Crossroads

I am a planner.  It's not always obvious upon meeting me, since I'm not the type of planner with every moment scheduled out. I am a big fan of the spontaneous day trip, I embrace an unexpected activity and too much of a plan can me feel a little trapped. But, man, do I love the calm that comes with sitting down and listing out what needs to get done and how best to do it.

The easiest way for me to explain how I balance planning and playing-it-by-ear is referring to the StrengthsFinder assessment.

We took this assessment in one of my classes last fall, in order to help us determine our talents so we could be successful leaders in our classrooms. One of my Top Five was adaptability, which didn't come as too much of a surprise to me — until I read the description. The blurb, at first, seemed to be describing a person who is carried by their whims and doesn't think ahead. 

Definitely not me, I thought. But as I read on, I realized that it wasn't describing people who don't plan, but instead those who don't get flustered when those plans change.

"You mentally rehearse what you plan to do in various worst-case and best-case scenarios. Your forethought prepares you to deal with whatever happens."

It is my planning, in fact, that lets me adapt and thrive when those plans go awry. I am reminding myself of this a lot lately, as I attempt to figure out what is coming for me in the next few months. While I have a lot of projects, opportunities and plans that I am very excited about, there is a still quite a bit up-in-the-air for me. And, to be quite frank, it has been pretty overwhelming. Little things like the quickly approaching end of my lease are looming over me, and I know I have some big decisions coming up quickly. 

"You are, at heart, a very flexible person who can stay productive when the demands of work are pulling you in many different directions at once."

But if my experience has given me anything, it has helped me prepare for what's coming up. I'm used to balancing school, work, clubs and life. So balancing work, decision-making, job-hunting, apartment searching and life, while more daunting, is simply a new challenge for me. And I'm feeling pretty confident in taking it on.