I schedule a lot, probably too much. Even down to my meals, I have a mental calendar (and several tangible ones) of everything I’m doing at least two weeks out. It comes in handy when I’m at work, because I’m very goal-oriented. The checklist gets crossed off every day.

I’d love to think this brings peace and comfort, but life is unexpected. You’ll get curve balls. Some will be good, like you realized you’re having another baby ahead of you and your spouse’s schedule. Some bad, like you’ve lost your job. If you’re like me, you’ll immediately want to dissect, categorize and schedule these plot twists. You must make sense of it all.

But, you can’t. And you’re probably not supposed to.

Years ago, when one of my best friends met the man she would later marry, she sat on my floor and spilled out a thousand questions to me, which all boiled down to worrying whether or not he was “the one”. She fretted and fretted over the gift that she’d been given, wondering how it would all fit into her plans. I told her to take it one day at a time. She recently had to remind me of my own advice when I found myself facing the unexpected. I was the one wondering, How does this fit into my plan? What am I doing? Where am I going? Worry, worry, worry.

We only stress ourselves out when we try to put the square pegs of life into the round holes of our thinking. Not everything can be figured out in an instant.

To quote the book of Matthew, “Don’t worry about tomorrow. It will take care of itself.” We don’t always need a detailed five-year plan, because I can guarantee you that things lie ahead that you cannot plan for. The only thing you can do is breathe, relax and trust that everything will work out.