John Lennon famously sang that ‘life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.’ And most of us agree that the universe is generally agnostic. It has no predeterminism, no favorites, no rewards or punishment and quite frankly, the universe doesn’t care.

My daughter has had some harsh lessons even from very early on like when the mother of a 6 year-old friend canceled a play date 30-minutes before. Same with an out-of-town trip I had planned for weeks with my daughter to see friends was cancelled by phone as I had already left the house! In both cases, we made Plan B to be better than the original.

My interpretation of these two events from innumerable moments is confirmation that the best laid plans are just that–plans. There’s no guarantee that anything will be executed or even if it does run its course, the outcome will always be a pleasant experience. So, I’ve always believed that if something happens, something else will always happen.

It’s extremely unrealistic (and even naïve) to think that Plan A is the only way forward. If it doesn’t work out, our disappointment isn’t the foreclosure of that path, but our emotional investment in it.

I’m not saying that outcomes are not important; they are. But there are multiple pathways to those outcomes. My daughter will finish high school and beyond. My work projects will achieve its results as agreed. But what I’ve discovered is that the shortest path between two points is often not a straight line. And to expect it to be so is merely humoring the universe.

A destination may be elusive and sometimes happenstance and serendipity are the snakes and ladders to life’s board game. I think it’s important to embrace the idea that things will never stay the same. It’s not bracing for disappointment; it’s just a recognition that even abrupt stops always leads to other paths that are not dead ends.

And from this perspective, it’s extremely unrealistic (and even naïve) to think that Plan A is the only way forward, out of an infinite number. Our disappointment isn’t the foreclosure of that path, but our emotional investment in it.

The universe has no preference; and it owes us nothing. What it does provide is limitless possibilities.