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Don’t you love it when things just fall into place? Without any planning whatsoever, it all just works out nicely?

Well maybe you are like me – I’ve always been the sort of person that seems to have everything coming their way. I “got the girl” when I was back in school. I had the nice flashy cars when I wanted them, and have never had much trouble finding work.

Up until about 6 months ago I just assumed that I am a lucky person, but after being enlightened by my life coach it appears that I put more effort into my decisions than I realise, and as a result most things in my life tend to work out well.

On my second meeting with my life coach, let’s call her C, she asked me whether or not I “often find that things always just go your way?”. She caught me out – up until that question I thought the whole concept of life planning was going to be a joke.

How did this woman know that things always go my way?

She explained that I am the sort of person that spends a lot of time planning and preparing for each decision that I make in life, and up until now I didn’t really realise what I was doing. I was just doing it without giving it much thought.

For instance..

• I always had nice cars because I spent the time saving hard for them, rather than just buying what I could afford at the time. I had to wait longer to get them, but that just meant that I appreciated them more.
• I have no real qualifications, just experience. From the start of my career, I have understood that without a degree I needed to carefully plan my career and use “stepping stones” to get where I wanted to be. A few years back that meant sitting on a help-desk being abused by irate customers for a 18 months. Now it means putting my hand up for any random projects just to “get involved” and also work on new technology. As a result, when I apply for jobs, I always seem to either get the job, or come a close second.

Planning and preparation is relative to most aspects of our lives. From basic things like what product to buy, or to life decisions such as who to marry and so on.

We are in a world where we are encouraged to make quick decisions, without much consideration. While a little spontaneity is healthy, too much and you’ll find yourself with just no direction and little reward.

It’s been something that obviously comes naturally to myself, but even if it doesn’t come naturally, it’s something that is at least worth trying. Next time you are about to make a decision, think about it a second time before committing.

Last night I volunteered to speak with some kids from my old school about the work that I do. The night is a careers “expo” of sorts, and most fields had a representative or two. I represented “Information Technology” on my own. Crazy, since it’s such a broad industry but I was up for the challenge.

My school, a private school, really pushes it’s students into university. Since it’s become the status quo for “successful” families nowadays, the parents really want their kids to go to uni too. It gives them status to be able to brag to their friends about. Back in the day, I too went down this track, and after six months actually quit uni and joined the workforce. It was the best decision that I ever made for my career. Out in the workforce I realised that those with a degree usually end up with the same issues of finding work as someone without a degree – a lack of experience. Experience is king in IT, and often a degree may make finding work easier, but without a degree you have a four year head start on everyone else! Now while this obviously doesn’t apply to all industries, it certainly does in IT in Australia.

Telling parents this was received in a number of different ways. One parent said “but surely nowadays you HAVE to have a degree”, adamant that her son needed a degree. I wasn’t telling her that her son shouldn’t go to uni, just that he should explore his options. Most of the parents were happy to hear my story, and in some ways happy that there is indeed more than one way for their son or daughter to get into the industry.

What struck me so hard was one parent. His son was the most keen kid that I spoke to for the whole evening. You could tell that he had a really strong interest in computers and really wanted to get into the industry. The father on the other hand just wasn’t interested and quite obviously didn’t want to be there.

It was amazing that I was sitting there, trying to give his son all of the help that I could to send him in the right direction, yet as a parent, he just didn’t care less about what was going on and obviously wanted the night to end so he could go home.

When I quit uni my parents weren’t happy at all. At 18, they didn’t believe that I was able to make the right decisions for myself yet and as a result they didn’t support me in my decisions. Seeing this kid last night, and seeing his dad’s display of “couldn’t care less” parenting, it has just reinforced my beliefs in how I will raise my kids one day.

While I understand that children, and even adults are never going to make the right decisions 100% of the time, I’m going to support my kids in whatever they want to do. Life’s too short to push them into something that they aren’t interested in.

Support peoples’ dreams, and help them to become their true self. Help them to break away from the norm and beat mediocrity.