Max’s Mad Lib
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
— Max Ehrmann, The Desiderata
I have to admit, when I first read this sentence, I wasn’t really feeling it. Should we be enjoying our achievements more? Or our plans? Or is it the achievements for which we have planned? Or the plans that we’ve achieved? Max, Max, Max…what are you saying?!?
Given his litany of directives about how to engage the world around us, I was a little surprised at the brevity of this installment’s statement. (The next sentence in the Desiderata may hint that he’s talking about vocation here, but that sentence actually stands alone as a fuller idea.)
So, in the absence of more explicit context, you get me filling in Max’s Mad Lib.
I believe he is emphasizing that a life well-lived has times of planning and doing as well as moments of reflection. We intentionally enjoy the now how ever the now is being spent.
There must also be balance. Too much planning and nothing ever happens. I chalk that up to fear, the great immobilizer.
Too much doing without being planful results in “fire, ready, aim” mode, landing us somewhere we never intended. Impatience, fear in three syllables, leads us down that path.
Sometimes it’s easy to get so focused on the next thing that we don’t enjoy the current thing. Finishing lunch while discussing what’s for dinner. Asking newlyweds about their intentions to start a family. Perpetually calculating the class hours remaining until we earn a degree.
Even though most of us acknowledge feeling that time is fleeting, we often help it along by not actually being where we are.
I am occasionally guilty of this during an effort that takes a long time or has multiple steps. Sure, I believe in the power of practicing mindfulness, but I am still susceptible to wanting to be distracted from tedium rather than leaning into it.
Max’s eight words remind us to plan for the future…peacefully without fear…while we continue to move forward…enjoying the gifts of the moment as we go.
Yeah, I’m sure that’s what he meant.
