So what was your plan?

Never had a plan which is a good job as I have been able to go with the flow of things that life has thrown at me,found it dosent help to have expectations either as that way disappointment lies.Being flexible I may have been bent many times ....but sure as hell not broken...

You'd probably be welcomed with open arms in the local am dram club. When I was involved in set design the performers and back-stage folk were all ages and one of the funniest panto performers was a great granny.

As a young person, I didn't really see the need for any forward planning but have regretted it - at least in relation to work.

I spent many years doing a job that I disliked and which I thought was of no particular value to anyone. If I'd had more maturity as a young person I might have questioned my Mum and Dad's laissez faire attitude to education and to life in general instead of being equally directionless and unmotivated.

However, | am quite pleased with myself for having been pro-active in later years in improving my education and developing new skills and interests - though unfortunately I could never afford to change my career.

Now I think about all the more creative things I'd intended to do when I had more time - particularly taking up amateur dramatics again - and realise that possibly my age would make me stand out like a sore thumb. I have, though, joined a choir again and am really enjoying it.

Having said all that, I do accept that I should be grateful for what I have - and I have a lot more than people fleeing for their lives from war torn countries - rather than grumbling about what in the grand scheme of things are trivialities.

I've never had a plan, just wanted to be happy. However, if I'd known what highs and lows were ahead I would have been a gibbering idiot!
Daren't dwell on what's to come, it's not looking too good but it could be a whole lot worse #stillcountingmyblessings!

Didn't make long term plans, learned in late teens not to

I knew someone who had a 5 yr plan, 10yr plan etc and I thought it a terrible idea. Events can completely destroy it.
I have never had a plan and don't intent to- other than a very vague one. e.g. I don't intend to move again- but who knows what might happen?

I just live for the present and go with the flow.
I have booked a holiday for next year- but that is very unusual to be so far ahead.

I dont think I have ever had a single plan for my life. The nearest I get is next years holiday or what to plant in the garden next year! Every thing else is day to day I suppose I am like the animals I live in the now.

Plan A once I'd met DH, was to have kids and be as happy as we could be, not rich, not famous, just OK, to keep on loving each other and to grow old together.
Plan B There was no Plan B so I came a bit unstuck when he died suddenly in his fifties.
Plan C To not make any more plans and just survive!

No plans ever. We just rolled with the punches. Now we are retired, comfortably off, living in our quirky house in a peaceful village by the sea. 4 caring children, 6 grandchildren all healthy and much loved.

We are very happy except.....
....I never planned to have a daughter with 2 sons from 2 failed relationships. 2 men causing problems and potential problems for the future. Fellow feeling Kitty!

My plans were to marry, have babies and lead a happy and peaceful life. My husband was/is tho retired-hardworking and we worked together to try to bring up our children in a happy and secure home. We didn't hanker after fancy holidays, cars, expensive jewellery or designer labels and never ever earned enough to buy our own home.
Unfortunately there are some nasty, envious people out there who don't łike to see other people having a good life, even tho they'd worked blooming hard to get it. They wanted it for themselves, without putting in the hard work. .We ended up jobless and homeless with two young children.
Thankfully over the years we picked ourselves up, worked hard again and are now fairly comfy. Still nothing fancy tho.
It's hard not to feel bitter about these things, but I think it's better to put it behind you- not dwell on it, I try not to even think about it even nearly 30 years later, cos you'd end up bitter and twisted.

I too was a planner in my teens, and met my husband at 19, pregnant at twenty and from the was a roller coaster ride with no time for anything than to hang on! That marriage came to a grinding halt after 24 years, then I planned to stay single and have a calm peaceful time , with family Grandchildren and friends, I was never going to let another man into my life.. I have now been married to DH 2 for 8 years and we are planning to spend what's left of our lives having a blast together

I was great at planning my life in my teens then I met my husband and got married at 19, definitely not in the great plan! From then on it just happened and life was spent trying to "keep the balls in the air". Now a widow with 3 sons and 6 grandchildren, it was quite a journey but now have time to plan again!

Not plans really, but my family all expected me to work with children and to become an author. I have become a reasonably accomplished children's storyteller, although I never had the urge to go into print and I did work with children for the majority of my career, as a social worker and a teacher. I planned to get married, stay married and have children. Following the hiccup of my first marriage, (which lasted for 15 years) I have been very happily married for 29 years and have a great many children.

Man proposes God disposes. I never had a plan I think I felt it was a bit presumptuous to assume what would happen. DH knew quite clearly his life plan and succeeded and I tagged along but now in retirement I find it easier than he does because he still needs a plan whereas I shrug and carry on.

Was there a plan? Not really, it was more like PRINTMISS's dream.
From my earliest childhood I wanted to be a writer. Then life, marriage, divorce, children and bereavement happened and it's taken me to my sixties to be able to focus on what I really wanted to do.
I now have two books for adults published, plus the first of a trilogy of YA books and ever since I retired from my "earning the bread and butter" work, my life has been a busy round of writing, editing, marketing, workshops and going to conferences and I'm loving it.

When I was at senior school we had a lovely school secretary, and I always said that that was what I would like to do. I did eventually, when my daughter was 11 years old, I did it for twelve years in a junior school,and they were the happiest twelve working years of my life. Not so much a plan, more a dream come true. Lucky me.

I stumbled through life blindly but, thus far seem to have landed on my feet albeit usually bemoaning the fact that I 'started at the top and worked my way down'...

The only thing I remember planning for was my career, which worked out relatively smoothly, despite starting at the bottom 3 times, due to house moves supporting my DH's career.

For all the other lovely things, it's been pure serendipity!

x

Looking back, my 'plans' do seem to have worked out beautifully, although I never thought to make any until my early twenties. Before that, I muddled along and enjoyed it where I could. (quite a lot, in fact.)

They were very simple plans.

Nice thread absent.

It would have been strange to have planned that far ahead anyway wouldn't it, Anno, considering that we were never going to get older.

I had absolutely no plans at all and am pleasantly surprised to find myself where I am now. Life hasn't always been a bed of roses and we still have problems (have I mentioned the Idiot!) but we have each other, a big boisterous family, a home we love and we are comfortably off.

When friends and I used to talk about how we imagined our futures it usually involved a husband, 2 children and a nice house - how naive were we? Not many of my friends achieved that ideal at all.

We have no idea what the future holds, as ann says, so we should savour each moment of happiness. for ann and everyone else coping with a life that hasn't turned out the way they would wish.

Glad your plans worked out nina!

I have one big question though - how the hell did I get to be 66?

I don't think I ever really had one -life just sort of happened when I wasn't looking.

I haven't written that best-seller... yet, nor do I live in a mansion. But I had a largely satisfying career and I have 2 wonderful sons and 5 lovely grandchildren which I never considered 50 years ago.

As a small child, I had plans to marry a rich man and live in a big house. I wanted lots of children too. As it happens, I did marry a rich man, with his own business. Unfortunately, the business was selling groceries before the big supermarkets arrived. Our "riches" then melted away and we now live in a little bungalow. We managed to have two children, and now have four DGC. Life is not the way either of us planned, but nonetheless we are happy with what we have now.

Nothing wrong with making plans, it shows hope, and you do need some, otherwise all you are doing is reacting to other people's choices and ideas.
Sometimes you can put your plans into action, and other times not, but I can't imagine just floating through life with none at all.

My life has just happened.
I had no plans apart from the childish one of marrying a rich man and living a life of luxury.