The Plan

I've never been much of a planner. While I'm really organized and I have general long term goals, I don't spend enough time thinking through all the strategic and tactical steps to make them happen. I tend to take life as it comes and simply focus on making the best of the situations I face.

When I have been able to create a strategy to accomplish something, I know I can follow through. I did it when I lost 35 pounds last year. The problem becomes turning those short term goals into long term success, as evidenced by the fact that I've gained back 10 of the pounds I lost.

Back in December, I had this great idea to spend my last days of the year actually creating a long term plan for my life that I could start executing on January 1st. I even started writing a blog about it. I never finished the plan or the blog, but the need for a life plan has been nagging at me ever since.

The year is half over now, but I still have half a year go, so I figure there is no time like the present to get my butt back on track. Over the past few weeks, I've been making lists of short and long term priorities, along with time lines and goals to measure them. And since one of the things I learned through my previous weight loss was that writing about my progress helped hold me accountable, I'll be blogging about the details along the way.

A huge part of executing my plan is adopting a new attitude about one of the biggest things that derails me. When I start thinking about what I want to accomplish, I always find myself saying, "I'll work on that as soon as I get myself caught up on everything else." But the more I've thought about it, the more I've realized that life just doesn't work out that neatly. There will always be items on the to-do list, things that get in the way, etc. So along with my plan, I also have a new personal motto...

"There is no such thing as caught up." 

Once you accept you'll never really be "done," there is really nothing left to get in the way of what you want.

Life has also taught me that when things go haywire you need a sense of humor to cope. There is a distinct possibility my plan and I could fall flat on our faces. I'm stubborn, so I'm not going to let that possibility of failure stop me. But just in case I need a little reality check from time to time, I have another plan to fall back on. I rediscovered this one in my "Happy File" and it's always made me feel better.

The Plan

In the beginning was The Plan

And then came the assumptions

And the assumptions were without form

And The Plan was without substance

And darkness was upon the face of the worker

And they spoke among themselves saying

"It is a crock of shit, and it stinketh"

And the workers went unto the supervisor and said

"It is a pail of dung and none may abide by the odor thereof"

And the supervisors went unto the managers saying

"It is a container of excrement and it is very strong such that none may abide by it"

And the managers went unto their directors saying

"It is a vessel of fertilizer and none may abide by its strength"

And the directors spoke among themselves saying to one another

"It contains that which aids plant growth and it is very strong"

And the directors went unto the vice-presidents saying unto them

"It promotes grows and is very powerful"

And the vice-presidents went unto the president saying unto him

"This new plan will actively promote the growth and vigor of the company with powerful effects"

And the president looked upon The Plan and saw that it was good

And The Plan became policy

This is how shit happens

With that thought, I'm off to the gym. Part 1 of my plan involves regular dates with the elliptical machine...