If You Want To See God Laugh, Make A Plan

Hello,

And welcome to the session.

I invite you to take a seat,

Or lie down,

And get yourself comfortable.

You can close down your eyes if you wish,

And take a deep,

Slow breath in through the nose and out through the mouth.

In a moment,

I'm going to share with you a proverb,

Aphorism,

Idiom,

Or saying for you to contemplate,

And I invite you to do so as deeply as possible.

To look beyond your initial,

Default reactions to it,

And to consider it from all sides.

To be open to it guiding you,

Encouraging you,

And informing you of potential knowledge,

Insights,

And wisdom that may be lying just below the surface.

Our goal with each of these daily contemplations is to use the session to acquire a deeper understanding of ourselves,

The world,

And our place within it.

So let's take another slow,

Deep breath in through the nose and out through the mouth,

And consider the following.

Murphy's Law.

If it can go wrong,

It will.

Or if you want to see God laugh,

Make a plan.

Murphy's Law.

If it can go wrong,

It will.

Or if you want to see God laugh,

Make a plan.

So this idea of Murphy's Law,

If it can go wrong,

It will.

Or if you want to see God laugh,

Make a plan.

Make a plan.

This is a trope of business,

Of military,

Of sports,

Of most every endeavor.

Every time you make a plan,

There is many moving parts,

Many people involved,

And nature,

Luck,

Chance.

And the idea of Murphy's Law is that if it can go wrong,

It will,

Particularly when it matters most.

And I'm sure you've been on the receiving end of Murphy's Law.

Maybe it's a wedding that the rain came out and just obliterated the plans you made.

Or it's a childbirth that went askew.

Or it's,

You know,

That work presentation that didn't quite work despite,

You know,

Testing and practicing and rehearsing and making sure that the technology was all connected up.

There are endless examples of things that can go wrong.

You've planned everything ahead and then all of a sudden there's a blackout,

Or a strike,

Or maintenance,

Roadworks.

If it can go wrong,

It will.

If you want to see God laugh,

Make a plan.

This saying forces us to consider that just because we want something,

Just because we have planned for it,

Just because we assume that it will work,

Doesn't make it so.

Indeed,

There is no way to guarantee success.

This idea of Murphy's Law really is pointing towards an acceptance of the unknown,

Of anxiety,

Of the idea that nothing is perfect.

And even if you think you have perfection,

Things go wrong.

How many times has there been a,

You know,

Mega pop star whose concerts have tweaked or gone askew and not according to plan?

You find out about these because oftentimes they're recorded and you see the person's response in real time.

This real human response of them going,

Oh,

This isn't working.

The auto-tune broke.

The stage graphics and displays and props didn't come at the right time.

And you see them have to address it and work around and sort of deal with it.

And some roll with the punches and others break down.

And this is true in most every aspect of life.

Things often go wrong.

Murphy's Law states that if it can go wrong,

It will.

And that's obviously quite negative.

It's obviously assuming that,

You know,

Every problem will arise.

But it leads us down this idea of contingency planning.

Okay,

If this goes wrong,

What do we do?

If that goes wrong,

How do we address it?

It leads us to think of what our overarching aim is.

What is the leader's intent?

What is our overall goal?

If you know what the overall goal is for you,

For your boss,

For the situation,

The ceremony,

Whatever you're doing.

If you know what the end goal is,

You can roll with it and aim towards there,

No matter what's going on.

But if you get bogged down in the details and the minutiae,

You might end up pushing through problems that don't actually need to be solved.

Does it matter,

Really,

The individual specific details?

Or does the overarching goal matter?

What's more important to you?

What's more important in general?

Murphy's Law forces us to consider that we make plans.

Those plans can end,

Can end,

According to Murphy's Law,

Will go wrong.

But it doesn't mean that we fail.

Fail.

You can still succeed in the overall direction you want to be traveling if the path is destroyed in front of you.

If you unexpectedly find a river,

You can get through it,

Provided you can think on your feet,

Provided you can adapt,

Provided you are not so enamored with the plan you made.

Where are you ending up?

Can you get there another way?

Can you build a boat to cross that river?

Do you see what I'm going for here?

You step back.

You go,

Okay,

That plan didn't work.

How can I do it?

This is about letting go of expectations.

It's about not holding onto things so tightly.

It's about being flexible in the moment.

It's about realizing the leader's intent and heading towards it,

Even when that initial plan didn't go quite according to plan.

It's about being proactive.

Back to those pop stars dealing with the inevitable things that go wrong.

Technology breaking,

Microphones breaking,

Set design going wrong,

Crew not being where they need to be.

The ones that handle it well,

They recognize it,

They take a second to compose themselves,

And they persist.

They keep going.

And most of the time,

It doesn't impact the performance at all.

Most of the time,

It doesn't impact the performance at all.

The crowd just continues.

They just enjoy the rest of the show.

But it's the ones that crack it,

That act childish,

That believe that it should go all according to their plan because they are someone special.

It's those people that get exposed.

It's those people that get criticized publicly.

I'm not condoning the criticism,

I'm just highlighting what happens when they fail to roll with the punches.

Indeed,

If you have a plan that goes wrong,

If Murphy's Law arises and you adapt to it,

That's received with praise and elation because people recognize that something went wrong and you,

Being a professional,

You being a person that can adapt,

Handled it.

And it's like,

Look at the success you had in spite of all the problems.

Even though your plan went wrong,

You adapted,

You grew,

You changed,

You overcame.

But how can we do this?

How can we foster an attitude of rolling with the punches,

Of going with the flow,

Of realizing that our plans won't go according to plan?

Well,

That's the first step.

Realization.

Things don't always go according to plan.

Acceptance.

Okay,

I'm here now.

I should be over there,

But I'm here now.

What can I do to change that?

Do I need to change that?

Looking towards the leader's intent.

Okay,

I'm here now.

I should be over there.

The plan's changed.

I'm a bit rattled.

But what do I want to be doing?

What's the overall end state that I need to get to?

How can I get there from here?

Is there a way that being here actually benefits me?

Is there a side path,

A secret passageway,

A different route that I can take?

Because I'm here and not there.

Take a breath.

Meditate.

Detach.

And move forward.

Plans will get changed.

But the only way that you stop,

That you let that stop you,

Is if you let that stop you,

Right?

Think of a sports analogy.

The other team wants to stop you.

They're going to do everything in their power to stop you.

That's their job.

So how can you win anyway?

Murphy's Law is almost like this combative other.

You know,

It's God laughing at you.

It's the devil inserting derision into the world.

It's fate.

It's luck.

It's chance.

It's whatever maneuvering external force.

Now,

I'm not saying you need to buy into that sort of imagery or that belief system,

But you can hold that space in your mind for a little bit.

But it's you looking at that going,

Not today,

Buddy.

Yeah,

You've impacted me.

I've taken that punch.

I'm going to roll with it.

I'm going to keep going and I'm going to get to the end.

I'm going to finish.

The only way you fail is if you stop.

If you let these changes of plans stop you,

That's how you stop.

It's like forming a habit.

You miss a day.

You break.

You eat the cake.

Okay?

Get back on the diet the next day and the day after.

And the day after that,

Learn from the mistakes and continue.

So I ask you to contemplate Murphy's Law.

If it can't go wrong,

It will.

Or if you want to see God laugh,

Make a plan.

Murphy's Law.

If it can go wrong,

It will.

Or if you want to see God laugh,

Make a plan.

So,

Well done.

This brings us to the end of the session.

At the bottom of your screen,

You'll see an option to view the classroom or to ask a question.

And before moving on,

I invite you to take a moment to click through and share your insights.

Tweet answers from other students and to hear my replies.

Remember to start your responses by restating the contemplation.

In this case,

Murphy's Law.

So we all know which one you are referring to.

This is an opportunity for deep learning,

Further introspection and insight.

So please don't miss out.

I look forward to seeing you in the next session.

Thank you.

This track is taken from my course,

Live Your Most Fulfilling Life.

It's out now on Insight Timer and is available via my profile.

I invite you to check it out.

See you there.