“Plan the work, and work the plan.”
You’re channeling my all-time favorite commanding officer, Colonel Clark H. Babl. RIP, Good Sir! :)
I don’t know where my husband heard the phrase, but he has used it practically all our lives. It was a reminder to stay focused on our goals. ;-)
Life has its own way of throwing curves into our circumstances. Sometimes you have to adjust and come up with a revised plan, that has the original goal as part of that plan. Eventually we have been able to get back on track whenever the unexpected happens.
As an example, my husband was unexpectedly laid off just before Thanksgiving 2018. We were stunned to our core. We were both nearing our 60th birthdays, which happened this year. We decided to tighten our belts again, like we have done so many times before. We cut back in so many ways. We had a decent savings, and figured we could last 6 months on it if we had to, but we really hoped that wouldn’t be necessary.
We were fortunate that he was given 2 months of severance pay. He reached out immediately to his network of coworkers through the years and found a couple of people who had some needs for short term contract work. The idea was that if he could get his foot in the door with a short term gig, somebody would eventually have room for him more permanently in the 2nd or 3rd quarter.
He was right, and he was offered a full time job in his field in mid-June last year. During those 6+ months, we managed to eke out paying our bills with whatever he earned from the several contracts that he was awarded. We never had to touch our savings! I guess all the practice we had when the kids were young was good training! Oh, and one other thing, we relied on our faith knowing that God would lead us through this rough patch just like He has always done. We always believed that He was (and is) with us every step of the way.