I tend to cling to my planning and organizational skills. I imagine my role as a single parent has only served to increase my need to have a plan and a system for everything. Even while I understand this about myself, I have also lived long enough to realize that a big part of living life is learning how to adjust when the best laid plans go awry…
I have not yet learned how to live entirely without a plan, but I have learned that family life and planning are only partially-compatible. There are unending surprises and adjustments that need to be made—adjustments to that very well-crafted Plan, I might add! Still, life as a single parent means getting used to balancing out our planning and organization side with the part of us that must learn to roll with the inevitable changes.
As illustration, if someone would have told me what my life would like today, twenty years ago, I would have thought it was as likely as people driving around with space cars! Over time, my life has morphed and changed and while my core values remain the same and in so many ways my life has turned out far beyond my dreams—it is not at all what I pictured it would be like when I was just graduating from high school. Even last year, I would have never guessed that my second daughter would decide to get her G.E.D. and would be starting college before her older sister! I thought that we had a very different plan.
Part of planning and organization is being prepared for those inevitable changes. It may not go exactly as you imagine it will, but by anticipating change and being open to flexibility, you will be able to adjust to meet the challenges—all while loosely sticking to that best-laid plan of yours.