Life Is What Happens When You’re Busy Making Other Plans

I just finished reading “Love in the Time of Cholera”, a recommendation from a good friend, and while it wouldn’t normally be my go-to, I found it thought-provoking. It wasn’t a love-story but it was a very real representation of what life may look like if we don’t stop to evaluate, appreciate or introspect.

The truly beautiful bit is that we get to live into that quiet desperation, feel the feelings of regret and be steamrolled by the inexorable passing of time, and then we get to set the book down and do what we need to do to make sure that is NOT the reality in which we live.

“Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans”

attributed to John Lennon although the sentiment occurs earlier

This is a concept I’ve struggled to understand and internalize. Many times I’ll be caught in the trap of wishing and waiting for this or that period to be over. “Once my life gets less busy I’ll..” “Once I finish this I can…” “Once this system is in place then…” And the feeling that follows is “Once this, then I can live my life.”

The entry in my journal goes:

“Just keep doing a little better every minute and every day. Don’t stress over how little. Just do better. And remember that this is your life. Right now. This angst. This struggle. This love. This glory. Right now. Not before. Not after. Now.”

I’ll want to wait to take action because then I can I can prepare and make it a perfect action. I want to wait to post my photos until they have the perfect captions. I want to wait to film my videos until I have the perfect background. I want to wait to… that’s it. What mostly happens is waiting and not doing. The train of life is rolling and I’m not on it.

The journal entry continues:

“Just do it. Let it be messy. Do it. Let it be imperfect. Let it be lacking. Do it. Then do it better. But if you don’t do it first, there will never be an after. Get the pride out of the way, ditch the ego, let it be bad. Do it. Sure, if it’s life and death, check and recheck, but if it’s not? If you’re not a doctor nor an aerospace engineer? Do it. No overthinking. Do it.”

Most people don’t need to be taught, they need only to be reminded.

CS Lewis

You know all this. You know to live in the present. You know to post online even if it’s not a perfect post. You know to “stop and smell the roses”.

When we do it, when we start, we learn. And when we do it again, we make it better. This. This is life.

You know it. I know it.

Let’s just do it.