The Beauty in Spontaneity

This Sunday the blog is a bit different because I have just got back from Amsterdam. My father passed away there a year ago and I had meant to go for years before that, but there was always a good reason not to. Eventually, I just decided that it may not be ‘meant to be’.

Last week, I just booked the flight - bit the bullet. I flew there alone (with our 11 month year old). So, though not technically a solo trip, I think I will allow myself to call it one.

It was only a few days and the flight was insanely short; it quite literally felt like we ascended and immediately started landing. 

Nevertheless, it was out of my comfort zone. I didn’t even realise that was the case when I booked the flights, it was all quite spontaneous. I didn’t have enough time to overthink it or talk myself out of it, the opportunity arose and I took it.

Spontaneity feels like the antidote to anxiety, would you agree?

When you choose to act spontaneously, there simply isn’t enough time to ruminate on it much. 

When we choose not to overplan, to live in the moment and allow ourselves to be taken with the tide/swept away with the wind - we stop thinking too highly of ourselves. 

What I mean by that is: we stop assuming that we have some kind of special knowledge that would ever make us able to imagine accurately what could go wrong (or right) in a moment.

I am saying this to myself more than anyone else, this isn’t an advice post as much as it’s a self reflective one. So often I get myself caught up imagining ‘all’ the possible ways that a situation could go. 

How insanely arrogant.

Not in a malicious way, but in an ignorant way.

There are infinite possibilities of how an infinite number of factors could change. 

Yes, a rough plan is great - knowing where you’d ideally like to end up in the experience is good. However, there is no denying risk or luck. Things could be immeasurably worse or better than you imagined anyway.

Luck and risk are both the reality that every outcome in life is guided by forces other than individual effort. They are so similar that you can’t believe in one without equally respecting the other. They both happen because the world is too complex to allow 100% of your actions to dictate 100% of your outcomes. ~ Morgan Housel

The takeaway?

Don’t take your plan too seriously, it’s probably pretty insufficient anyway. Take a chance. 

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Have a great week ❤️