The Best Weekend We Never Planned
We had it all planned.
Pinehurst. Golf. Four days blocked off on the calendar with another couple Jenn and I love. Reservations made. Excitement building. The kind of trip you look forward to for months.
Then, 36 hours before departure, our friend blew out his shoulder. Trip cancelled. Just like that.
My first reaction was pure disappointment. We’d carved out the time. We made the commitment. And now it was gone. But here’s where it got interesting.
Suddenly, we had four completely empty days. No flights. No hotel. No itinerary. No structure. Just blank space on the calendar and the choice of what to do with it.
So we did something we almost never do. We made it up as we went.
Within hours, we were calling friends for last-minute dinners. Booking a hike we hadn’t planned with other friends. Driving to the Jersey Shore for a special romantic dinner on a whim because why not. Exploring a local park to catch the cherry blossoms before they faded. Playing golf. Saying yes to things without knowing exactly where they would lead.
It was messy. Uncontrolled. Completely unlike how we normally operate.
It was also one of the best weekends we’ve had in years.
I’ve built my life around a simple belief: Minutes Matter. Every single one. Not just the minutes you schedule, not just the ones that show up on your calendar unexpectedly. All of them. The accidental ones. The unexpected ones. The ones that fall into your lap when the plan you loved disappears overnight.
Those four days were a live demonstration of that principle. We didn’t get a do-over. We didn’t get to bank those days for later. We had them, right then, and we had a choice. Use them or lose them. We used them. We embraced them. We had the best weekend together in years!
I plan life far in advance. Sometimes 12 to 18 months or longer. I have events on my calendar throughout all of 2027 and now some of 2028. Goals. Timelines. Structure. There’s real value in that, and I’m not walking any of it back. But somewhere in all that planning, I had quietly started confusing preparation with living. I was building the runway and forgetting to take off.
That weekend reminded me of something I say all the time but apparently needed to feel again: Live Today… Don’t Wait for Tomorrow. Not someday. Not when the calendar clears. Not when the conditions are perfect. Today. Right now. With whatever four days life just handed you.
We also experienced another LITSG principle I hold deeply: You Can’t Make It Alone. So much of the meaning across those four days happened because we reached out to someone. A text. A call. “Hey, are you free tonight?” And people showed up. Friends we hadn’t seen in a while. Couples we love but rarely get spontaneous time with. The connections weren’t planned. They weren’t coordinated six months in advance. They were real and immediate and human, and they reminded me that the best experiences in life are always shared ones.
And then there’s this one: Take a Chance and Get It Done Today. We didn’t overanalyze the Jersey Shore dinner. We didn’t debate whether the hike made sense logistically. We just went. We said yes before our brains could talk us out of it. And every single time we did, something amazing happened.
Here’s the honest truth: Pinehurst would have been great. I know that. It was a well-planned trip with great friends, and I’m sure we’ll reschedule it and it will be everything we hoped for.
But those four unexpected days? They were something different. They were alive in a way that’s hard to fully explain but impossible to forget.
Choose Your Attitude and Own It. That’s the last principle I’ll leave you with, and it’s the one that ties this whole thing together. What looked like a lost weekend and disappointment on almost no notice became one of the richest stretches of time Jenn and I have shared in months. Nothing about the circumstances was ideal. Everything about how we chose to respond to them was amazing!
So here’s my question for you:
What if the cancelled plan in your life right now isn’t a setback? What if it’s an invitation? What if the empty space on your calendar is the most valuable real estate you have?
Pick up the phone. Make the call. Say yes to something unplanned this week.
Because the right moment isn’t next month.
It’s right now.
Regards,
Scott
The Life Is Too Short Guy