The Key to Not Stressing Out When Things Aren't Going As Planned

A common pattern for me is becoming stressed as I work through larger projects and they aren’t going as planned. Why does this always happen? Control! I want things to go exactly as I planned them out and intend them to be.

Well, of course things do not work out that way, so here’s the number one thing I remind myself.

Let go of the outcome.

This seems counterintuitive but it’s so important. Here are my steps.

• Set my goals for my life

• Set my goals for my year or quarter

• Set my intentions to work towards these goals. These are the steps I intend to take

• Take one step at a time

Here, ironically, is where I let go of the outcome.

Instead I:

Take a step.
Learn.
Evaluate.
Adjust my goal.

I remind myself the important thing is that it doesn’t matter if I reach the goal I set, it matters to stay in the moment and take the next action and then learn from that.  

This is what will bring me to the outcome I need, rather than the outcome I want.

It is like planning for a trip and having a destination and a plan about what to see on each day. But if I am so set on my plan, I may miss a sign for an important site that I didn’t know about.   If I’m not taking the time to experience and pay attention to other meaningful stops that I stumble across, I may be missing out on the most important places to see.

Step. Learn. Evaluate. Adjust.

And cultivate what counts