I believe that success comes from BOTH careful planning and from spontaneity.
Some success can only come from months, perhaps years of careful planning; but sometimes the sweetest success comes when you least expect it.
Life itself is one big surprise, which makes it virtually impossible to plan around.
Keeping this attitude when looking for a job, grad school, an internship, or even a relationship allows for a certain level of planning, but only up to a certain point – the rest is pure spontaneity.
The successes that come from careful planning are usually the most important decisions in our lives.
Deciding on where to go to college, what to major in, the job you want, where you want to work, and the person you want to marry; these are all choices that we tend to make with deep thought and consideration. They each require careful planning and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
However, even the decisions made with the most thorough planning can sometimes backfire.
There is always the possibility that the college and the major that you THOUGHT you always wanted will turn out to be a bit of a disappointment, the place you moved to being a total bust, or the seemingly perfect relationship turning into the biggest disaster. Even your ‘dream job’ could turn out to be your worst nightmare.
But that is what life is all about: making choices, taking risks, and growing from both. So just remember this:
When you find yourself already losing in life, the best thing to do is to take a risk and not look back.
When you have nothing to lose and everything to gain, it makes the seemingly “rash” decision seem a little smarter. You don’t always have to think EVERYTHING through for it to be a good decision.
Your friends and family may tell you that what you’re doing is wrong and that you will end up paying for it in the end, but that’s what taking a risk is all about: the uncertainty of it all.
And who knows? The decisions you end up making could be the best ones you ever make.
So what does this all mean for you as you embark on your college journey or head into the adult, professional world?
You should always be conscious of the consequences of whatever decisions you make and when the consequences outweigh the rewards of success, serious planning is imperative and usually necessary. Chances/risks should only be taken when there is little or no chance of it coming back to haunt you later.
But at the same time, life should not be taken so seriously that we miss out on the moments that could end up being our greatest successes.
