“Man Plans, and God Laughs.”
— Yiddish adage

According to the old saying, you can make God laugh merely by planning. Of course, you have to come up with an actual plan. That’s the hard part, but it’s the necessary part, too.

I think a corollary is that God cries when we go about life with no plan. If we wander about aimlessly, hoping to find success, then we’re counting on getting lucky. Without a plan, we can’t focus our energy on any specific target. When year, after year, we’re still stuck walking in circles, that’s sad.

Now, a plan is hard to make because if we have a plan, then we’re responsible for executing that plan. We need to take the hard steps toward our goal. We need to put in the work. Making a plan also means that we might fail, and we don’t like it when God or anybody else laughs at our failures.

No matter how good your plan is, it will never be perfect. You’ll probably run into unforeseen challenges and obstacles. You’ll probably hit some walls. Maybe you’ll have to throw out the plan, pick up the pieces, and start over. So what? Make God laugh. Set new goals, make new plans, and keep improving. In the end, when your plan finally works, when your hard work finally pays off, pat yourself on the back, take a bow, and laugh.