# Planning
- URL: https://www.petrikajander.com/planning/
- Author: Petri Kajander
- Date: 2004-11-21
- Language: en
- Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-4svLGOSg0

When are we very positively surprised and overwhelmed? When something out of the ordinary and unexpected happens, something we have not thought about—something fresh and new to us. This happens outside of our (previous) experience and knowledge, and it makes us happy and joyful. We would love to be more spontaneous, but it is so hard and difficult. Why?

We love to plan things. It is great to think ahead and imagine the details and occasions we want to accomplish and live by. Planning is something we do naturally. Most of it is done purely for practical reasons and for everyday routines. We need to schedule and arrange our life in a way so we can take care of our obligations and duties. Worrying is a special type of planning—it concentrates on the negative issues and their potential occurrences. We are not actually "planning" for an occurrence, but being afraid and speculating about all the possible outcomes and issues that could happen. A positive type of planning is dreaming. We dream about great things that we would like to achieve and gain, moments and experiences that we think would make us happy. Nevertheless, all of this is just our mind game. Some of it is practical and necessary, but most of it is a total waste of energy and effort. Actually, it can prevent us from experiencing more and greater things than we are ever capable of dreaming (or planning) about.

Our plans are derived from our experience and knowledge. They project the future as we can imagine it. This makes the future predictable and "ordinary" for us. We can imagine it and dream about it—live it in our mind beforehand. It cannot include anything that we cannot know about. Certainly it has nothing to do with the reality. We have no means to plan the future. Still, planning often makes our life "boring." And it makes it feel like every day is the same and repeats the same patterns over and over again. No day is any different, and nothing new happens. Sound familiar?

When we plan things, we are preparing to live according to our plan, which means that we are not open for the moment or anything new. We live according to our already thought through plan, merely executing and implementing that plan. Like robots that "think" what happens next and follow the preprogrammed plan, we do not actually live in the moment. This makes life boring and predictable. We "hypnotize" and make ourselves believe our plan, and then we see and hear what we want to hear and see—according to our own manuscript—we create a catch-22. How can we experience something new if we always live according to our existing knowledge?

Sometimes we run into an interesting person or do something crazy. These are the times when we live in the moment. We are not planning but experiencing and letting life carry us forward. Life offers us many great surprises and opportunities every day, but we have to be awake and ready to acknowledge them. Often we appear too busy or occupied to carry out the daily activities we have planned and expected to accomplish everything. But it is too scary not to plan. It implicitly tells us that we might not be in control, something we prefer not to experience. We would rather plan and know what to expect. It is safer this way, even though often our mind creates the misery and sadness because we are too afraid to welcome something new. It is the unknown we are so scared of, that which we cannot plan for or know beforehand.

This is the great step we have to take. Once we make it over the threshold, we realize that all the worrying was for nothing. Life actually becomes more interesting and exciting when we are open for the opportunities. Plans are unnecessary because life often turns out differently than how we had imagined it. Being free and living in the moment give us a tremendous amount of energy to experience and observe because we are not tied up in planning for the future. Reality is an even better planner than we are; it is the only thing that can give us positive surprises. We cannot plan our own joy and happiness—and we are even less capable of planning to surprise ourselves! Plan less and experience more. Is that a plan?