Category Archives: Plans

the price

October 30, 2014 6:27 AM , 2 Comments ,

How can my arms feel like both limp spaghetti strands and like lead weights at the same time?

The plan sort of took shape about four years ago.  The general idea was to get back into some sort of shape after decades of neglect.  The first phase which I must say that I’ve thoroughly mastered, was the walking and then running phase.

This was where the heavy work of weight loss was to be done.  For the most part that has been accomplished.  From an all time high of 292 pounds I have reduced down to 184 pounds and still counting.  Right now I am probably at the tail end of what I can accomplish through running.  I will probably continue to lose weight but I won’t be able to garner as much benefit through running anymore.

The second phase, and what has turned out to be the harder phase, the upper body and torso phase began this year.  Exercises to increase muscle mass, exercises to burn fat, exercises to increase flexibility.  So far it hasn’t gone very well.

Let me be clear.  I am not expecting to look like some sort of body builder at the end of this process.  My philosophy behind this fitness plan is somewhat similar to the train of thought that I took when purchasing my Dodge Charger.  I was not looking for a car to go out racing every weekend but at the same time I did want a car that would have the muscle to get around other traffic when and if necessary.  In the same way I don’t expect to be overly muscled at the end of this process but to definitely have the strength and flexibility necessary for whatever eventuality arises.

Unfortunately (or maybe I should say fortunately) you can’t just go out and buy a body like that from a showroom.  You have to be willing to put in the price in both time and sweat.

First I had several abortive attempts to self start the process and those sputtered to a halt after a week or two.  Then after I realized that I needed someone to keep me on course I went looking for a trainer.  Apparently a much harder chore than at first blush.

I found several ads for trainers in the local papers and websites but the offers ranged from fairly clueless people who seemed to know less than I did to die-hard workout fanatics that would have me exercising 24 hours a day.  The local health store manager offered to connect me to a trainer he knew but the trainer never called back.  Finally I got a trainer through a local gym but things didn’t work out after a month.

So I’m almost back to square one.  I know a little more about the process than when I first started and I have made some inroads into forcing myself to work out 4 times a week without excuses but I know that I am all over the place.  I need to be more focused.

The plan right now is to first of all continue working out.  Some sort of exercise is better than nothing after all.  Next to re-double my efforts and find that right guide to get me on track.  Lastly to carry on.

The plan is working.  It’s not going to be one of those overnight success stories but it will succeed.

Posted in: exercise, habits, health, life in general, plans

long term plans and changes

October 20, 2014 6:58 AM , Leave a Comment ,

Humans don’t tend to think in the long-term.  Lunchtime is the extent of most folks plans. Let’s face it, most of us don’t have to go above and beyond our immediate needs.  Slightly ambitious people will look ahead to next weekend or maybe shop early for Christmas.  We may have some vague notions as to how we want our lives to proceed or how our business careers will develop but mostly we don’t go into minute detail as to how things will go.

Bosses, business leaders, politicians,  and other people who are in charge have to think ahead. But even these plans don’t go past next year or some five-year plan.

As I said, we don’t plan for the long haul.   It’s just not necessary for most of us because it’s won’t really affect us negatively if we don’t.

In fact, in some cases it may be detrimental to be thinking about the long-term while others grasp the opportunities that present themselves in the present.  Those quick enough to grasp those opportunities benefit.   Those that don’t suffer so the tendency is to go after the quick reward and eschew looking at the long-term.

So why should anyone plan for the long-term or even just understand long-term change?  Well cause at a deeper and more fundamental level most of the important things in life happen in the long-term.  I mean really long-term.

It’s somewhat difficult for the average person to visualize what deep time is or how it works.  Deep time is the concept that most of the big things in life-like plate tectonics, evolution, long-term climate, these things don’t work themselves out immediately or even slowly.  These things work themselves out ultra slowly.  They work on the principle of slow and steady pressure over an unfathomable time scale to coalesce and to morph from one situation into another.  They defy the attempts for a young impatient species to define and visualize.

The sun affects our planet through gravity and radiation shaping and altering the landforms which in turn determine the type of vegetation that will grow and then makes animal life adapt to fit these available plants and finally humans take stock of all these factors and change their lifestyle, their culture, their religion to suit these things.  We begin the process on one end with billions of years of change and at the other centuries or just decades of change.

I don’t want to get all Disney but it is a huge web but not just a web of life but a web of reality.  A delicate balance that has worked itself out and harmonized over an unimaginable time scale.

Yet in the last few hundred years we as humans have done things to our environment to alter and disturb these long-term cycles without any sort of thought towards the long-term consequences of our actions.

We force a meandering river to stay in a particular channel because it suits our needs, we cut down a forest on a hillside without considering erosion, we wipe out entire species for our convenience.

Even in our own man-made world we do things without forethought.  Some giant retailer comes to a small town and devastates the local small shop owners, clogs the local small roads with traffic that these roads can’t handle, and litters the ground with a plague of cheap plastic shopping bags.  The retailers only concern is if the local community can be harvested for a profit.  The other ramifications of their actions are unimportant.

We not only have to be cognizant that our actions have immediate repercussions but we also have to consider how our plans fit into the long-term development of any system.

Why is this so important nowadays?  Our progress, our industry, our consumption of raw resources is such that we are approaching a point that no deviation from our current course will be possible.  A sort of inertia is building up that threatens to be not just unstoppable but unalterable.  We may not be able to force this path to deviate at all.

And if it does turn out to be the wrong path, what then?  We are as far as I know the only creature in the world that is able to think in an abstract manner.  We can visualize, plan, and consider things in our minds long before we move a muscle or disturb a blade of grass.  Why is that we have to rush headlong into what might be a dangerous and foolhardy path?  Let’s use this gift we have (perhaps the only real gift we have) to think and figure things out before embarking on what might be a tragic course of events.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in: activities, environment, plans

rhythms of business

September 26, 2014 6:15 AM , Leave a Comment ,

Every aspect of life has rhythms and cycles that are evident if you think about them.  Even business has these cycles that run throughout the year and throughout the life cycle of a project.  The savvy individual will learn to follow and interpret these signs much like a hunter seek out and follow a herd of animals looking to pick off their own fair share.

This time of year is my favorite for more reasons than the cooling weather and colorful leaves.  End of the year budget spending.  That special moment when a department or project has excess funds and needs to spend them before the fiscal year ends.  Pet projects and extras are purchased and possible future work is arranged.  It’s something that comes round every year round this time.  Sales folk like me wait with bated breath hoping some big corporations have something left over.

Timing is crucial.  You don’t want to start pestering too early and become a nuisance but it is crucial that you are among the first to approach them. Keeping your ear to the ground and communicating with their personnel is vital.  Not just to see what projects are going that directly affect you but other projects that they are doing.  Maybe you can suggest some solutions that don’t involve you but benefit them.  Evolve that relationship.

Customize your pitch to match their needs.  Don’t just come out with a cookie cutter approach.  Ask questions and refine your product or service to meet their needs and most important to meet their budget.  You may not score a big victory but a small project now may lead to something big.

Work with your team.  It doesn’t matter who scores the contract as long as all your company benefits.

Be gracious if it doesn’t work out.  Maybe not this time but surely next time.  If however you’re not gracious then there may not be a next time.  Above all things, think of the relationship.

Remember this is not a singular event or just something that happens once.  Next year the same thing will happen and you want to lay the ground work for future success.

Posted in: business, plans, sales

on course

August 3, 2014 6:11 AM , Leave a Comment ,

Did you ever have a moment where you thought to yourself that you might want to change everything about yourself?  I used to get these all the time. I would be doing whatever it was I was doing and suddenly contemplate if what I was doing was right or even if it was worthwhile doing and where was all of this leading to?  Pretty disheartening but I had no over arching plan.

Part of the problem I think was that I did not realize the need for long-term goals to fall back on.  That is what these goals are for after all.  To give you something to look forward to during those long periods of time when you can’t see what the point is anymore.  To check your progress against a master list to see if this really is worthwhile doing.

But lets face facts.  when I was younger I did not think in the really long-term.  Unfortunately that is all too common for younger people.  But that isn’t something new or unique to my generation or even just me.  That’s been around for ages.  Those folks that have the gift of having the forethought to plan out their futures in minute detail are the ones that make it in this life.  They can put off immediate gratification for the sake of “the plan” and that’s something special in this life.

Took me a while to figure it out.  Know what I really like about all this planning?  Putting these individual parts out there and seeing how they fit together.  But equally enjoyable is actually deploying them and seeing “the plan” come together.

Things are going remarkably well if I do say so myself.  That’s when things usually fall apart, right?  Maybe they will, but that’s what the well thought through goals are for.  To prevent that from happening or to have a backup in case something happens.

Posted in: goals, life in general, plans

ratcheting up

July 14, 2014 7:15 AM , Leave a Comment ,

One thing I find interesting is how a few improvements in your life give you a different perspective and change your outlook on things.

I’ve been tinkering with a little side project the last few weeks.  it’s still not ready for unveiling but I have to say that even as recently as last year I would not have contemplated something like this.

My economic situation has only marginally improved in the last year but it has improved and that has given me the confidence to contemplate some things I would have never thought about before.

It’s feels like I’m a prairie dog that has stuck his head outside his burrow for the first time and realized that there’s a whole world out there waiting for me.  I’m sure that it has probably been the same for anyone else in a similar situation.

I have to admit it’s a slightly scary proposition but I have thought it through thoroughly and the situation looks very positive.  Of course there are downsides and potential negatives to any situation and I fully realize and accept the risks.  On the whole however I think that this will have a positive outcome once everything is said and done.

I hope I can share some good news on this project by the end of the year.

Posted in: activities, goals, plans

looking back, looking forward

May 21, 2014 6:47 AM , Leave a Comment ,

I was doing some writing at a tea shop the other weekend and dug out my notebook from my satchel.  I usually have notes for my next section or chapter or whatever on paper.  I have writing tools like Scrivener but I’m hide-bound about some things and I prefer having a notebook for all my notes and planning.

Anyways as I was flipping pages I paused on the pages  that I wrote back in December with my plans and goals for the year.

Some people do monthly reviews, some do reviews every quarter or third of even half-year reviews.  As it was mid May and I hadn’t done this since February I decided to look it over and see how I was doing.  In some ways this post is part of that review.  Making some of my goals public puts extra pressure on me to get things done.

My health goals are proceeding ahead of schedule in some areas and behind in others.  Overall I am happy with the way they are coming along but I recognize that in some respects that I have a way to go and if I want to meet some of the hard number goals by December 31st that I need to get a move on.  I’ve run a couple of short course races and I think I will give Summer a break and wait for the Fall and look to races then.

Business wise I hit a horrible speed bump starting in late February and extending into early April.  A shame as January started very well and I had a glimmer of a hope that my business goals would be a breeze.  I’ve been putting in extra effort during the last month and a half and it seems to be paying off but it’s not going to be a breeze as I hoped and I will need to keep on it for the rest of the year.

General plans for home improvements are proceeding apace.  I have achieved a couple of small projects and will have a second round of flooring done in the Summer; sometime around July probably.

A new car….I think this is going to have to wait till next year.  Even back in December I recognized this as too lofty a goal for this year.  This would be nice to have but it’s not a necessity.

I’ve done several local events that I wanted to attend and that is going well.

The big vacation for the year is still a bit of a question mark for several reasons.  My initial plans focused on a trip to somewhere in Asia or the Indian Ocean in October but the time needed to travel there is a big stumbling block.  So I am still without a destination and frankly a lot is going to depend on how work proceeds during the Summer.

I am content with my progress.

For the most part.

Some things are missing of course.  Some aspects of my life aren’t easy or quick to fix.  But I think I could be in a much worse position so I am thankful for where I am.  I think I will schedule some time in late August or early September to look back and read this and see how the Summer turned out.

Posted in: life in general, plans

flaws

March 30, 2014 6:54 AM , 1 Comment ,

“My flaws define me. My mistakes teach me. My experiences mold me and my decisions build me.”

– Unknown

I have to be honest, I haven’t always had the best of relationships with myself over the years.  I don’t know quite where it started.  Possibly in junior high when I began to lag behind others physically.  Possibly the day that I learned that my vision was shot and I would need glasses.  Maybe when I realized that I wasn’t quite as smart as I thought I was.

Whenever it was, one day I decided consciously or subconsciously to let these flaws take over every aspect of my life.  They determined what I would and would not do, what I could be or could not be.

If something didn’t turn out right then it was the fault of my flaws and in some ways I could take comfort in that.  That was my excuse for not trying harder.  I loaned my flaws too much power and allowed them to shape my existence.

About four or five years ago I decided to stop my general decline and to get my life back in order.  Back to what I wanted it to be.  One of the first things I had to do was to not blame my flaws but to reconcile myself with them.  I had to accept my flaws for what they were but neither blame or empower them, just be at peace with them.

My flaws or rather my differences define who I am.  They determine what I have to work with and give me a road map to see how I will accomplish things.  These are the tools that I have to work with so I better make the most of them and learn to love them.

My mistakes have taught me not to use my differences as excuses for not doing things.  I need to look back upon this hard-won wisdom and apply it to the present and future so I won’t have to repeat these lessons again.

My experiences have molded my life into its present shape.  I have to accept that.  I cannot go back and alter my experiences.  All I can hope for is that my experiences from here on out will re-mold that life into what I want.

My decisions will build my life.  I can decide to dwell on the past and not get things done, to hide within my flaws and use them as reasons to cower.  Or I can decide to see each day as a new opportunity and to figure out ways to use my differences to my advantage.  I can decide to build my life in the way that I want it to go.

My flaws are not flaws at all.

Posted in: aging, attitude, life in general, plans

Shock of contact

January 29, 2014 6:19 AM , 2 Comments ,

“No plan survives contact with the enemy” – Von Moltke

So you’ve laid out all your plans nice and neat and spent hours or maybe even days thinking about plans for the coming year or a project or for a meeting or even just a date.  You have carefully pondered how you will do this and how you will do that and then the big moment comes and suddenly something happens that you didn’t expect and everything goes to hell.

You’re left scrambling trying to figure out how this happened and whether anything of your plan can be salvaged.

Truthfully when I was younger I loved this type of frenzied scrambling.  I always fancied that I was at my best when things were their most dire and only quick thinking could save the day.  But over time you come to realize that this is not the way to carry on with your life, let alone a business.

Planning is important but it has to be realistic planning based not just on your expectations or desires but based upon the realities of the situation.  Many times people look at a situation and see only the things that they want to see.  They don’t take the time to see the situation from another person’s perspective or to consider how their actions (or inactions) may affect everything.

Another thing to consider is that most situations do not tend to be static.  Circumstances change all the time, people come and go from situations, the benefits and risks of a situation can make your plans obsolete.  It’s important therefore to move in a timely fashion.

Your frame of mind is also important.  When a difficulty does arise you not only have to take this difficulty in stride and not fall apart but you have to ponder beforehand what you can do to remedy the situation.  Plan for failure as well as success.

Lastly as Von Moltke observed your plan will probably not stay the same throughout a project.  Therefore make it a simple plan that is open to changes.  Two of the biggest sins that you can commit in planning anything are to be too rigid and inflexible about your plans or to make your plans so complex and so dependent on a variety of factors that they will fall apart at the smallest change.

Be flexible and realistic and you will find that your plans will more often than not will come out right.

Posted in: plans

micro goals

January 15, 2014 6:23 AM , 2 Comments ,

I saw one of my Facebook friends remark that all the new year’s resolution people had cleared out of the gym that he goes to.

Natural I suppose as most of those resolutions are half-hearted at best and only made to fulfill peer expectations.  The new year’s resolution is now looked upon by most as a joke.  Most people see it not as something that they will do but rather as something that they will definitely NOT do.

Part of the problem is that people who make these resolutions have no one to keep them honest.  A person to lean on when you feel like backsliding and who will without goading come by and check on your progress.

The other part of why these resolutions fail is that the expectations are set too high.  Rather than breaking this up into manageable chunks, people choose to tackle it all at once.  Anyone can see that approach is doomed to failure.

Setting smaller micro goals can be an aide to this.  Limiting the problem to something that you can reasonably manage can help your state of mind and get you mentally prepared to tackle everything.

Instead of saying “I will lose 60 pounds by the end of the year” you can say “5 pounds this month, that’s not too bad is it?”  Suddenly the whole task isn’t so daunting.

Further to this, when you do reach a micro goal it can really boost morale and self-esteem making you believe that you can indeed manage the rest.

Posted in: goals, habits, plans

Now what?

January 5, 2014 7:00 AM , Leave a Comment ,
“You know, a town with money’s a little like the mule with a spinning wheel. No one knows how he got it, and danged if he knows how to use it!”
―Lyle Lanley from “The Simpsons”

A few weeks back everyone was getting excited about one of the big lotteries.  The sum total had climbed over $600 million and people were in a state of hysteria buying up more and more tickets.

Inevitably on the news channels came the man on the street interviews asking people what they would do with all that money and the answers ranged from “not working ever again” or buying some expensive item or paying off bills.

Good enough for a thirty-second news piece but really have these folks pondered what they would really do with all of that money?  Let’s imagine a winner that gets a modest jackpot of 50 million.

Pay debts – An investing website in September reported that the average American was about a quarter of a million dollars in debt.  A good chunk of this is of course mortgage debt.  That’s all gone with a few strokes of the pen.  bye-bye debts and bye-bye $250,000

Buy things – So of course the average person is going to go on a spending spree and of course hold some parties for his family and friends.  He will no doubt purchase cars, televisions, furniture, clothes, and most certainly one or more properties.  So there goes another 3 to 4 million.

Travel – Jet set around the world and see those places and things you’ve heard about all of your life.  Another million or so.

Invest – So now that you’ve slaked all the urges you can think of, someone (usually a friend or family member) suggests that you invest in something and they usually have a good idea of where to invest and oddly enough it involves them.  So here goes another 5 to 10 million or more.

(A side note, in researching this I found that 44% of all lottery winners spend all their winnings in 5 years or less.  Where does it all go?!?!)

But now what?  You’ve done it all and seen it all but that’s about as far as most people get.  If even that far.  We look at the short-term prize and say to ourselves “wouldn’t that be great if we had that?”  But most people never stop to think and then what?

I think it’s a telling difference between people who earn their money and those that win or inherit their money that the people who earn their money through hard work and planning are able to answer this question.

They’ve obsessed, planned, and strived for their dreams for so long that they know exactly what they need to do next.  Those that suddenly have good fortune dropped on their laps don’t.

But it’s not just money.  Some people dream about being celebrities, some dream about being athletes, some about marrying some attractive person or some other seemingly impossible dream.  But these people never stop and consider or plan on how they get from here to there.

I’m not saying that it’s impossible.  What I am saying though is rather than just dream or lust after some unattainable goal, why not plan and work for it?  And then consider what you will do after you get it.

Posted in: culture, goals, plans, thought