t cooperate with what we have in mind. Sometimes our carefully crafted plans have to be put on hold. Sometimes they need to be reworked or simply cancelled. Sometimes, we have to go back to the drawing board and start all over again.

That’s OK because the truth is: life happens.

Case in point: After my cancer treatment was finished at the end of 2019, I had so many plans for the new year.

• Plans to travel.
• Plans to finish my dissertation by the end of this calendar year.
• Plans to submit a book proposal, get it accepted, and start writing the book.
• Plans to start an educational business that would eventually allow me to quit my job and dedicate myself to educational consulting full time.
• Plans to spend more time with my husband and son before he heads off to university in three years.

So many plans.

And, yet, I don’t feel sorry for myself. Maybe just a little disappointed. The truth is that I am beyond grateful for what I have as I look forward to following through on some of those plans, but at a later date than I had originally anticipated. And, that’s OK. After all, plans are made to be changed, adjusted, rescheduled, and brought to fruition…or not. I just need to let go of the idea that if things don’t happen as planned on the date I had on my calendar, then somehow I’ve failed.

It’s time to move on from the mental frame of “failure = bad because it can be paralyzing.

Yet, how many times have I said this and how many times have I let it immobilize me?

Too many to count.

Yet, that’s what this is about, isn’t it? Falling down and getting back up again. Starting over. Picking up the pieces. Not giving up. Taking baby steps, if necessary. Each success moves us forward.

Cross-posted to the Two Writing Teachers Tuesday Slice of Life Challenge.