Many tell us to have a life plan. Even more have a template, unique approach, or special methodology to construct a life plan. Having a plan sounds good, but how many put one together? More telling, how many use a life plan as a monthly guide?

I have not. Maybe I should have.

I believe in planning. We need to plan our financial life. Planning our family life is important, too. Plans gets us from Point A to Point B. Life and work get messy in between the points, and a plan can pull us back to getting on the right trail again.

My life has had more of a direction than a plan.

I knew there were certain things I wanted to do and accomplish. To some degree, things fell into place. Everything is imperfect. No different for me. Some things worked more ideally than others, yet it all seemed to work. I was moving, guiding, leading, working, and collaborating in a certain direction.

I am not lazy. Never really have been. Although I enjoy time off, these breaks are very important to keep working in a productive, creative way. The direction element was the engine that propelled me forward and powered what I did during long business hours and after hour side projects.

More than a plan, my life had strings.

No strings were pulled for me. I created my own or some just appeared by being present. Having life strings was not a solo affair. Many people helped me along the way with their shared experiences, words of support, job opportunities, and more. A way to look at it is that people laid some strings in my path, and I could pick them up if it helped my direction.

I had to pull my life strings. If string kept going in the right direction, I kept pulling.

As you pull, you feel good, and you are doing good. How do you know? If your life strings are meaningful, you will feel-know it in a heart-mind way. Heart-mind means you have sparks of passion in what the life string is leading you toward, and you have an intelligent curiosity to keep pulling and learning.

While heart-mind connections can produce some restlessness, it is the good kind. Being restless can stir our positive excitement about what lies ahead if we keep pulling and doing the work. Restlessness can rouse our questioning about whether we are doing the right thing in the right way. Within restlessness, we need to discern, think, renew, adjust, and pursue what is good.

Not all my life strings helped a larger community, and they should.

Your life strings need to have an impact. Your community needs your life strings to move through in a positive way. Your life strings should pass a community betterment test. Community is a mix, containing both where you work and where you live. Both communities require your positive life string impacts.

When your life strings are not purposefully entangled in community, you need to adjust. I am adjusting now.

Pulling strings take effort, focus, and hard work. All good.

pull life stringsBe ready to sweat.

Think often.

Act with grace and forethought.

Rest to refresh.

Passion is overdone.

Pull the strings that connect your heart and mind.

Weave a good life story.

Ensure you are not pushing your life strings.

Pushing life’s string is exhausting when trying to force something that is not meant to be your real direction.

If you run out of string on one life direction, find another, better one. An option: find a parallel life string and tie the two together. Sometimes we need to weave to gain traction in our direction.

Other times, strings get shredded or frayed into hundreds of threads. Threads woven can become a blanket to wrap ourselves within and escape. Threads also can become a cape in which we courageously face reality and overcome. Times will call for one or the other to renew and persevere.

Set a direction.

Identify your life and work strings to pull and begin.

Weave a plan in where needed.

Keep pulling and finding your right life strings.