Desperation is a necessary ingredient to learning anything, or creating anything. Period.

—Jim Carey

February’s Blueprint

 How Adaptive Planning Turns Out to Be Just Right

Experiences Shape Us, Experiences Challenge Us

Here in Life Notes, we have played with the idea of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We have mentioned trying to find just-right plans for you, and have ventured into what happens when travel unravels, in The Chateau Fights Back. This Best of Both Worlds article encourages the creation of new space for a new idea and new inspiration., on the heels of a trip cancellation On that note, what if Goldilocks, in her attempt to find stable housing, rented the Bears’ shed and realized that she and Mama Bear shared a love of travel? Most people don’t even realize that Goldilocks and Mama Bear actually started their own travel agency.

This is one example of how struggle and the end of one thing can open the door to something new. When your plans collide with weather, political instability, hurricanes, or other non-negotiable patterns in life, you can see it for what it is: change. Sometimes we decide to change something, and sometimes the decision is made for us. When moving from inspiration into travel, we still have choice. Do we default to trying to build the perfect plan, or do we shift toward adaptive planning?

Over at the Just Right Travel Agency, Goldilocks and Mama Bear excel at helping you adjust plans, not just create them. Because life happens.

The Guadiana River, Vila Real de Santo Antonio, Portugal Photo by Wendy Stieg

Portuguese doors, Silves, Portugal Photo by Wendy Stieg

Allow Feelings, and Allow Creativity to Start to Sink In

So let’s say it has finally sunk in. Your trip isn’t going to happen. Do you abandon it altogether, rebook it for next year exactly the same way, or consider something else?

Abandoning something meaningful is never easy. I rarely abandon ideas. I try to reframe them. If your trip to the Caribbean didn’t work out, what were you really going for? Sun, sand, rest, exploration, sailing, ocean air? As your mind loosens from the shock of a sudden change, you may begin to see that some parts of what you wanted are still very possible, just in a different form. Sometimes the revised version turns out better than the original.

Retry the Same Plan, Revise,

or Edit?

Breakthroughs rarely happen on the first attempt. Most worthwhile outcomes are refined through revision. The question is not whether your first version worked. The question is what you keep, what you change, and what you release.

At the Just Right Travel Agency, Goldilocks and Mama Bear don’t recommend repeating the same trip plan over and over. They recommend reviewing it like a draft. Some trips need a light revision. Some need a deeper edit. Some are better set aside so a stronger plan can take their place.

This is where the difference between rigid planning and adaptive planning begins to matter. A rigid plan insists on the original version. An adaptive plan asks what still fits and reshapes the rest.

Rigid Planning Versus Adaptive Planning

One helpful way to think about travel planning is to compare rigid planning with adaptive planning. Most of us use a mix of both without realizing it, but knowing which mode you are in can make it easier to revise a trip when conditions change.

Rigid planning treats the first version of a trip like a finished document. Dates, places, and bookings are locked in early, and the goal becomes protecting the original structure at all costs. This can feel secure at first, but when something shifts, the entire plan can feel threatened. The stress often comes not from the change itself, but from how tightly everything was fixed in place.

Adaptive planning treats the first version as a draft. The direction is clear, but the details are adjustable. Instead of asking how to force the plan to work, adaptive planning asks what still fits and what needs to be revised. The purpose of the trip stays steady, while the form is allowed to change.

At the Just Right Travel Agency, Goldilocks and Mama Bear are known for planning in drafts. They start with intention, add structure where it helps, and leave room where life is likely to interfere. When something changes, they do not assume the trip has failed. They open the document, review the purpose, and edit.

When you plan this way, revision is not a setback. It is part of the design.

Mitigation is not about expecting problems 

It is about planning with intention. Setting up a dedicated travel savings account used only for travel expenses helps remove pressure and allows you to build and book your trip in stages instead of all at once. Travel insurance is another support layer you should include, not from fear, but because protecting a meaningful investment in your experience is simply good planning. When you combine financial containment, insurance protection, and flexible booking choices, you give yourself room to adapt without panic. It may be helpful to review the order of planning steps, revisit How to Know When You’re Ready to Book a Trip and use it as a reset point so you can move forward again with clarity and structure.

Goldilocks and Mama Bear recently celebrated their first six months of success at the Just Right Travel Agency. They navigated financial instability through creativity, collaboration, and trust in their process, building on what they learned through lived experience rather than perfect conditions. The work supported both of them. Goldilocks found her new digs at last, a small cottage in the woods not too far from the Bears’ home. Papa Bear found a new job, and Baby Bear is still happy to have his own room.

Vila Real de Santo Antonio, Palm-lined street. PHoto by Wendy Stieg

Little-known fact: Goldilocks and Mama Bear went into business together, selling adventure travel.