Go up in smoke

Sunday, 2022-11-27, Phrase: Go up in smoke
Sometimes all our efforts come to naught.

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Phrase: Go up in smoke

It’s sad but true.

Sometimes, all our efforts come to naught, and even the best-laid plans of mice and men go up in smoke.

Now, some would call that failure, whereas others would say it’s a learning opportunity.

The first person leans towards negativity, whereas the second prefers to look on the bright side.


When something such as a plan goes up in smoke, yes, it could be destroyed by fire, but often it means it came to nothing.


The pandemic and now rising prices have caused many well-made plans to go up in smoke.

Luckily for us, when plans go up in smoke, they don’t increase the amount of carbon dioxide in the air.

If they did, we’d have no chance of preventing climate change from worsening.

Come on.

You have to laugh because if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry, which will not help anyone.

Remember, every failure is an opportunity waiting to be exploited.

Your plans for the future may have gone up in smoke during the last few years, but hey, today is yesterday’s future, and today is tomorrow’s past.

No one wants to listen to you, or me for that matter, whine and complain about how our plans have gone up in smoke.

Plans are not reality; they are hoped-for reality.

God helps those who help themselves.

We should be flexible enough to accept the new fact and adapt our plans accordingly.

Yes, prices are going up, but what goes up must come down.

Look for bargains and bide your time until opportunity knocks, and when it does, open the door.  


Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test

This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).   

On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 77.   

The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.