Let’s be honest: almost no one’s life turns out the way they had planned. We make plans, dream of certain paths, imagine what the future should be like… and then suddenly something happens: a door closes, an unexpected twist appears, or things just don’t work out. And there we are, feeling like everything is falling apart.

The funny thing is that life never promised us that it would go “according to plan.” We invented that idea, perhaps because it gives us security to think that we are in control. But the reality is that the only thing that is certain is that it will change. And it hurts, because when something doesn’t work out, we feel like we’ve failed. The truth is that it’s not a failure, it’s part of the journey.

Often, what feels like a blow today is what becomes our greatest strength tomorrow. Think about those times when something didn’t work out: a project that didn’t pan out, a relationship that ended, an opportunity that slipped away. Maybe at the time you felt like your world was falling apart… but if you look back, wasn’t it also an invitation to rediscover yourself, to move to a different place?

Life is change, and although it scares us, change brings growth. Clinging to the original plan only leads to frustration, because nothing in this world is fixed. What we can choose is how we react. We can stay stuck in complaining, or we can say, “OK, it didn’t turn out the way I wanted, but what can I learn from this? What other door opened that I hadn’t seen?”

Perhaps it’s not about having total control, but about learning to dance with uncertainty. And although that sounds chaotic, it’s also liberating. Because when you understand that nothing is set in stone, you give yourself permission to make mistakes, to try again, to change course without feeling like you’ve wasted your time.

In the end, life isn’t that straight line we draw in a notebook; it’s more like a flowing river, which sometimes calms down, sometimes overflows, but always moves forward. And if you learn to flow with it, you discover places you never could have imagined.