thewellnessaddict.com » 250 year plan

Fear of Phoning - Apparently the only thing that scares me more than squirrels is calling Ellen DeGeneres

Ian — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 05:02:43 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, Nick and I decided it would be fun (and shamelessly self-promoting) to riff on a chapter from our new book each week. Last week, when the “Buy a really nice pair of sunglasses” chapter was immediately followed by “Write a 250-year plan”, we realized – rather ironically – that if we had given better consideration to the latter, we might have chosen in advance to skip the former. But I’m an obstinate sort, so I’m not giving up so easily on the idea; I’m just going to apologize – just this once – for all the self-referential gibberish this idea has created, and forge ahead.

And that’s why I’m sitting here this morning, sharing my new found fear and confusion with you. It’s important to note that generally I don’t fear many things, with the exception, hilariously enough, of squirrels. I have NO IDEA why I fear squirrels. I mean, they’re, well…squirrely and all, but…oh, never mind. On the other hand, confusion seems to be a normal frame of mind for me. But the thing that caused my fear and confusion this morning is probably even less rational on some level than a fear of squirrels.

You see, the next chapter in our book is “Call the most famous person you can think of”. For the record, I’ve actually done everything I suggest in the book, but I haven’t done everything Nick suggests. I thought this one would be easy. I have excellent phone skills, I’m good at tracking down hard-to-find numbers, and I’ve never been particularly star struck by celebrity. So what happened on the way to tackling this simple task? Well, first of all, I chose to ignore the “most famous” part of the suggestion, figuring famous is famous, so why get bogged down by trying to rank things? So I selected Ellen DeGeneres as my first target. I’m always referencing her in my bio, so I thought this might be a good place to start.

Some quick web searches once again reminded me it might be worth investing that couple hundred dollars a month on the many database services available these days. Although this KGBAnswers.com listing seemed like a plausible place to start, it suddenly hit me. WHY was I calling her? I mean, even if I wiggled my way through the practical barriers to actually getting her on the phone, WHAT THE HECK DID I HAVE TO SAY? This was thought-provoking, and honestly made me re-think things. Like:

Why do I want to be “the next Ellen”, as I say in my bio?
What would I really say to Ellen if I got her on the phone?
What other famous person would it make more sense to call?
Why am I avoiding getting this simple task done today?
Why do I ask so many darn questions?

As you can see, even PONDERING this chapter of the book has been a real eye-opener. Which makes me think we did a better job with our little book than I tend to think. So Wednesday, I’ll be back with either the details of my amazing chat with Ellen, or maybe some other famous figure. Or a list of possibilities. Or a list of excuses. Stay tuned.

Flying By Wire - A well-executed plan still needs a lot of adjustments on the way.

Ian — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 14:02:24 +0000

What’s your plan, Stan? What’s your agenda, Brenda? What’s the deal, McNeil? What’s the story, Maurie? What’s the arc, Mark? Okay. Enough of that silliness. We’ve been writing about planning this week because one of the chapters in our new book is “Write a 250 Year Plan”. I have to be honest, as I said the other day, I keep things on a shorter time frame for now. But the fact is, there’s nothing really all that crazy about making 100 or 200 year plans, because one of the key ingredients in a good plan is adjusting it to meet realities along the way.

I’m going to use the example of the world’s most sophisticated new jet fighters. A few of them have such unusual aerodynamics to help them do what they do that they’re actually intrinsically unstable. They require an actively engaged in-flight computer to make constant minute adjustments that no human pilot could possibly manage. Yet they can fly in the dark, at low altitude, through inclement weather, to their eventual destination thousands of miles away.

This is a key part of having a good plan. You don’t just lay in the plans, fire up the engines, and point yourself at the destination, hoping to hit the bullseye five years later. Good planning still requires constant attention to progress or to obstacles that may arise. And those minute changes you make along the way can have some of the biggest impact. You may have heard the old analogy about how if you’re struggling to make change, that it’s useful to think of your life like a big ship. It has a lot of momentum, so sometimes you can’t just make a quick 180 turn. But an adjustment of a few degrees NOW is a difference of MILES in your course across the ocean.

So are you flying by wire, or by the seat of your pants? There’s a subtle but dramatic difference!

Failing To Meet Goals - Who put all these DAYS in my five year plan?

Ian — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:22:55 +0000

Nick points out in our new book that there is a very successful Japanese company that has a 250 year plan. Personally, I haven’t quite gotten that far. When I was about twenty three, I had a SEVEN year plan. With the reckless lifestyle I led at the time, I figured I wouldn’t live past thirty. So when that proved untrue at thirty, I came up with a FIVE year plan. A key item in this five year plan was to be ready to buy a home by thirty five. I didn’t quite achieve this goal, and realized around this time that my heavy drinking was probably playing a role, so I quit. When you quit drinking, you’re kind of on a one DAY plan, but this worked pretty well. Five years later, I in fact DID have enough money to put a hefty down payment on a house. At the same time though, I had an opportunity to go to Kenya, and part of my five year plan – which included getting married – had me traveling to LA regularly to be with my fiancee. By then, I also had learned that getting into a 15 year mortgage is really debt, not “ownership”, so I opted not to buy a house. I ended up not getting married either.

Does this sound like successful planning to you? I think it was, in spite of the fact that a number of goals weren’t achieved on schedule. For the record, most of my shorter term goals – those in less-than-two-year timeframes – were actually quite on track. And the longer goals that may seem like “failures”? This was when I first started learning a lesson I wish I’d learned much sooner, which is that real happiness lies less in destinations than in enjoying the journey. At this point in my life, I’m setting goals that some would consider INSANE. I know I might not achieve some of the loftier ones, but one thing’s for DARN sure. I would be GUARANTEED not to achieve them if I didn’t at least try.

How about you? Where will you be in a year? Or five years? Or TWO HUNDRED FIFTY?