Having no plan is the best plan, sometimes!

By Prathyusha Vedula

Since childhood, every one of us had encountered random people who ask us what we want to be when we grow up. Some people sit and spend time suggesting us better plans. Relatives, teachers, neighbors, whoever we could speak ask us our goals. I remember when I was in school, I had to write an 800 words essay on my goals and also speak about it for 5 minutes. I then started thinking about a few interesting ones just to survive those 5 minutes and fill the paper with 800 words. After my turn was done, their volatility gained.

From playschool to school, high school, and now a university, it’s only the grade that has increased and of course things relating to knowledge and maturity. But coming to having a plan, I’m the same kid. I’ll tell you why having no plan has been the best plan.

1. When you often worry about the future, you forget living in the present

Many people, mostly students around form the age of 10, start planning out for their future. Maybe due to peer pressure, relatives or parental pressure, students strive a lot and work very hard to get through in this competitive world. At every stage in life, we are said, “Work hard now, your next will be comfortable”. This either continues until the end of that life or the end of this world. When is the time you will enjoy your present moment?

So watch that movie you wanted to, bunk classes (check your attendance when you do  ) and go for a ride with friends and sleep for a day postponing work when the gravity under your bed is more. (PS: Not always) Enjoy every moment you will be able to. Remember, you never know if there is a tomorrow.

2. Plans are not always successful

Nothing in this universe is equipped with warranties and guarantees. So is a plan. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t trust what you do. Everything has a darker side. You just have to be ready for any consequence. In such an unwarranted situation, having a one-shot plan might not be ideal to go blindly by.

3. Just go with the flow

I was many times in a situation where I didn’t know what to choose or where to go. I was very tensed, depressed in the state and my mind was totally blank that I couldn’t deceive it through motivation. That was when I chose to go with the flow. I just picked whatever came to me. It’s just that I couldn’t get into the IIT’s or any other similar popular universities. I’m sure there are many people like me. Keeping aside what made us not achieve them, I now question myself. What do I lack which people in those places don’t? Happiness? Friends? Opportunities? Pleasure? Education? Nothing. Maybe the exposure. But thanks to the internet. It always made me feel like I’m present wherever I feel like going to. Also, to my friends who make sure I don’t miss out on any happenings around them which I may not be exposed to. What else to do you need, man?

4. Touch upon every area that interests you

Only because having no plan might be the best plan, you cannot blindly go assuming things. Be aware of your presence. Touch upon every area that seems useful to you at any point in life. Also, when you are interested in something, you do it even better. Score on that point and do not leave a penny you can earn. Definitely, sometime, somewhere learning to stitch that sweater from your grandma, that aimless research you do after watching a sci-fi movie and helping your mom in cooking might help you satisfy a necessity. Again, because you never know what isn’t there in the store you’re looking for!

5. “Everything happens for our own good” is the best Sutra

Since ancient times, we heard all our grandparents often using this sentence in different situations. Experience cannot be taken granted for. Though you don’t anticipate, things do happen as they are destined to. One cannot stop anything from happening. Nevertheless, you can always be positive in any situation you come across. It is always better to be positive about something that happened or may happen than to repent or regret it. Because once done is done. Again, you never know!

For all those who have a nice fixed plan, I do not aim to divert your plans. This is to emphasize that you need to find happiness in whatever you do, even in the toughest times. And do not let worry eat you away. There are many roads that pave ways to the same destination. It depends on what you choose and how possibly comfortable you reach it there.

All the best!