It’s Not the Plan: It’s the Pivot

You’ve almost certainly heard the saying, “Man plans, and God laughs.” True as that may be, I’m still someone who appreciates a plan. I like my time organized, and if something happens during the day that I didn’t account for, I’ll go back and update my calendar to document the change in my schedule for my records. In other words, I have a lot of confidence that God finds me hilarious.

Over the past year, I’ve been working a lot on being more flexible. As I wrote in a blog a number of months ago, I’ve made a lot of efforts to get better at same-day rescheduling to address priorities. It has mostly been going well. These changes have given me the flexibility to be more respectful of people’s time and make last-minute alterations to my schedule that are often better-suited to my long-term goals than what I initially planned.

Which brings me to the crux of today’s gospel: the pivot. Plans are wonderful and necessary, but the pivot is what allows you to respond to ever-changing circumstances. I got this piece of wisdom from my training partner, who is always preaching the value of the pivot. She consistently and feverishly beats her drum about identifying a problem, getting in front of it, and pivoting in a way that allows you to control your circumstances and massage them into something more beneficial.

While I’ve made a lot of strides in coming around to her way of thinking, I can’t deny that I still enjoy having a well-organized schedule. A couple of weeks ago, I managed to craft the “perfect day” for myself: I would work on my own in the morning, pull in one team for a mid-morning work session, get together with another team in the afternoon, and then cap off my day with a desired volunteer opportunity in the evening. Both meetings were milestone sessions on two big projects I’d been mentoring.

Which is to say, I had a really good setup for the joke I was about to tell God. At 7:00 that morning, I had all my prep work laid out and I was feeling ready for the day—right when I got a text that my afternoon plans had been canceled.

I took a deep breath and chose to be okay with the alteration. I could always lean into another project in the afternoon and lean on my morning and evening plans to get me through the day. Not an hour later, I was notified that my morning meeting was also a no-go.

Suddenly, my day had two giant holes in it. I was still reckoning with what to do when I heard from the volunteer organizer that my plans for that evening were also null and void. At which point I stepped outside my home to look up for the asteroid that was surely coming my way, because even with a fairly rigorous yoga schedule, I’m simply not built for this much flexibility.

There was, much to my chagrin, no asteroid. So I went back inside to try and reconstruct something out of my day, and not too much later I got a text from a friend who was having a big personal issue and could use some help. I am, historically, never in a position to help people at the last minute because my schedule is so tightly booked. At most, you can get a five-minute phone call out of me, and that may or may not require a gun to my head.

But because of my various calamities, I could be there for him. I got to be a good friend that day, and the experience was as meaningful and useful as anything else I might have done instead. Everything else in my day? Punted to the next week or two.

My takeaway? You never know when you need the pivot. Because I chose not to lose it over canceled plans and took a couple of deep breaths to acknowledge we could still get done what I needed done—just later than I hoped—I was able to be there for a friend in need.

A pivot is not about avoiding all problems. It is about taking advantage of something you didn’t want or expect and making the best possible outcome.