I was recently asked if I have a five year plan. I don’t have a five month plan. I don’t even have a five day plan. I can’t even begin to wrap my mind around the concept that there are people out there who have a five year plan, let alone try to formulate my own.
When we’re young, we dream about being older. We’re sitting through elementary school impatiently because we can’t wait to get to high school. We’re counting down the days we have left of high school until we can finally move off to university and live on our own. We can’t wait to graduate from university so we can finally have a degree and a job and a house and a husband or wife and 2.5 children. For me, the real draw of being older was the togetherness that those older than me exuded. When I was in elementary school, high school students seemed so confident and sure of themselves. When I was in high school, I envied my university friends who were off embracing all that adulthood had to offer. When I was in university, I couldn’t wait to graduate and finally have my life together.
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It wasn’t until I had my diploma in hand and countless people asking me about my plans for the future that I realized the truth: none of us have any idea what we’re doing.
Primarily in an effort to make myself feel better about the fact that I have no idea what I’m doing with my life, I compiled a list of the reasons why it might be better to not be one of those people who have a five, ten, and fifteen year plan.
Not having a plan means you’re not putting yourself in a box. There’s a lot of pressure on university students in particular to know the exact job we want to have for the rest of our lives, and to go out and get that job as soon as we graduate. However, putting too much focus on one thing can sometimes lead to missed opportunities. Not having a definite plan means you’re keeping all your options open and taking advantage of every opportunity that comes your way.
Giving yourself deadlines is STRESSFUL. There’s a lot of pressure put on university students to graduate in four years, even if they don’t have everything figured out by then. In some settings (and I’m going to go ahead and call out Liberty University right here) there’s enormous pressure put on students, by both their peers AND faculty, to be engaged before graduation. Not only are goals like this sometimes unrealistic, setting deadlines can sometimes cause us to rush through the wrong university degree and into the wrong job, or rush into a relationship with the wrong person, decisions that have the potential to impact us for the rest of our lives.
Sometimes, things just don’t work out. Your carefully detailed five year plan falls through. You get turned down for your dream job. Two years into university, you realize that you’re majoring in the wrong thing. It’s important to remember that plans change all the time and it’s okay if you’re not where you thought you’d be five years ago. You don’t owe anyone an explanation for your life’s change in direction, nor do you owe them a detailed summary of what your plans are for the future.
I saw a quote recently explaining that a lot of people get self-conscious because we’re comparing our behind the scenes to everyone else’s highlight reel. In short, it can be incredibly disheartening to compare our messes to the seemingly perfect lives of everyone around us. My biggest encouragement as an adult and university graduate has been the adults around me who are open and honest about the fact that they’re nowhere close to having their lives together.
If you’re anxious and unsure about your future today, know this one thing: you may have no idea what you’re doing, but at least you’re not doing it alone.
