The Next Right Step
Type A’s—We like to think we have life all mapped out. We find comfort in creating plans. We take personal pride in thinking things through and being prepared for any variable.
So when life rocks the boat, we are more likely to be the ones who fall out because we rarely leave room in all our plans for a few unexpected waves.
When life gets tough and we find ourselves in unfamiliar territory, we beat ourselves up for it because we weren’t prepared. Ironically, we usually are prepared for every imaginable possibility - except failure.
That's all that happened to me really. I am...well, I was...maybe I still am...uh—one of those Type A planners—with my calendar and the bullet-points and all the freakin’ plans. But after getting knocked out of the boat and pulling myself back in again, I’m finding my sea legs. I’m learning to give and take a little with the rhythm of life. To breathe a little. To take my eyes off the destination every now and then to just enjoy the view right where I am.
I’ve discovered that I can still have peace without a map. In fact at this point, I’m mostly navigating with my compass alone – just making sure I’m still headed in the right direction. That’s important to me. Otherwise, I am resisting the pressure to have my entire course charted. I still need a little time in the open sea to reflect and feel the waves. I don’t want to be in a speed boat flying like a missile across the top of the water. I want to dangle my legs over the side and get my feet wet. I just do.
This doesn’t mean I don’t have a plan at all. It means I am finding a healthy balance somewhere between a control-freak-at-the-helm-with-laser-beam-focus and an idiot-flailing-around-drowning-in-the-crashing-waves.
I’m embracing the advice from Regina Brett in God Never Blinks:
When in doubt, just take the next right step.
And it’s working for me. I don’t think I’m doing things the way some wish I would. I know others would advise me to make a more solid plan of action for my life, my career, my family. But I don’t want to. I am finding peace with a slower, more deliberate pace. I’m endeavoring to be fully present in each day...to get my feet wet.
I'm actually not knocking having a plan. But for once in my life I'm giving myself permission not to stress over it. I am finally okay without a gigantic Rand McNally spread open before me…I could never fold those damn things back up the right way anyhow.
In the absence of a completely-neurotic-bullet-pointed-ten-year-twelve-step-airtight-plan,
today I am just going to “take the next right step.”