Over Planning and Anxiety

Is that even possible? You can plan for a party or a trip to the seaside, surely that doesn’t take long to do? Not really exacting.

My previous roles have been aviation-related. Let’s plan a routine flight from Glasgow to Edinburgh. Ignoring all the calculations for take-off weight and whether the aircraft is balanced – it won’t tip either on its nose or tail – we need to have sufficient fuel for the flight. How much is sufficient? We could fill the aircraft up to the gunnels but we might then be overweight when we finally land. The fuel required will cover being sufficient to start up, taxi and take off, then to fly across at the altitude expected (what if we are requested to fly lower and burn more fuel?), to make the approach, land and shutdown. We also need to incorporate enough fuel to make an additional approach if the first attempt goes awry, and then divert to the nearest suitable airfield if a landing at Edinburgh is not possible. And we haven’t taken off yet.

In flight, one of my roles was to obtain the necessary weather forecasts at the various airfields en route – but on our journey, Edinburgh is so close, all we need to keep an eye out is for Edinburgh and our diversion airfield, which could have been Lossiemouth or even Lyneham in my day.

On the approach to the airfield we need to ensure that the cloud base, the lowest level of the clouds, is above the lowest altitude that our chosen electronic approach will permit. Sometimes we can make that approach but at a short distance from the end of the runway, or at a specific altitude, but see no signs of that huge stretch of tarmac, despite the plethora of lights along the centreline. At that moment of decision, we will have already got what we need to do in our minds. There’s no time to examine the information in depth at 200 feet, in cloud, and at a slow speed. We were already prepared. Then it’s off to either do the same approach again, just in case we can make it this time, or fly to the next alternate airfield.

What was the point of all that?

Some people say to me that it will be all right in the end.
Whatever calamity we are facing, it will all end ok.

Perhaps a multitude of examples of life have tended to prove this theory to them, and they are offering their wisdom to others. I can see that. I have even used it when writing to others, but it never seemed to sit well with me.

What I struggle with is that we are all ‘built’ differently. For some of us, we over prepare, not because we are wanting to overcomplicate the matter, but because that is who we are. It is our natural response. I feel that my anxiety soars with complexity. It stood me in great stead in the military role where nothing was certain, and anything could occur, and often did. You might plan one thing but you had better have plan B, C and D up your sleeve as well. When in teaching and the children had not clicked with the latest mathematical process, and you had to use a different technique; there was always another group of children who also found that too much – where was your Plan C then? In ministry, listening to people is often regarded as quite easy. When, in reality, it is by carefully listening that we can discern what might be the problem, but it is not mine to solve. Albeit ministers are not counsellors, by reflecting back what people have said, they themselves can see the situation in a different light. That patient approach requires many changes of plan – and it may not work. So what’s next?

Nevertheless, when the scenario is not in the military, or within the classroom, or with one occupying the ministerial role, that anxiety can still ramp up exponentially. For those who tell others to just go with the flow, I salute you. I’m glad that this works for you. For others, those with depression perhaps, it may not – in fact I’d suggest that it won’t. They will have their own strategy or more likely are trying to develop one, to counter the extremes of fluctuating anxiety. One response might be to just offering a listening ear: “what would you like to do next?“, being prepared for “I have no idea“, and having your own plan B, C and D.

Try walking in their shoes for a while, as they might like to walk in ours.