As I mentioned over the last couple of weeks, I've been listening to Earl Nightingale, and one of his most vivid images is used to illustrate the lack of planning that so many people exhibit.
He said that when we are without a goal or a plan, we're like a boat that "goes off in all directions at once." He noted that as a boy, he would go to the marina, and ship captains would sometimes allow him to tour the navigational bridge of their ships. He would see how a destination was set, a course laid down, and as long as that ship followed a true course, even when occasional corrections were required, then the ship would slowly but surely reach its destination.
But for many of us -- perhaps most of us -- a destination is never set, the boat is never fueled, the course is never determined, the engines are never started, and the ship never leaves port. Most of us sit there at the dock, and our ship of a life rusts away, rather than taking us to great and marvelous destinations. 
Perhaps it's fitting that this quote turned up while I was writing a piece dated for Memorial Day. It's from General Omar Bradley: "This is as true in everyday life as it is in battle: we are given one life, and the decision is ours whether to wait for circumstances to make up our mind, or whether to act, and in acting, to live."
Most of the time, we never really set sail on our lives. We wait for circumstances to determine our path, or we choose to never set a course. We allow the twists and turns of life to bruise us. We choose to give in to the battle, just because we never take up arms to win control of our own life. We surrender without even firing a shot in our own defense.
Life should be an active thing -- it should be full of challenges we select, paths we scout out, and a course that we determine, as much as possible. Sure, twists and turns will happen in life -- they always do -- but we can return to our course, we can choose to act, and "in acting, to live."
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