Planner Love & The Illusion of Control (Planner Boot Camp Post 1)

 

The first Planner Boot Camp is underway with 96 participants to my awe and amazement. I want to thank all of those who have enrolled for your confidence (silly wabbits) in me and thanks to my friends at APA for the support and love. Use Guys Is My Peoples! I am overwhelmed in the response and had hoped to pilot this adventure back in November/December, but the car accident on October 31 threw a wrench into those plans. So here we are kicking off the first PBC full speed ahead.

 

If you were unable to enroll in this session, consider yourself lucky…I can work out all the quirks with this first round of guinea pigs and have it all fine tuned before the next round! Consider reading my Planning with Purpose series– it covers a lot of the ground we will cover in Boot Camp! 

Those currently enrolled should receive the first e-mail with your Week 1 PBC requirements tonight (Sunday). God willing.

I’ve been trying to capture and control my life in and through planners, journals, scraps, images and verse  since childhood. I have thought long and hard about this crazy planner love I have, this desire to gather all of my life together in one place.

To have one ultimate book, that contains all of me, as if it were possible.

I picture Frodo and Sam and that beloved Ring. The One Ring to rule them all. I won’t mince words…they had to let go of the ring to find freedom. They had to let go of the belief that it was possible and good to have something that wielded so much power…because ultimately it consumed the person holding it. It tainted the perspective of the one holding it.

Perhaps you have never watched the movie Lord of the Rings…if not, I command you do so…NOW. OK, I gently but firmly implore you to do so…there is much wisdom to be gleaned in that movie that is applicable to life…and I have watched it multiple times. Not to mention, Orlando Bloom and Viggo Mortensen are excellent actors even though they are not good looking at all. But I digress…

Back to me…and you, and the illusion of control. I pursued the illusion in my youth. I experienced the driving desire to climb every mountain, pursue every dream, chase the loftiest goals,  despite my rather non-traditional start.

I pursued, pursued, and pursued and discovered something…the object of my pursuit was uncatchable and uncontainable. In reality, unattainable. What I wanted ultimately is total control. From beginning to end our heart’s desire is to have the upper hand. It is our human nature. We want it all; we want control of living, dying and everything in between. Since the Garden…trust me it goes back to the very beginning.

So we strive to “manage our time” in hopes of getting everything done that we deem important. From the rising to the setting of the sun, we mark our days,  seeking tangible evidence that our  lives matter, are significant. To what end? In October I wrote about this query in greater depth, with my series Planning with Purpose– the boot camp is the opportunity to practically fine tune what was started there.

But the questions we must ask ourselves daily as we plan and number our days are not the kind we can stuff into overstuffed planners, but instead are those that come by careful consideration and quiet trust as we walk confidently in the direction of our dreams.

So let me ask you to consider the questions below. Grab your Journal or PBC enrollees your PBC Notebook or Section.

Do you plan to live or live to plan?

Are you walking confidently in the direction of your dreams?

If not why not?

“It is not enough to be industrious; so are the ants. What are you industrious about?” Henry D. Thoreau

“Stop wasting your time looking for the key to happiness… the door is open and unlocked… just walk through it.” ~ Steve Maraboli

*This is one of three posts for the Planner Boot Camp Series (Round 1)