I was chatting with a friend today about what the future holds for his three delightful girls. That caused me to reflect on my own daughter, who is now 27 and has been through a heck of a lot – as have I.

Things don’t turn often out quite the way we plan. In so far as we make preparations, that in itself doesn’t guarantee that things will go as expected. As I learned in the forces, no plan survives contact with the enemy. In project management, no plan survives the battle for resources. So, across all of life, no plan survives the inevitable clash with hardship.

This doesn’t mean we should prepare and commit our hopes. We must constantly work to improve the odds of success, knowing that there the path won’t quite be the one we planned.

Or, if you like Stoicism… the obstacle becomes the way.