Integrating the Practical and the Transcendent: The Planning Conundrum
I’m planning my year ahead. I find myself reflecting on a saying: "Trust in Allah but tie up your camel."
This phrase, rooted in a story from the Quran, expresses a wisdom, and a challenge, that applies not only to personal life but also to the broader cultural perspective.
On one hand, it emphasizes the importance of attending to practical details, of making plans and setting tangible goals. On the other, it invites us to trust in a bigger, more subtle aspect of existence, whether you call that, ‘God’, ‘the universe’, or ‘Life’ itself.
It presents a polarity, a tension between the pragmatic and the transcendent.
And I’m wondering, how do we dance with that tension not just in planning, but in life and work as a whole?
Trust beyond blind faith
The notion of trusting in something beyond ourselves doesn’t require blind faith. Rather it’s an invitation to relax into the flow of life beyond our rational-analytical mind and ego-based thinking. Could we surrender to a grander scheme, a vaster intelligence and natural wisdom that transcends our narrow, limited identities?
This is a common thread across all spiritual, religious, and transpersonal belief systems — the recognition of a self-organizing, loving, and wise essence somehow woven into the very fabric of the universe. It's a force entirely beyond the narrow, individual "me". Named and described in a great many ways, this idea, this invitation, this possibility, remains consistent across all cultures, apart from our modern industrial society.
The Dance of Two Energies
The complementary perspective, which most of us are more used to, emphasizes the importance of practical steps and rational planning. We must tie up our camels! This means locking your car, filing your tax return, organizing your schedule, and setting goals for the year. This other side of the polarity acknowledges the necessity of goal-oriented, cause-and-effect thinking, and rational, numbers-based planning.
As I plan my year, I find myself dancing with these two energies. While they harmonize pretty well in my life currently, this wasn't always the case. In the past, I leaned heavily towards trusting in the bigger picture, often neglecting practical details and the need to plan and set goals. I’ve had to develop those more pragmatic skills over time.
The Consequences of a one sided approach: Burnout, Emptiness & Self-Criticism
Most of the people I coach start in the opposite place. In today’s, technological, rational-analytic culture we’ve been encouraged to believe unfailingly in the power of prediction and control. Most people still assume that with the right plan, effort, efficiency, and personal striving, they can (and should) achieve anything. This mindset places great emphasis on linear, cause-and-effect planning, especially (though not only) in work settings.
But when we neglect a trust in the bigger picture, two significant consequences arise:
Effect 1: Burnout and Self-Criticism
The belief that everything hinges on personal planning and effort quickly leads to self-criticism and burnout. When things don’t turn out as hoped (and eventually they won’t!), we take it as evidence of personal failure and inadequacy. This fosters self-hatred and lack of contentment. A faith in the supremacy of individual planning and efficiency can create action and dynamism, but it also underpins a lot of self-esteem issues and burnout.
Effect 2: Emptiness Despite Achievements
Even if someone does achieve their goals, without a connection to the bigger picture there’s often a hollow feeling below the surface; a gnawing sense of lack of meaning and deep connection. This is noticeable for example in certain elite athletes who dedicate themselves to detailed training programmes and relentless, focused striving. Once they attain their objectives, they often grapple with an overwhelming sense of emptiness and doubt. It’s like the side of life that’s been previously ignored – the surrender to a greater, living mystery, comes crashing down in an overbearing and threatening way.
How can we use the energizing and directional energy of planning and goal setting, while avoiding the emptiness, frustration and self-criticism that comes from relying on it too much?
The Warrior's Approach: Personal Action and Letting Go
Once you start looking, the dance is everywhere …
-> Carlos Castaneda describes the true warrior as one who ‘does everything as if it's the most important thing in the world while recognizing that, ultimately, it doesn't matter at all’.
-> The Tibetan master Padmasambhava says that our actions should be ‘as precise as a grain of sand’ while our perspective remains ‘as vast as the sky’.
-> The Bhagvad Gita points out that, ‘All actions take place in time by the interweaving of the forces of Nature. But the person lost in selfish delusion thinks he himself is the actor.’
-> Lau Tzu, author of the Tao Te Ching writes, ‘If you want to accord with the Tao, just do your job, then let go.’
Can we meticulously attend to our plans, actions, and intentions as if they are of utmost significance, all the while surrendering to the vast, mysterious, and wonder-filled nature of life?
Could we release ourselves from heavy assumptions of ego-centered control, and trust in some deeper intelligence that guides our journey?
Planning your Year: Finding a Harmonious Blend
Pause for a moment and reflect on which side you find yourself occupying the most. When planning your year (or anything for that matter), consider these reflections:
For Those Who Lean Towards Personal Control:
- Reflect on the vastness, complexity and unpredictability of the universe.
- Consider the possibility that the universe is inherently good with events unfolding just as they need to.
- Develop your own way to offer your projects and plans in service of something greater.
- Develop your own way to request guidance and support from a universal force, regardless of your beliefs.
- Incorporating creativity, movement, symbol, art, emotion and imagination into your planning activities will help you include a sense of the bigger picture and universal forces.
For Those Who Lean Towards Trust in the Bigger Picture:
- Identify areas in your life where personal action and planning is required.
- Notice specific action, responsibility or discipline that you are lacking or avoiding.
- Embrace planning, goal setting and commitment in your daily actions as examples of the infinite, beautiful qualities offered to humans to enjoy.
- Perceive spreadsheets, targets and action plans and similar tools as magical tools gifted by the universe to assist you in your journey.
- Consider that the universe itself has guided you to read this blog at this very moment, and then get cracking with some detailed planning.
The Alchemy of Integration: Living the Creative Tension
C.G. Jung suggests that we must live within the creative tension between opposites. We don't have to choose one over the other – indeed he suggests it is unhelpful to do that. By giving space to both energies in our lives without forcing a resolution, a new, harmonious and surprising possibility emerges—an alchemical process of integration.
In my own planning for the year, I'm embracing both perspectives. I'm diving into numbers-based planning while infusing it with a connection to the bigger picture. I’m enjoying making spreadsheets (!), setting goals and targets while burning sage to purify obstacles in my work and lighting candles to symbolize that which my work serves, beyond ‘me’.
It's an emerging blend of practicality and trust, planning and surrender.
And it has its own power. One that’s nothing much to do with ‘me’.
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