Adjusting Plans

One of my favorite features of GPS Navigation systems is the automatic route recalculation they do if you take a wrong turn: "recalculating route". It takes the stress out of making a mistake because the navigation system quickly gives you a new route from your new location. Sure, you might have lost a few minutes, but that is rarely an issue. Humans are not as good at constantly recalculating routes...

Yesterday we were planning for me to take the kite gear to the kite center in the buggy, then return the buggy to its owner, then walk back to the house so that we could all walk to the kite center. At the last minute we decided to have A come with me in case the buggy broke down. We also got delayed so that by the time we were returning the buggy, C and the other boys were already leaving the house and walking to the kite center. It would have then made the most sense for A to stay at the kite center rather than walk back and forth to the house with me, but we had failed to "recalculate" our plan and A had not changed into his bathing suit before leaving the house. Not necessarily a huge deal, A had to walk an extra half hour, but this lack of adjusting plans when I change them at the last moment sometimes gets me in bigger troubles. What made perfect sense before, no longer makes sense after a minor adjustment, and we fail to recognize the need to "recalculate" until it is too late. We take great care in making our plans but then fail to grasp how a last minute change might totally ruin them. Not sure there is an easy answer to this other than being vigilant to the implications of seemingly small changes to our well thought out plans.