A 10 Year Plan

Tonight was Chicks and it was a great evening. Almost everyone was able to come and that was great. One of the topics was a suggestion to set a goal for 10 years in the future and think about what you need to do today for your health in order to be able to enjoy your life ten years from now.

That theme was one that everyone kept coming back to. When it was my turn I said that I didn't expect to be alive in 10 years so I couldn't imagine planning for it. Everyone was obviously shocked by my statement, so I had to explain further. I don't expect to be alive in the morning, much less a decade from now. For me, that is the ultimate presumption - that we will continue living. It's why I'm so adamant about living fully every day - it may be my last.

I'm all for tempting fate, but I'm not brave enough to tempt it so much to be planning for the future. Plus, why would I want to limit myself with plans.

My life is so different now than it was 10 years ago. If I'd had a "plan" that I made up a decade ago that I was still following, I wouldn't live in this house, I wouldn't be debt free, I wouldn't have been to Egypt, I wouldn't have been with my last two lovers, I wouldn't have watched a meteor shower in Honduras, I wouldn't have the career I have now, and I wouldn't have the friends I have now. Why? Because none of those things were possibilities for me 10 years ago - my life was very different than it is now.

On the other hand, one has to always consider what one is missing by not having a plan. I don't know. I firmly believe in thinking about what you want and then leaving that up to the universe to create, but to actually plan what you want - to have a goal to be doing x-y-z in 10 years - I can't imagine how you could ever do that.