Personal Development Plans, sure…

“Just make sure you don't tell on me especially to members of your family, we best keep this to ourselves and not tell any members of our inner posse, I wish I could tell the world cause you're such a pretty thing when you're done up properly, I might want to marry you one day if you watch that weight and keep your firm body
Ooh this could be messy and, Ooh I don't seem to mind, Ooh don't go telling everybody, and overlook this supposed crime” - Alanis Morissette


I’m not a big fan of personal strategic planning. I’m talking about the crazy folks who go sit naked in the forest for five days every year to create their spreadsheets and presentation style documents containing their five-year life plan. I don’t even believe in the “this is what I want to accomplish this year” plan. Actually, I don’t necessarily believe in “this is what I want to accomplish this weekend” plan. I find them a waste of time. There is an old saying my grandmother used to use, “if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.” I’m not judging those who do this. We’re all different and what doesn’t work for me, might work perfectly for someone else. I have a BFF who has a PowerPoint deck with something like 65 pages of what she’s going to personally accomplish quarter by quarter this year. I believe I’m scheduled to give her positive feedback in Q3, on a Thursday afternoon. I love the girl to death (and one of my favorite people walking around the earth with a thick PowerPoint deck under her arm). I LOVE reading the plan, which reminds me, I’m sure she has it scheduled to come out at the same time every year. I have to ask her about that so I can put it on my calendar, block out a weekend to read through it, and laugh my ass off. Seriously, it seems to work for her and I think half the reason I’m fascinated with her is because it does.

//side note: I believe her fiancé knew he was scheduled to propose to her in 08 Q3 and he met his target date. Nothing like a guy who you can count on for producing deliverables//

For me however, I can’t look back at last year and tell you that this is where I thought I’d be personally. Even professionally, I don’t know if I could have predicted what I’m working on today.

Life changes on a dime and I LOVE it that way. In fact, last night at the Arizona Democratic National Dinner, I was offered a career opportunity that I am actually considering. I didn’t see it coming and I felt my life change on a dime while she was telling me about it. I stopped talking about it because I was on my third glass of wine and if it was brought up again, I would have said yes on the spot. That’s how good the offer is. I’m not going to say what the opportunity is, but I will tell you that it’s for about 30% LESS than I’m making today, and where I work isn’t a sweatshop. Not only does life change on a dime, if you already figured out what you’re going to do in the next 12 months, what’s the point of living life? It’s already done. I like the mystery and surprises that life brings. I love not knowing what’s going to happen. If you read my bio, and the things I accomplished (which are equal to nothing yet because I have so much more to do!) and the places I’ve worked, it reads like a pretty good career, not too shabby. The problem is that not one single thing on that list was planned.

In the last three weeks, I’ve had some major life changing events take place.

//side note: many of you have come up to me, or have written to me, expressing your concern at how crappy I look or how out of it I seem. I love the fact that you noticed it and yes, I’ve been feeling like that lately but wanted you to know that I’ll be OK and that there soon will be more good days than bad and the good days will be longer. Thanks for your concern//

Actually, this weekend brought some paradigm shifting events, observations, and occurrences, which have my life on a completely different trajectory than it was just three weeks ago, and to tell you the truth, it’s exciting. Three things I did in the last three weeks that wouldn’t have shown up on some plan I created. Three upcoming opportunities (including going to the DMC in Denver) wouldn’t have shown up on some plan, yet they are, all amazing things that I CAN’T wait to do.

What I do believe in are guidelines. The problem is that life’s guidelines can only be created with experience. So if you plan your life using your PowerPoint strategy, the guidelines you come up with will be based on those experiences, the ones you created. The cool thing about not having a plan and taking life as it comes, is that you get to use those experiences to determine what you like, what you don’t like, and what you are looking for in the future. One of the most misleading pieces of advice anyone can give you is, “opportunity will knock on your door.” No, it won’t. Sometimes, it just sits right on your doormat and never bothers knocking. You wouldn’t know it was there unless you opened the door. Then you realize you have a million doors to open. Which one do you open? Sometimes opportunity sits next to you in a waiting room, and not only doesn’t introduce themselves as Mr. Opportunity, he just sits there and waits for you to make the move. Sometimes opportunity walks right into your life, spends a year with you, and then walks out. The problem is you don’t know if you’re supposed to chase it down the street so you don’t lose it, or if you’re supposed to let it go so the next opportunity can show up. This might all seem stressful, but it’s what life is all about. It’s absolutely remarkably beautiful!

Based on the experiences I’ve had in my career, I know what kind of job I like and what kind of work I want to do. If you asked me 10 years ago what kind of organization I want to work for, my answer would be different than it is today. The same applies to relationships. I can look back now on my life and tell you what my guidelines are for what I’m looking for (if you’re interested, I’ll post those in the future if I get enough responses – they are VERY specific but I would call them minimum qualifications). These guidelines are based on years of love, pain, tears, laughter, heartache, conversations, road trips, meeting family members, watching them around other people, and so on.

Luckily for me, I’m not the only one who lives life this way. I’m sure the last two women I’ve had a long term deep emotional relationship with didn’t have “I’m looking for a Latino with father abandonment issues, who is at least 12 years older than me. He needs to be divorced, have at least two kids, one which needs to be a teenager, is a workaholic, and a little unstable, perceived as arrogant a plus” on their 65 page PowerPoint strategic plan. I wonder if they feel as lucky as I do that they didn’t…

“why would I sabotage, the best thing that I have? Well, it makes it easier to know exactly what I want” – Snow Patrol