Planning

In the movie Dan in Real Life, the lead character gives the following advice:

“Instead of telling our young people to plan ahead, we should tell them to plan to be surprised.”

We are often told by our parents, teachers and managers to plan ahead and schedule our time.

Although this has its advantage, it can often cause us stress and frustration when things do not go as planned.

The month of January is named after the Roman god, Janus, who is famous for having two faces, one looking forward and the other looking backwards.

The Romans believed that just as doors and gates have two sides, with one looking towards where you have been and one looking towards where you are going, it was essential to have a god who symbolized this.

It is for this reason that Janus is often known as the guardian of the gates and traditionally the Romans celebrated the first day of the year with offerings to Janus and with an outlook that was both reflective and looking forward to what was ahead.

Imagine you are walking down the road in New York City and see a homeless person on the street. There is a large chance that his or her thoughts are about mainly about the near future, maybe towards the next hour.

Imagine that you carry on walking and see a hot-dog stand. Chances are that the hot-dog stand attendant’s thoughts are mostly tending towards what will happen today.

Imagine then walking into a shop. The chances are that the salesman’s thoughts are largely focused towards this week.

Imagine then meeting the owner of the shop. Their thoughts will mainly be focused towards the next month or so.

The Butterfly Effect is simply the understanding that small changes can have a dramatic effect over time.

Let us examine a few examples. What would have happened if the bullet from Lee Harvey Oswald's gun was half an inch off-target and missed John F. Kennedy in stead of killing him? What would have happened if Mark David Chapman's bullet missed John Lennon? What would have happened if the Gunpowder Plot had been stopped? How would the world be different if the attack on the World Trade Center on 9/11 was stopped?

Although these are significant events from history, the same principle applies to each of our lives?

Life is simply a three-step process.

The first step is finding out what we need.

The second step is attaining that which fulfills those needs.

The third step is valuing what we have achieved.

The most important step is the first step. Without knowing what we want or need, we will only find happiness and contentment by accident.

Take some time to reflect over life. In what areas are you strong and in what areas do you find unhappiness and unfulfillment.

John Lennon once correctly said:

"Life is what happens to you whilst your busy making other plans."

We often get too caught up in our problems or in other people's problems.

We worry about our finances, our jobs, our families and countless other things.

Ultimately, whilst we are spending all of this time worrying, we forget to live.

As John Lennon tells us, we must live for the moment and realise that this is it.

In Autumn, when the trees lose their leaves, they do so for one reason only.

There are new buds behind those leaves that push those leaves out.

Similarly, in life this is also true. If one wants to change a habit, the only lasting way to do so is if the habit is pushed out like an old leaf by a new bud.

By doing this, new empowering habits are created and more importantly, will last.

Many people have decided to change their eating habits, drinking habits, exercise habits, smoking habits or working habits. There is some change but it is short-lived and often they return to the old way of doing things.

Baseball players use a very effective trick of the mind when they are preparing to bat.

In stead of using one bat to warm up with, they sometimes use seven or eight bats.

The reason for this is simply that when it actually comes to batting for real in the near future, their mind causes their body to swing as if it is holding seven or eight bats and therefore leads to a greater hit.

In this lies a very important lesson.

We often prepare for things with the expectation that when the real time comes we will be naturally motivated to excel.

For many, the purpose of life is to turn their hopes and dreams into reality.

To put this into a familiar example, their aim is to get from A (hopes) to Z (reality).

Many people understand this concept. However, what they do not understand is how to get from A to Z.

Getting from A to Z is not a simple concept.

Before getting to Z, one must pass through B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X and Y first!

Habits are a crucial part of our lives that we cannot do without.

Naturally, our heart beats out of habit, our eye lids blink out of habit and our brain thinks out of habit.

In addition to this, there are many habits that we have picked up during our lives. The way we talk, dress, wash, work and travel are all mainly habitual.