What a difference a year makes.  Take a second to remember what you were doing, what you were thinking and where you were headed a year ago.  Does it feel like nothing’s changed?  I’ll bet that’s not the case.  Do you keep a diary?  Look back to a year ago in that?  Don’t keep a diary?  Look back at the pictures you took a year ago.  That’s a good way to remember.

This morning I’ve been reflecting on where I was a year ago.  For a while now, I’ve been doing what Jenn calls following threads.  We both have a talent called Connectedness.  For Jenn it has to do with connections between lots of things including people and projects and events.  For me it’s more about events and a firm belief that everything happens for a reason.  For a long time I thought that some things happen for a reason, and found it really cool to look back and connect the dots that make up the picture of my life.  I have embraced the idea that all things happen for a reason, and following threads keeps me focusing on where I’m headed.

To expand on the image of “threads”, I think of it as there being a lot of little threads that cross my line of sight or my path all the time.  When I grasp and follow one of those threads, I’m led to another, and another. It really makes life interesting.

Following threads is future-oriented, connecting the dots is looking back.  I like doing both, but if you are looking for threads and keep an open mind to where they might lead you, it can lend to a more optimistic perspective.  That’s what I like about the concept of “threads”.

If I look at the threads from the past year of my life it goes something like this…

• Thread 1 – I started looking at my life and my talents and looking for opportunities to help others and improve the world.
• Thread 2 – I lost my job
• Thread 3 – read an article that lead to a book that lead to a concept of what I wanted to do with my life
• Thread 4 – met new people
• Thread 5 – built a business
• Thread 6 – expanded my network
• Thread 7 – met more new people
• Thread 8 – started blogging and posting articles to website and social media
• Thread 9 – met more new people

Now I’m pursuing what I want to do in life, and it’s working.  I don’t hate Mondays.  In fact, there is very little differentiation between any of the days of the week for me.  That's because I enjoy every day.  

There are lots of smaller threads in between all the ones in my list but it would be hard to read about all of those.  You probably see the pattern. I grabbed the first thread and followed it.  Then the next crossed my field of view and I followed it, then another and another. 

Earlier in my life, I had more of a master plan concept.  I had this basic plan with milestones and anything that pushed me in the direction of those prescribed milestones I would accept and embrace.  Anything that didn’t appear to lead me there, I would reject.  The problem with this thinking is that it presupposes that your plan is right.  It might not even be YOUR plan.  It might be superimposed on you from family, friends or other influencers.  That may work for many people, but I think it doesn’t allow for the little life-enriching experiences along the way.  My personal opinion is that life should be more fluid, more dynamic than to comply rigidly to a master plan.  Heck, I came up with that master plan when I was still in high school.  What did I even know about life or what was possible?

What do YOU think?  Do you follow a master plan or do you grab at threads?  Or do you have some other process for navigating the choppy waters of life?  I'd love to hear about it.