Are You Living the Life You Planned?
Finding joy in the unexpected
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These pictures make me laugh every time I see them. My friend Chuck1 drew them when we were in college. He envisioned what “Future Tarek” might look like. I get he was channeling my Egyptian heritage, but I don’t think I look like former President Anwar Sadat. I’ll let you be the judge!2
Growing up, we all had visions of who we'd become. Armed with limited life experience and boundless optimism, our younger selves couldn't possibly have anticipated the complexity of life that would unfold.
The reality is that life doesn’t follow the script we write in our youth, and that's perfectly OK. In fact, it's more than OK - it's often precisely what we need. Think about it: how many are thankful that specific dreams didn't materialize because they made way for even better opportunities?3 Our paths twist and turn, leading us to experiences, relationships, and achievements that our younger selves never imagined.
Here are some realizations I’ve had about my life:
Detours often lead to our most meaningful destinations — Had my family not lived in the Middle East during my youth, I may not have met and married my wife Susanna (that’s for a future post!)
Our capacity to grow from adversity is far greater than we can imagine — Had I not had a brain infection, I would not have written this blog.
The skills we develop through challenges become our greatest strengths — Because of my illness, I learned to embrace the power of personal growth, which transformed my life.
Our uniqueness emerges not from following a preset path that we or someone else laid out for us. It comes from embracing who we authentically are.
Here's the truth: the life you're living right now, with all its imperfections and unexpected turns, is uniquely yours. While it may not match childhood drawings or early aspirations, it carries the wisdom of your experiences, the strength of your resilience, and the authenticity of your good and bad choices.
Rather than measuring yourself against an outdated blueprint that didn’t turn out as expected, celebrate how far you've come and, more importantly, the person you've become. After all, the best stories do not follow a predictable plot - they're the ones that surprise us, challenge us, and ultimately reveal the extraordinary in the unexpected.
Your life might not look exactly as you imagined, but perhaps it's become something even better: a genuine reflection of your growth, courage, and ability to adapt and thrive. Embrace your unique journey, knowing that every twist in the road has contributed to who you are today.
This is your reminder to live your life on purpose - one beautiful, unexpected moment at a time.
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As I typed that sentence, I found myself singing “Unanswered Prayers” by Garth Brooks. Is it wrong to think in song lyrics? I can’t help it.
Well said. Its funny. I can look back and see that seemingly small events or conversations I had (and some that never occurred but would have changed my life’s direction had they occurred) changed where I lived, what I chose for a living. One could say - seemingly my entire direction in life. I was one conversation away from pursuing music as a career. That would have taken me different places for sure.
Plans are critical. But if we think too much about our plan or follow it too closely, it can really prevent us from experiencing a lot of life and opportunities. That tends to freeze up a lot of young people today as they’re faced with so many more opportunities (and decisions) than we were. “Which is the correct” decision, they continually ask.
My advice to them is always - it’s the one you choose. In the end, if we believe our life has purpose and there is a higher calling and much more to it than what we see, then “what” we do for a living is secondary. How we do it, how we serve those around us - that’s the purpose of life. It’s often not up to me to decide my “place” in life. It’s to decide what to do with the one I have.
LOL...no...you do not look like Anwar Sadat. When I was still a child, I dreamed of living a life of my television idol...Donna Reed. In that show, she wore dresses, heels, and pearls, topped by an apron. She was married to a successful pediatrician and lived in a two-story house. To me, that was the dream. Watching those episodes now makes me realize how rampant was the sexism with the "little woman" attitudes. With all the other ways my life went sideways within relationships, thank God none of them were like that one. My adult children and I have been talking this week about the seeming catastrophes that have led to new, better opportunities we never saw coming. For instance, if I wouldn't have desperately left an abusive ex husband and moved into a certain apartment building I would never have met my wonderful husband of 31 years in the parking lot. To this day I look at him and say in wonder, "You're the guy in the parking lot!"