Have You Filed Your Life Plan?

The other afternoon while I was flying home from a meeting, I looked out the window and saw a most beautiful scene. Outside was a continuous cloud – a cloud that was like a huge cotton ball which the plane appeared to be floating on.

I think you will agree that it was an absolutely breathtaking view.

The view that day – as so many things that I tend to take for granted – was a reminder of just how important it is to have a plan. Good parents plan for their children. When our children are infants we plan almost everything down to a “T”. We plan what time they go to bed, what time they awake, when they will take a bath, the times between diaper changes, what they will eat, how much they will eat, the temperature of the bottle, when they will eat, what embarrassing outfit they will wear – which they will undoubtedly hate us for when they get older – just to name a few things.

As our children get older, we begin to give them the autonomy to make decisions and plan their own life. What they want to eat, who they choose for friends, what sports they want to play, what clothes to wear and who they date (this can be excruciatingly painful to witness) are elements of the independent thinking we prescribe for our children.

Although, we advocate for our children to be self-reliant, good parents always have the big PICTURE in mind – a successful plan for our children’s future where we always reserve the right to step in when our children start to get off track. Even though our children might not understand, agree or appreciate our “intrusion”; when we do step in we do so as disciples of the proverb which says “He who fails to plan, plans to fail”.

As I sat 30,000 feet above the ground on top of pillowy clouds, it dawned on me that the “Proverb” does not only apply to the life of our children. Planning should and must be a continuous process that good parents follow so that we can become great parents. Planning is MANDATORY if we want our OWN lives to have REAL meaning beyond being that of just a good parent.

Having A Flight Plan

The flight that I took from Dallas to Indianapolis was required to file “Flight Plans” with the FAA prior to departure. Those flight plans provided details about the departure and arrival locations, estimated time of arrival, total flight time, number of passengers, weather, altitude, weight, fuel requirements, speed, etc.  No matter how many times the airline and/or the pilot has flown the particular route, new flight plans have to be filed each and every time. Each and every journey is meticulously planned and documented, as if it was the very first flight. Nothing is left to chance because failing to plan at 30,000 feet could mean planning to die.

So I’ll ask you the same thing that I asked myself as I looked outside the airplane window. Is life for us on an individual basis any different from the flight that I was on? Shouldn’t we all have a “Flight Plan” for each and every place we want this life to take us? Can we ever expect to “reach the stars” if we haven’t charted our own course down to every meticulous detail? I believe the correct answers to the questions are no, yes and no.

NO

Life for us on an individual basis should not be seen or experienced any differently than the airplane I was in. If you are like me, I believe you also want to have a life that is smooth, above all the chaos of the world, majestic in its appearance and seemingly apart of the heavens.

YES

We absolutely need to have a “Flight Plan” so that we know how to get to where we want to go. We need a “Flight Plan” that we can refer to everyday to remind us of our intended destination and all that is required. If we had an individual Flight Plan (Life Plan) we might finally be able to live the life that we always imagined living.

Imagine having an individual Flight Plan (Life Plan) that would help us the same way it does the airplane and pilot. If we had a well-documented and structured Life Plan:

• we would know how fast and long we needed to run to take off (the appropriate amount of effort and time required to get a head start);
• we could avoid wasting fuel (time and energy on inconsequential people and things) going in the wrong direction;
• we could avoid or at the very least reduce the potential encounters with turbulence (people or things that have only one intention which is to sabotage our dreams and goals);
• we could remember not to fly too high or too low (always seeking balance); and
• should we get off course even by even the slightest measure – like the airplane, pilot and air traffic controller – our plans would provide the necessary reference  for someone to find us and help us safely and quickly get back on our intended route.

NO

We can never nor should we ever expect to “reach the stars” if we haven’t charted our own course down to every meticulous detail. The plane is not allowed to seat one passenger until the Flight Plan is prepared and approved. How then can we ever expect our children and families to fly with us (follow and accompany us in our life journey) when we have no Flight Plan (Life Plan) of our own?

The airlines leave nothing to chance because failing to plan at 30,000 feet could mean planning to die. The airlines truly understand that failing to plan is planning to fail. Isn’t it about time that we embrace this proverb? Isn’t it about time that we value the life that we live and the dreams that we have enough to design a Life Plan that will allow us the opportunity to fly higher than we ever previously thought possible?

I don’t know about you but I don’t want to be stuck at the gate any longer nor do I want to crash. So with that I am ending this post.  We have Flight Plans to prepare and those plans are MANDATORY so that OUR lives have REAL meaning beyond being that of just a good parent.  See you at 30,000 feet!

Have you prepared plans that will allow you to live the life you want? Are you preparing to fly or are you preparing to stay grounded or worse?