It’s easy to credit the quote ‘Life is What Happens To You While You’re Busy Making Other Plans’ to the popular Beatles vocalist, John Lennon. In 1980, John released a single titled “Beautiful Boy” which contained in its lyrics, this very same quote.
However, further research has proven that John is not the original quotee of this saying. This quote dates back to January 1957. It appeared in a section of a newspaper comic strip called “Quotable Quotes” along with nine other independent quotes and was written by Allen Saunders.
This quote speaks to the idea that life is always moving forward, even when we’re not paying attention. It’s a reminder that we can’t control everything, and that some things are just out of our hands and it’s perfectly okay.
Who was John Lennon?
John Winston Ono Lennon was an English singer and songwriter popularly known firstly for his role as the co-lead vocalist of the legendary Beatles band before their breakup in 1969.John though being a peace activist, had a rather turbulent upbringing. He was born on the 9th of October, 1940 in Liverpool to Julia and Alfred Lennon. At the early of five, he was forced to experience first-hand the toxicity of an unsettled home when his father made him choose between both parents. Lennon was raised by his aunt Mimi for most part of his teenage years.
When the Beatles broke up, John released his first solo album – Plastic Ono Band alongside his wife’s album. During his career, he wrote, co-wrote or performed 25 number-one hits on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. He was most known for his song, Imagine. There was no doubt that this song was a commercial success, peaking within the top five of both the UK Albums Chart and the Billboard 200 chart in the US. The song was essentially a call for peace in the world. His most successful album, Double Fantasy, won the 1981 Grammy Award for Album of the Year.
Lennon’s life was largely characterized by a lot of “life happenings.” First was his mother’s awful death that led him into a traumatized state which led him into being expelled from school, drug use, and of course, his mysterious murder on the 8th of December, 1980 at a rather young age of 40.
What is the meaning of the quote?
The quote ‘Life is What Happens To You While You’re Busy Making Other Plans’ simply explains the unpredictability of life. No matter how much you plan, something can always happen that throws your plans off track. This is just one of the many surprises that life has in store for us.
If we consider the life of John Lennon, we would realize that a lot of things that he experienced in his 40 years on earth could not be avoided. John’s life was plagued by early successes as well as early failures. Sadly, his life was cut short due to a bizarre murder taking place on December 8th 1980.
Life`s Lemons
When we analyze the popular saying “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” You realize that lemons are not that bad in themselves but they can be a bit cumbersome to cut through. Likewise, life’s experiences are never entirely bad. While some we earn from it, others we learn from. Life is filled with never-ending responsibilities, as we grow, we take up more unplanned responsibilities by virtue of becoming adults.
Some typical responsibilities John had to take up include; having to pay child support for his first son, Julian, managing his own record after the Beatles split and taking a break from work to care for his second son Sean.
Having to deal with growing responsibilities in a bad working environment is like double trouble. These can include decreased productivity, increased stress levels, and attrition. This was what led to the break-up of the Beatles.
Work environment is strongly affected by its leadership. After the death of Brian Epstein, Paul McCartney who was a part of the band took over the management of the team. However, the rest of the team didn’t like his leadership approach and viewed him as rather, autocratic.
Disagreements is another major issue that when left unresolved, can create further problems. The Beatles’ discussions were soon marred by disagreements over musical matters. In the White Album sessions, Starr left the band for two weeks, and in the Get Back rehearsals, Harrison walked out on the group for five days.
Also, trying to please others at the expense of another thing or person could lead to a form of strain. Have you ever had to make a choice between two things that were equally important? At two intervals, John had to choose between Yoko Ono and his musical squad. When we are faced with such issues we need to act diplomatically to avoid breeding unnecessary contempt.
The importance of sometimes living in the moment
Living in the moment is usually characterized as being careless about life in general but one thing we forget is that life can throw us off track at any given time. Enjoying the small moments gives us a fair chance to breathe and appreciate life for what it is, while we have it.
Examples of things you can do to live in the moment includes going for a walk or picking up new hobbies. To go for a walk, you can put on some music or enjoy the sounds of nature. If you want to pick up a new hobby, think about something you’ve always wanted to do, like painting or hiking. Dedicate some time each day to practicing your new hobby, and soon you’ll be living more in the moment!
John, despite being a successful musician was an occasional writer as well. He wrote two books that were published- “In His Own Write” and “A Spaniard in the Works”. Lennon’s book, “In His Own Write” was has sold 300,000 copies in Britain. According to him, “I put things down on sheets of paper and stuff them in my pocket. When I have enough, I have a book”.
This also shows that our hobbies, who knows may translate to a source of income for us. John happened to be an artist as well as he published a couple of his line drawings.
Making the best of Life
If you knew that you had only 40 years to live, how would you live your life? It’s quite easy to get carried away in the illusion of sufficient time not realizing that tomorrow is not guaranteed.
John was just getting back to music after a long break when he got shot by some guy whom he signed an autograph for. No one knows why David Chapman shot him and that really shows how life could play out.
Fortunately, John made the best use of his short time. You can’t talk about the Beatles without John. In 2020, Yoko Ono his wife and his son created a compilation album from his solo tracks called Gimme Some Truth which rose to No. 3 on the British official charts. And though John is dead, his legacy still lives on.