Most of y’all know that I was a kid actor in Atlanta who moved to LA after college. I was packing to move back to Atlanta just after my 24th birthday. I was super bummed. This was not the plan.

I remember lamenting that fact in a call with my favorite aunt, who said, “Bonnie, lemme tell you about Plan K.”

She went on to tell the story about how we all have this Plan A in our minds. We also probably have a Plan B. But beyond that, we’re pretty sure we’ve failed, if we don’t get one of those first few plans up and running, at a certain point.

Eventually, in life, we realize we’re gonna hit every letter in the alphabet, and maybe a few times over.

She said, “I cannot wait to hear from you about how much you’re loving Plan K.”

And that shifted things for me.

It made me realize that I could have a whole big map for how I *thought* it was gonna go, and it may sometimes line up with that and sometimes not at all… but that I was gonna hit all the letters of the alphabet and THAT was what was gonna be fun, if I would just let it be.

So, here I am somewhere around L, M, maybe even N or O, and I have to say, Aunt Jean was right.

Plan A is for the easily satisfied. Plan B is for amateurs. Let it take the time it takes and enjoy all the letters.

What letter are you on? Are you excited for all the letters yet to hit? Do you realize that if you’re 100% sure you’re going to make it in sitcoms when you’re a teenager that doesn’t mean you’ve failed when you make it as a movie star in your 40s? Let’s ask George Clooney how it felt to get fired off Roseanne or let go from The Facts of Life or cancelled as series lead on E/R (the sitcom, not the NBC hit on which he rebranded himself, years later). Heck, who’d have thought the oddball second banana in Alias would become a top-grossing movie star while the guy who was the romantic lead in that series spent a few years clamoring for guest-star spots before getting back into the series regular arena… on basic cable?

You just don’t KNOW your path, and to decide how it should look, to decide how it will look, to decide you’re a failure if it doesn’t pan out like you’ve mapped it all out, well, that’s aspiring for A then being bitter when that doesn’t come to be.

Let’s enjoy the run through all the letters. And that’s not just my advice; that’s wisdom from my favorite aunt.

Bonnie Gillespie is living her dreams by helping others figure out how to live theirs. Wanna work with Bon? Start here. Thanks!

Originally published by Actors Access at http://more.showfax.com/columns/avoice/archives/001628.html. Please support the many wonderful resources provided by the Breakdown Services family. This posting is the author’s personal archive.