Map out your future, but do it in pencil

Some wise person once said nothing is achievable without commitment, that without concentration of efforts  no results can be expected.  Of course he/she is right, diamonds only appear after carbon undergoes intense compression. But in a world full of uncertainties, it isn't guaranteed that diamond will be the final outcome or whether the outcome will be the diamonds we want. Which is perhaps why Don Bon Jovi said the words , "Map your future, but do it n pencil".

In other terms, make commitments but don't be as committed. Some of us can live with partial commitment but if you are like me you might find this a bit confusing. Isn't success simply a cumulative function of pure efforts. Shouldn't it be a simple mapping of hard work to results? Well, it is, but as these stories reveal , there is another factor involved, one that defies the laws of perfectionism and order.

Alexander Fleming for example was determined to make the 'wonder drug' that would kill all bacteria. So he collected samples of all sorts of bacteria in petri dishes, trying out every drug. After spurious attempts he finally resorted to discarding the experiment. In this process he noticed something rather odd, in one of the petri dishes where mold had accidentally grown, turns out the mold had the magic drug.  That my friend is how we got the antibiotic penicillin; by accident. The X-rays that are so extensively used today; they were discovered by Wilhelm Roentgen who accidentally discovered them as he was doing research on electrons. It is worth knowing that the Microwave oven was also invented by accident. The scientist Percy Spencer was busy researching on radar until he noticed that the chocolate bar in his pockets was melting. A couple of years later we now have the magic heating box.

So yes, there is an element of chance and luck in the equation of success.  No matter how convinced we are, we will always have those doubts; no matter how focused we are we'll always make mistakes. And there is nothing wrong with that. The formula, the commitment makes a good headline but the real story is in the doubts and mistakes.

Bon Jovi had it right, 'map out your future in pencil'. It doesn't mean you should stop planning at all, it just means the plan will constantly change. As much important as it is to have a defined structure and life,we are not robots. So, yeah,  go ahead scribble that plan in pencil, make mistakes, erase a few bits, modify a few bits, show your human side,  A beautiful painting could come out in the end, who knows?