What if?
If only.

I hate to admit I have found myself contemplating these phrases multiple times in the last few years, months, weeks, days, and hours (Ok, even the last few minutes). What if I had finished that master’s degree? If only the economy would have held together. I find myself wrestling constantly with the balance that exists between what is ideal and what is real.

I’m sure you have been reminded more than once (as I have) by a spouse, parent, teacher, or coach that life is not perfect. The question I naturally go to is, how much less than perfect is acceptable? For example I have a pretty short commute, at least in terms of distance. One variable to my commute is the train track I must cross each day going to and coming home from work. I decided one week to keep a record of the 10 times I crossed the tracks going to and from work, specifically how many times I had to wait for a train before I was allowed to pass. During that time period I watched 8 trains, fortunately (interesting choice of words) there were two trains on one occurrence so I was only held up 7 of the 10 times. My wife believes this is an opportunity for me to learn something. I view it a little differently. I think my ideal commute would involve a helicopter, therefore bypassing street traffic entirely. It’s foolproof!

Whether it is time, budget, resources, or personnel management the ideal circumstances seem to work far less than we’d like. Consequentially, it would be wise when considering a plan of the ideal to include room for the unplanned. Strategies and plans are a great way of tackling an aspect of life, no matter the length of time. Planning for the chaos that real life brings will lower the stresses of real life interruptions. Approaching my daily time management situation by simply heading to work about 7 minutes earlier will allow me to wait for the train if necessary and still be on time to work. On the way home I could simply schedule what I need to be to 7 to 10 minutes later and spare myself the stress of a potential delay. I suppose my wife is probably right. The tracks between my home and work are truly there for me to learn from.

This brings me to my final point. When life disrupts our well made plans or goals, what can we learn from the interruptions? It’s certainly easier to complain about our life’s problems, but life would probably be a lot more enjoyable if we accounted for this sort of thing instead of always being surprised by it. Sometimes real circumstances cannot be avoided no matter how much planning and goal setting we do. So if our alternative is growth, bring it on!