This quote can be found in his song "Beautiful Boy." As a reminder of the unpredictability and fleeting nature of life.
But let's back to our current time ...
If you open YouTube or any other social media platform (especially X), you'll see several (hundreds) of gurus claiming to have found the method to be more productive, or a certain Notion template to organize yourself better, save time in your tasks, or as I like to call it... Become a robot.
It's look like, the society is leaning towards schematizing life. If these people sell these products or create content about planning every aspect of your day, it's because there are people who consume it.
Personally, it worries me. I don't understand why people want or seek ways to plan every detail of their day. None of this will lead you to success or amassing a great fortune.
Where does the unexpected go? The uncertain? The surprise and nerves about the unknown or, as many say, the luck.
Before starting university, I had a clear idea of what I wanted to do. I had planned every step to get where I wanted. University began, I became more aware of my surroundings, plans started to change, the situation in my country accelerated towards deterioration, and all of this led me to stop planning many things.
Over time, I realized that when something didn't go according to plan, my stress level increased. I would spend days asking myself why it had happened that way, or I would simply become disillusioned with certain tasks or people, things that definitely didn't add anything to my life. It was time to change...
That's how I came across two university philosophies.
Why do I call them that?
The phrases I'm about to share with you are repeated daily by university students in Cuba. Tell me if there's a similar phrase in your country.
These "philosophies" are:
1- Que sea lo que dios quiera (something like: Whatever God wills).
2- Sin miedo al éxito (something like: Fearlessly pursue success ).
The first one, is widely used when you've done everything within your power, fulfilled your part, now it's up to God (or luck, rather). It may seem like a joke, but if you think about the meaning of this phrase, not everything that happens in your life can be controlled.
An example is exams themselves. You may have studied everything down to the smallest detail, but the teacher decided to change the way they asked the questions or maybe innovated in the question, and you didn't do well. Things don't turn out as you expected, what are you going to do? Get depressed, feel bad?
That's okay for a moment, but you have to get up and face the fact that it won't always go as you expect, so you have to expect the unexpected. If you go with the flow, you avoid all of the above.
Since I understood the meaning of this phrase and the "philosophy" behind it, I stopped worrying so much about planning and focused on flowing and enjoying my day-to-day life (we never know if it will be the last).
I had a professor who said we should be like an old boat, just let ourselves be carried by the currents.
In other words, just flow.
The second one, fearlessly pursue success, is a somewhat comical phrase. In 80% of cases, it's accompanied by a disastrous result. In other cases, it doesn't have to be that way.
The point is, the philosophy of fearlessly pursuing success is to do things as they come, without fearing the outcome, without planning so much, just go with the flow and live (that's why the result is sometimes disastrous).
At this point, don't get me wrong, I'm not against planning. There are things that must be planned like: emigrating, starting a family, or business plans (if you try to go with the flow in any of these three, you'll most likely end up paying the price).
What I am against, and it's because I've lived it, is over-planning and especially what the "gurus" of social media preach. How boring it must be, a day when every aspect, every hour, every moment is planned, and how stressful when the plan goes to hell. That's why I oppose promoting and practicing such nonsense.
It's good to have some tasks planned for the day (the essential or the most important ones), but it's even better to leave time for the unexpected.
It's mandatory to leave a large percentage for this, or half. Just go with the flow and live life as it presents itself, unexpected, unplanned, and imperfect.
If you've already done everything within your power, just let everything unfold, and if the result isn't what you like, you'll always have learned something along the way.
That's my philosophy, and I'm telling you from experience, living in a country like Cuba, the only sure thing is that you must emigrate to improve, the rest cannot be planned (not even the food you'll eat, in many cases, you can't plan it).
Just go with the flow as things come, there's no opportunity for planning.
If you don't believe me, just try it, go on vacation without a plan (and without maps is even better), get lost in your city without planning a route, study, explore just out of curiosity and not to be someone or make money from what you've learned.
Try the above, and you'll see how going with the flow will reduce your stress levels, life will be at your pace and not dictated by social media.
Remember that we only have one life, and one day more is one day less.
Before I go, I'd like to ask you: have you ever felt the pressure to plan every aspect of your life, or do you tend to avoid reaching that point? Have you had any curious or memorable experiences by letting go and simply going with the flow?
Feel free to share whatever you like; it will be a pleasure to respond to you in the comments.
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