As for me…I’ve had several 5 year plans, let’s face it I’m kinda old LOL! The first official one I put on paper was about the time my first born entered the world, I was 21. OH, it was grand! Work full time & get off the CNC machines into CNC programming, acquire my Associate’s degree (yeah, I know. Kinda had things outta order early on), buy a house, ride my motorcycle all over the country, lead my family to prosperity & happiness, obviously I’m paraphrasing!
Second five year plan; finish my Associate’s degree (man it’s a pain finding classes that fit around working full time), raise my 2 boys who were then 5 & 3 ½, get out of CNC programming into engineering or production management, take an awesome vacation somewhere in the family sedan since I had to sell my motorcycle because the wife was afraid to risk raising our boys alone, buy a real house not a trailer, lead my family to prosperity & happiness.
Whew, what a haul! My third 5 year plan; acquire my Bachelor’s degree while working full time, get out of engineering into engineering management, help my sons develop healthy interests, buy a real house (man this trailer’s too small) keep my kids from killing each other, keep my hair but lose this lousy belly I’m acquiring!
My fourth 5 year plan; acquire my Master’s degree while working fulltime, quit working 60-80 hours a week & get away from manufacturing production & its politics, build a new house in the country (WTH did I buy this dinky house in town with 2 boys?!?!?), having been an only child figure out why my kids can’t even leave each other alone let alone get along, help run the county’s 4H Shooting Sports program teaching everybody’s kids firearm safety & a love of the outdoors, help run the Northern Indiana conservation camp for kids furthering their love of the outdoors safely, charter & chair the county’s FNRA banquet (think Ducks Unlimited for firearm safety), teach NRA handgun & personal protection courses as well as teach & certify other qualified / interested parties to do the same, remember who I married & figure out when the aliens swapped in this different copy & finally, once & for all, figure out why this 5 year plan deal just doesn’t work!
My fifth 5 year plan; buy another motorcycle now that the kids are grown & survive to retirement somehow, somewhere!
Well guess what! My oldest turned 25 the end of this March. Guess what that means?!?!? Time for a new 5 year plan but for any of you who’ve followed Griz’s adventures already know…March was NO time for planning ANYTHING. It was a time of figuring out WTH all has gone wrong, how & eventually why! Still not exactly sure what I want to be when I grow up (actually not even sure I want to grow up anymore LOL). I finally have my Master’s degree & a decent paying day job (that I hate since being reassigned) flying a desk no & longer directly involved with manufacturing but rather in sourcing engineering & supplier quality all while working a side job 30-40+ hours nights & weekends back running CNC machines realizing how much I’ve missed the hands on “making things”, gave up figuring out that whole alien thing, pretty much lost the fire for teaching firearms courses to anybody, leasing a house, bought & sold a cool motorcycle in 2009 since half of Memphians are basically morons behind the wheel, basically hating life most of the time, still trying to shed this mid life surplus body I’ve acquired over the years, cut my hair short enough it almost doesn’t need to fall out anymore mostly due to the machine oil I work with, uhmmmmm…guess this is what I’ve always heard called mid life crisis LOL!
But there is still a shred of hope. I’m haggling with the night job owners trying to slide into a director’s role there that will still allow me to work on the machines while managing production & teaching new guys while hopefully getting back down to 60ish hours a week maybe, still really want another motorcycle someday but one set up to really travel getting away from Memphis every chance I get, but for now I’m putting this entire 5 year plan deal on hold. The way I’ve been going the past few months I’m doing good to develop & execute an effective 5 day plan so just focusing on getting through each week, trying to figure out when, where & why everything all went to shiz, THEN maybe I can begin to focus on an effective new plan but there’s no use worrying about that for now. Not until I can figure out how & why I always manage to screw’em up!
For now I just have to realize life happens & just go with the flow. There is one thing I do know though!!! I need a freaking break! Been planning to attend a beach fest in Florida with some crazy online friends in October & also considering getting the heck away from everything for the week from Christmas til new Years on a cruise but I can tell the way everything’s been grating on that last raw nerve lately that October is entirely too far away! Considering both jobs, July 3rd was the only full day off (working neither job) in 3 or 4 months as I was even machining parts at the side job July 4th. Labor Day is coming soon & September is even one of those cool extra payday months so something’s gotta give. Griz needs a break of some sort, some place, before I end up tearing some poor unsuspecting soul’s head off for finally snapping that last raw nerve!
I have at least recently developed a new slogan / motto that I’m trying to live each day by, one which I hope goes on my headstone someday. Work hard, train hard, play hard & love deeply! Most days I manage to hover somewhere a little over 3 outta 4, just not always the same 3 LOL! Not too bad considering…
Rock on pals!
You're right on this one Dave, sometimes life just happens and you have to take it day by day. But pretty soon you find yourself looking further than the next day and before you know it, your future is unfolding right there in front of you :)
ReplyDeleteI would encourage you to take a break, you certainly need one. Take the time to be alone, reflect, plan. Maybe not 5 years out, maybe don't even put a time frame on any of it, but steps rather. Steps that will get you where you want to go...and only you can do that.
You have inspired me to get with Big G and get our 5 year plan in order! You see what I mean about the future just unfolding? Living proof right here Dave :)