The problem is, it’s hard to have a plan that you should stick to, when it doesn’t really align with your current goals. I’m currently working a job that I don’t really enjoy, while my fiancee works a job that means she has no time to spend with me, surrounded by people that shoot my ideas down as soon as they hear them. Not a very constructive environment!

So I’ve come to the conclusion that to keep my sanity I just need to switch my brain off for a few months. Next year the changes begin. I’ll have time with my partner and we will travel the world and just see where it takes us. I still very much want to be financially independant, but that doesn’t mean rich. Next year will hopefully lead me towards the life that I truly want – Lots of bike riding, lots of time spent outdoors, healthy food, and most importantly lots of quality time with my fiancee.

It sounds like a lot of “me, me, me” doesn’t it? I’ve spoken with my partner a lot about this now – both of us have come to the conclusion that the best way to support eachother is to be happy in our lives. Both of us need to chase our dreams, we just need to make them work together.

For now though, I’ll keep drinking on the weekends, I’ll keep going to barbeques, and I’ll try to keep my mouth shut when I speak to another 21 year old who wants to buy an investment property.

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Conform for a while

I browse a lot of forums, due to the somewhat laid back nature of my job. I can’t believe how much people are up in arms over the fact that they didn’t win. What the hell? Are they really that disappointed? Did they really expect to win? It’s only a one in 45,379,620 chance of winning!

It’s amazing how for some people, the best thing that could possibly happen to them is by chance. I know I’ve spruiked the concept of life planning a fair bit, but really – if you want to get somewhere, just plan for it and make it happen. Don’t sit around in a life that you hate just hoping that one day it will change, because it won’t!

What does this have to do with me not winning the lotto? Nothing really. My direction wouldn’t have changed if we won. Sure, there would be a lot more money in our lives, but we would still be getting married, still head off backpacking through Europe in the new year, and still fly to Canada after that to enjoy life. It would have made my life easier, not better.

What’s my point? DO WHAT YOU WANT TO DO! Obviously there are times when this doesn’t apply – in the short term you may have to make sacrifices or take risks, but plan to do what you want to do! Don’t wait for the opportunity to come along and tap you on the shoulder, because chances are it will never happen.

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Didn’t win the lotto

Well maybe you are like me – I’ve always been the sort of person that seems to have everything coming their way. I “got the girl” when I was back in school. I had the nice flashy cars when I wanted them, and have never had much trouble finding work.

Up until about 6 months ago I just assumed that I am a lucky person, but after being enlightened by my life coach it appears that I put more effort into my decisions than I realise, and as a result most things in my life tend to work out well.

On my second meeting with my life coach, let’s call her C, she asked me whether or not I “often find that things always just go your way?”. She caught me out – up until that question I thought the whole concept of life planning was going to be a joke.

How did this woman know that things always go my way?

She explained that I am the sort of person that spends a lot of time planning and preparing for each decision that I make in life, and up until now I didn’t really realise what I was doing. I was just doing it without giving it much thought.

For instance..

• I always had nice cars because I spent the time saving hard for them, rather than just buying what I could afford at the time. I had to wait longer to get them, but that just meant that I appreciated them more.
• I have no real qualifications, just experience. From the start of my career, I have understood that without a degree I needed to carefully plan my career and use “stepping stones” to get where I wanted to be. A few years back that meant sitting on a help-desk being abused by irate customers for a 18 months. Now it means putting my hand up for any random projects just to “get involved” and also work on new technology. As a result, when I apply for jobs, I always seem to either get the job, or come a close second.

Planning and preparation is relative to most aspects of our lives. From basic things like what product to buy, or to life decisions such as who to marry and so on.

We are in a world where we are encouraged to make quick decisions, without much consideration. While a little spontaneity is healthy, too much and you’ll find yourself with just no direction and little reward.

It’s been something that obviously comes naturally to myself, but even if it doesn’t come naturally, it’s something that is at least worth trying. Next time you are about to make a decision, think about it a second time before committing.

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Everything Goes to Plan

On the weekend I had to go to work as my team was moving some servers. It was a full weekend’s work and on the whole I thoroughly enjoyed it – I enjoy the physical work for a change. Unfortunately though, one of the team members invited to “help” was just an absolute waste of space. All he did was get in the way and essentially cable things incorrectly, which I would then have to come back and do properly later anyway. Long story short he cost us time and money by being there and we would have been ten times better off if he just stayed at home.

This is a man that only wears clothes in shades of brown or grey, smells like a stale closet, and by the sounds of it the most exciting thing he has ever done was catch the bus to work when his car had broken down.

The whole weekend he’d try and strike up a conversation with anyone, but it was just never about anything important. It was always about his cats, or how he liked earl grey tea or something. About two hours into the second day of working with him I realised that he is a man with pretty much nothing else in his life than dinner and TV at home, driving to and from work, and working itself. What a sad life!

While I don’t want to come across as arrogant, I suppose it gives me a bit of a boost – my life is just so much more exciting.

It’s just further confirmed my plans for life. I just can’t do the “same old same old” that a lot of people tend to sink into. It seems to be a typical theme for Gen Y’s to need to live their life with plenty of change to the Baby Boomers in this respect, and maybe it is just our impatient nature, but to be honest I don’t really care. Life’s too short to just do the same thing over and over and over. I need to mix it up a LOT!

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What a sad life!

Admittedly I haven’t been in a rut lately, I’ve been much more awake and “with it” than normal really. However over the last week or so it’s been raining a fair bit, and it’s been hard to sneak in a quick ride to get my fix. I made the decision yesterday that after I spend this week getting organised, I’ll be back on my riding schedule regardless of the weather.

This morning I woke up and decided to ride to work anyway. Usually if I’m in a rush I will ride half way, and then jump on the train to get to work as quickly as I can. It’s still enjoyable but it’s all a bit hectic and you don’t get to take in the world around you as much. Today I rode the whole way and just took my time. Got a few “good mornings” from others and said “hi” to a few passers by. It was a nice ride in, and after an hour and 15 minutes of riding to work I was really happy.

Sometimes we plan a lot for the future – major plans. Some people are overweight and want to get completely buff. Others are just finishing school and want to be rich enough to have a mansion and a Ferrari. Clearly these sorts of plans are big tasks and are going to take some time and effort. But what about in the mean time? You might be happy once you’re buff but are you going to be happy in the mean time while you are trying to get there? Will your attitude in the mean time sabotage your long term goals?

The quick wins are the small things that can put a smile on our face.. Even if it is just for 5 minutes! They keep us happy and motivated, and ready to tackle something else.

My example for today is riding to work. I was having trouble getting motivated to ride to work up until now, but on the bike today I’m just so re-energized and ready to go!

Make sure in your life plan you include some quick wins. Who knows what they might be… It could be a goal to cook a new meal. Maybe a challenge to do an extra 5 push-ups. Anything!

Use your quick wins to stay positive and motivated, and keep you moving towards your long term goals.

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Quick Wins

My friend emailed me the other day saying how it’s interesting that people always write business and career plans but never life plans, and how it fits in well with my beliefs. I couldn’t agree with him more to be honest. Everyone bases so much on their career, assuming that a happy life will naturally compliment their successful career. While for some people this may be the case, often for a lot of people the rest of their life is neglected and in the long term things don’t go as well as they thought they would.

The second “prompt” was while watching a show on TV called Insight. It was about people reinventing themselves, and evolved largely around their careers. Many of the people on the show had been laid-off because of the global financial crisis, and have been forced to find work in other industries, while others had changed careers to give them more time with their family, or for similar reasons. The rest were people that wanted to reinvent themselves, but had no idea how.

What struck me during Insight was the very clear split between the people attending the show. Some were so content with changing direction and not concerned at the least, while others were terrified by the thought. Some were able to adapt without much thought at all, and the others thought they were able to adapt but in reality never left their comfort zone at all.

It made me realise how much emphasis people place on their career. How many times do you hear your friends say that they are unable to do the things that they really want to do because of their job?

“I had to work back late, so I didn’t get to see the kids before bed time.”

“By the time I get home from work it’s dark, so it’s hard to stay fit.”

“I try to eat well, but I just don’t have time in the morning to have a good breakfast and make a healthy lunch.”

There’s plenty of examples, but the underlying cause is that we place such a great emphasis on our career. It’s interesting though, as the only reason that we work is so we can live our lives outside of work. Ask anyone – unless you have the best job in the world (professional downhill mountain biker), there are things that you’d rather be doing than working. I’m not suggesting that the answer is not to work at all, but work should just be a component of our life plan.

Life plan? Yep. Imagine if you wrote a plan for our life. Where do you want to be in 2 years? 5 years? 10 years? What are you going to do to get there? What wouldn’t you sacrifice to get it?

Rather than just aspiring to be rich or have a great job, actually define what you want from life. Do you want to be a really great father one day? Your career might have to take a bit of a hit so you get to spend the maxium amount of time with your kids. Do you want to live a healthy life? You might need to spend less time at work so you can exercise and have more time to eat well.

Now right now it sounds as though I’m going on my usual “money isn’t everything” rant. Life planning still works for when you want to be rich. If you want a mansion and a nice car and so on, you should still plan for it. While you’re career might be going perfectly, and money is rolling into your bank account, with some simple planning you might be able to get the mansion faster, or pay it off outright within a few years. On Insight there was a man that was earning over $200,000 a year and was worried about his home loan after he had been laid off! Surely some forward planning could have avoided this problem, but he failed to plan for the future.

I’ll write more on this, but when you get some free time actually have a think about what you really want, and how your job can help you with this, rather than just what your job can yet you.

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Life Plan