Hi, how’s it going? Hope you are doing well.

As many of you know, I had a change in careers some time back. I used to work at a very different sort of job, before I realized how serious the situation with my mother really was. Then I stopped working at that job and took a lot of time off to study anything and everything about bipolar disorder.

In the end, it paid off. My mother is now experiencing recovery, and I have a new career that I am happy in. In this case, a change in plans was the best thing possible.

Changes in plans can honestly be scary though. You never know if it’s going to be for the best or not. Plus, you had spent that entire time making those other plans, only to change them?? It usually seems like it’s the worst case scenario.

Change is uncomfortable no matter what, but when it threatens what you thought was your future, it can be downright frightening. But sometimes it is for the best. Like, for example, when the plans you had suddenly prove to not be a good thing. They may have sounded like a good thing when you made them, in fact they probably did. But when it’s all said and done, they will do more harm than good.

Sometimes it’s because you just changed your mind. A good example of this is a college student. They get partially through their second year of college, when they have just started to take classes in their field, and they suddenly realize they don’t like that field after all. Well, if they are that early in their college years it will be easy to change their field.

If they are further along it will seem like more time has been wasted. But sometimes, under certain circumstances, that is necessary also. For instance, if someone was going to school for construction, and they suddenly become paralyzed, they might change their major to drafting (making the plans for construction projects.) Since the fields are so similar, it won’t have been wasted time; the time spent in learning construction will actually help them understand the concepts of drafting.

I know of someone who dreamed all their life of this one career, and finally got it. But then they realized that, as much as they loved it, there was no financial security in it. So now they still do it as a hobby, but for a career they have chosen something else.

I’ve heard it said that a change of plans is sometimes the shortest way home. What this means is that sometimes you need to change your plans to get to where you want to go. And if that is true, continuing to try the original plans won’t get you very far.

Now, of course, all of this is for certain circumstances. Not everyone needs to change their plans, and certainly not about everything. You have to use your better judgment to decide that.

But when it does come time to change plans, don’t worry about the time lost. Instead, focus on what you learned during all that time that you can take with you to make your life better, and the lives of those around you.

Now what do you think of that?

Well, I have to go!

Your Friend,

Dave