The Unplanned Life ...

"Aristotle said that an unplanned life is not worth examining, because it is one in which we do not know what we are trying to do or why, and one in which we do not know where we are trying to get or how to get there. It is also not worth living because it cannot be lived well" (Adler, Mortimer J. Aristotle for Everybody. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1978.)

Then consider what Peter F. Drucker has to say about planning in the Harvard Business Review article at (http://hbr.org/2005/01/managing-oneself/ar/1):
"The only way to discover your strengths is through feedback analysis. Whenever you make a key decision or take a key action, write down what you expect will happen. Nine or 12 months later, compare the actual results with your expectations. … Feedback analysis is by no means new. It was invented sometime in the fourteenth century by an otherwise totally obscure German theologian and picked up quite independently, some 150 years later, by John Calvin and Ignatius of Loyola, each of whom incorporated it into the practice of his followers. In fact, the steadfast focus on performance and results that this habit produces explains why the institutions these two men founded, the Calvinist church and the Jesuit order, came to dominate Europe within 30 years."

I'm sure that John Calvin and Ignatius of Loyola learned this from Aristotle.

Two meanings of "Going with the flow"

One of the things that I have learned from working on this process organizing my activity by 12 week cycles as an "operating system" for anything I do, for my life, I discover that I am what I do. My first 12 week cycle was dedicated to having a successful surgery and recovery. The second 12 week cycle has been taken over by continued recovery and transitioning back to full time work at my job. ("Going with the flow!")

I've known intellectually that we are what we do for a long time, but now I really get it in my gut. (For a number of years I believed that we are what we be, but I slowly came to realize that being is expressed and defined by action in the world. I heard a Landmark Communication course leader say this back around 1990, but it took until now to really penetrate to my "gut.")

What we do is what we become.

I discovered this as part of the 12 Week Year planning process. By comparing the various projects and tasks I was inclined to take on against the long term visions that I have for my self.  I was trying to resolve the inconsistencies between the things I wanted to do moment by moment with the things that I knew I needed to do to accomplish the projects that I wanted to get done. I woke up at about 2 am on morning in December with the deep realization,  in my "gut," that what I do moment by moment determines the which the projects that I accomplish.  I have the opportunity to choose my tasks and therefore the projects that support my vision of myself.

 

Examples:

• if I want to be work as a project manager for my company I have to do different, slightly different things, than if I want to be a technical expert such as a system architect.
• Similarly for my health and fitness. Do I eat a lot of carbohydrates in a week or balance the carbohydrates against my actual activity levels?
• I didn't start making big numbers in my beer club until I began to manage my drinking according to the rules of the club. Instead of drinking on impulse, I only drank what counted for numbers in the club, i.e. beers that I had never drunk before. 

I found that "going with the flow" doesn't work, but there are many flows to choose from if I don't jump in to the "flow of the moment" hence "going with the flow" can work if it the choice of flow is managed to support my vision for my self.  

So I find that phrases such as "going with the flow" have what I call a "casual" meaning and a "formal" meaning. The casual meaning is pliable and hard to pin down. The "formal" meaning is consciously defined.  What does it mean to consciously define something?  I've been down this road of hard knocks also. Consciously in this context means to exercise my full being to greatest extent possible — logically, morally, emotionally, and with intuition. This requires a willingness to listen to what cannot be said, but is sensed.  

Every day we reason with what cannot be said. For example how do I learn a new skill like juggling three balls?  How do I balance conversation among a group of people so that everyone is appreciated?  The same kind of apprehension of full being must be brought to the understanding of "go with the flow."