The Earth Doesn’t Care About Your Five-Year Plan

How slowing down, losing control, and listening to nature changed the way I live

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A couple of years ago, I had a plan.
A clean, color-coded, five-year plan.

It had bullet points and deadlines. Promotions I’d aim for, skills I’d master, places I’d travel, even the kind of person I wanted to become — more assertive, more productive, more… something.

Back then, I thought life was a climb. That if I kept ascending — one achievement, one milestone, one checkbox at a time — I’d eventually land somewhere stable. Somewhere successful. Maybe even happy.

Then life, as it often does, didn’t follow the plan.

People I loved drifted or left. Opportunities I thought were certain vanished. My motivation disappeared without warning. And I found myself staring at my five-year plan like it was written in another language. One I no longer understood.

Nature doesn’t hustle — and it’s still alive

When everything started to fall apart, I began going on walks. Not for fitness, not for steps, not for content. Just walks.

At first, it felt like a way to pass time. A gentle way to not be on my phone. But…