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In 2024, What Will Have ‘Gang Aft Agley’?
Plans don’t always succeed. We can try something else.
My readers may sense I’m not really a goal-setter.
“Remind me who you are?” you may ask.
If I’m forgettable, it may be because I haven’t branded myself; this, in turn, implies I don’t set certain goals for publicity and “success.”
This New Year’s 2024 article is about setting or not-setting goals.
It’s also a 2023 year-end roundup of several stories I published on Medium. I didn’t plan, last New Year’s, all the essays I’d write over the coming year. I had no way of knowing what I’d learn in 2023 and what I’d be willing and able to share. I knew I’d write something, and I was pleasantly surprised at what my work turned up.
The work spreads like an octopus: story-tentacle after story-tentacle. At a glance, the tentacles appear to move randomly, but these members are connected and grow organically to serve the same mind and heart. Thus, on this page, alongside new brief reflections for 2024, the octopus icons (🐙) mark the eight articles I’m resharing.
1. A Plan Isn’t a Guarantee
When Robert Burns, in 1785, plowed his field and turned up a frightened mouse, he reflected on our inability to…
