There was a time when I genuinely believed that life could be planned.

We study, build a career, earn money, create a family, buy a home, travel when we can, save for the future and slowly arrive at the life we imagined for ourselves. At least, that was the picture I carried in my mind for a long time.

Perhaps many of us do.

We grow up with ideas about where we should be by a certain age. We make plans, set goals and quietly create a picture of the person we think we will become.

And then...