Just over a week ago, I found myself sitting on the couch for most of the day. Our two youngest felt fine, but the rest of us had some kind of stomach bug that took us out of commission for around 24 hours. Now, when I went to bed the night before, I had all kinds of plans for what I would be doing that day—errands to run and things to do around the house. But when I woke up, I realized that none of those plans were going to take place.
We all know that what we plan to do and what we actually end up doing are not always the same. Sometimes we’re simply distracted by something else that comes along. Sometimes we have to veer from our plans due to outside forces beyond our control. And sometimes we’re forced to deal with issues all because we neglected to address them earlier, when we had a chance.
Take physical rest, for example. If you know you should be getting more rest, but continue to neglect that area of your life, it’s only a matter of time before your body will begin to feel the effects. And it’s quite possible that eventually you’ll be forced to rest due to a medical emergency. You may not have planned to rest, but at that point, you may not have a choice. Or consider those situations where you continue to neglect having the hard conversation that needs to take place. Eventually, you may wind up in a position where you’re forced to act, although the situation itself grew messier and more difficult because you waited.
They’ll be plenty of times where you’ll end up doing things you didn’t plan to do. Sometimes these may be pleasant surprises, and sometimes they may be due to forces you have no control over. But they can also be the result of continuing to neglect what you know needs to be done. So if something has to be done, why not do it sooner rather than later, while you still have options of how and when to proceed? Otherwise, the things you neglect may end up one day hijacking your schedule, regardless of what you were originally planning to do that day.