How often do you put a plan together? You likely plan your diet, your exercise, your work projects, and everything else in your day to day life. How often do you stick to those plans? For some of you, maybe all of the time. For the rest of us, that’s not the case.
Why is this? Why is it that we can create a plan that makes sense, that we know is good for us and will lead to a better us, but yet fail to follow through? Is it self-sabotage? Maybe in some cases, but I tend to think better of humans. I think there is something else going on.
Wendell Berry, author and environmental activist, presents an interesting observation of our human nature. Berry says that humans are becoming more and more specialized. Think about it. We become specialists in our careers. We seek out diets that have specialized names. We look for workout programs with specialized benefits.
While no doubt there are benefits to specialization. There are potential downsides too. Berry believes that our desire for specialization is in part due to our desire for control. The problem is that specialization only creates the illusion of control. Berry says, “The specialist puts himself in charge of one possibility. By leaving out all other possibilities, he enfranchises his little fiction of control. Leaving out all other non-functional or otherwise undesirable possibilities.”
Berry is essentially saying that specialization allows control to be conceivable. We create little plans or models as Berry calls them, in our heads that dictate how we operate. We set boundaries and controls for our plans that allow them to make sense to us. However, as Berry states, when we do this we often leave out “non-functional” or “undesirable” possibilities. This is why I think so many of our plans fail.
Think about your diet. Let’s say you are getting ready to start a new diet. You look up all the information for that diet. You figure out what you are going to be eating, and when. You now have a plan with this specialized diet.
However, when you made your plan you failed to consider the “undesirable possibilities”. You didn’t think about the 6 am meeting you have Wednesday and how that may make your mourning routine harder. You didn’t think about the doughnuts in the office breakroom that would be stimulating your cravings all day. You forgot about the birthday party where all that would be available for you to eat is fried chicken and birthday cake.
Simply put, outside of our little bubble of control, most times our plans don’t hold up. The undesirable possibilities that we knowingly or unknowingly left out of our model are now coming back to bite us in the butt.
What can we do about this? Surely, the answer isn’t to stop planning. I think it starts by being mindful and intentional. We should think about where our plans breakdown. Present them to others and let them poke holes in them in ways we can’t. Practice not being so rigid with our plans, and allowing for more flexibility to account for those “undesirable possibilities.” Realize that it’s okay to go off of plan every once in a while and actually that should in fact be incorporated into the plan.
I think there is something to be said for reducing specialization at times. Rather than being so hung up on what diet you are following or exercises you are doing, try de-specializing and just focusing on eating real whole foods and moving your body in ways that are enjoyable to you!
Thanks for reading!
Chris Irvin
P.S. Had an awesome interview with Cleveland Browns Longsnapper Charley Hughlett this week on the Thinking Health podcast. Check it out!