h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Do you have a Grand Plan? Or even quite a modest plan? Work your way up the company ladder and retire, perhaps, or earn enough to travel the world, or just have kids and enjoy raising them; or something a bit different like maybe making a living from your hobby, or creating a 1000 year Reich?

My Heart felt Plan:

I´ve decided not to be sad, apathic and depressed any longer, instead I´ll look for oasis, willow in them and go on walking along the desert I entered a few years ago.
Sooner than late, I hope to find my self-promised land ( a stable job) and with that as a basis I will be able to give more time to what I really love: gardening, drawing, acting, going out with friends, reading and writing.

willow? wallow, indulge.

The plan also includes to use the dictionary more often.

Do I have a Grand Plan?


No.



I didn't get to where I am today by having a plan of any sort.

I did have a plan. Then I went off-plan and ended up here, in h2g2.

I have several grand plans. (I'm that kind of guy )

One plan is to swim for fifty years. I don't mean continuously, just three or four times a week. With the exception of 1986, I've been at it for 33 years. 17 more to go.

Another plan is a financial one, based on investing a little bit in the early eighties, and leaving it alone to grow for as many decades as I could. I've owned three mutual funds for thirty years. The original managers are long gone, but new ones have come on board with the same objectives. As long as they're doing pretty well, I'm not going to nitpick. Albert Einstein said that compounding is the eighth wonder of the world. Seems to be working so far. Someone else is doing the work of managing the funds, and I can concentrate on my flower garden, my swimming, and all the other stuff that I do.

A slightly more modest grand plan is the building of my CD collection. I built up the classical part of it, and now I'm concentrating on movie soundtracks and original Broadway cast albums for the great musicals.

I do indeed! It involved getting a fabulous job (or husband) and sending my son to private school. Whoops too late.

My plan was to be grey haired and to start smoking a pipe when I turn 50. Be all distinguished and nautical. Sadly it seems the hair will be gone before it goes grey. Perhaps I should grow a beard.

Yes, I have a grand plan. I'm an annoying obessive, achievement focuses prick.

The plan is basically.

To get more letters after my name. Then to get more publications, then to get a fancier title, then more letters maybe.

"I want more letters after my name"

... says the man who, here and elsewhere online, goes by a name that's a SINGLE LETTER!!!

I don't do grand plans. No battle plan survives contact with the enemy. That is not an argument against plans, although it's part of an argument against grandiosity.

I used to not plan. Stuff just happened as it occurred to me. I did some things, and didn't do others. And I was never completely happy that I'd done *anything* as well as I could. There was always the niggling idea that I should have done less of this and could have done more of that.

So now, I plan, but only by the year. 2010 was Lake District hill walking. 2011 was paragliding. So is 2012... flying, done properly, turns out to be quite addictive. 2013 will probably be kitesurfing. Do one thing, but do it *properly*, that way there's no feeling of having neglected something in favour of something else.

Yes, I like letters after my name, not in it. Currently on 9, aiming for 12.

I'd like to make a bit more money. I don't need to be a millionaire, but I'd like to be able to spend a bit more on the kids, and perhaps travel just a bit more. And fix that old bathroom...

My Grand Plan is simply to find happiness on my own terms.

I had a grand plan. I would blush now to describe it but it involved a list of things I wanted before I was 30.

I was able to tick everything off. For five years I was in the wilderness of smugness. Then everything seemed to go up in the air again. So 12 months ago I thought perhaps it was time for a new plan. I have three goals with subsets of actions I need to take. (Retentive? Me?)

Three things on my list
Work internationally (this was last years goal and things fell into place better than I could have hoped)
Write something creative (this years goal I start a course at UEA in May)
PhD (has to wait until my son leaves home.

I have 16 letters after my name but only bacause my qualifications are wordy. It's only three qualifications.

"Yes, I like letters after my name, not in it. Currently on 9, aiming for 12."

While I am determined to remain letter free. Lots of dog trainers have ridiculous things after their names.

Since the last six years of my life have been rather hellish, I am mostly content to get through a single day without a major crisis for me or my loved ones.

I do have a goal, if not a Grand Plan. I will become financially self-sustaining within the next two years.

I have five year plans. I find that when I have one I get through it nicely, but I have a tendency to get a bit blinkered about it. When I don't have a plan I tend to be more flexible but I am not sure I achieve as much. On balance, I prefer a plan, but I ought to remember to review it occasionally.

Not really a plan, but I expect to spend the rest of my life finding out things I wish I'd known at 18.

I had a Grand Plan I wrote at 17. It had some work goals, some travel I wanted to do, and some personal plans - there were about 35 things on my list.

The only things I haven't done so far (20 years later) is to travel to Venezuela and to have children (in general, not in Venezuela), neither of which I think I'm that bothered about any more.

That was the last plan I had and since then have flown by the seat of my pants. I've done things I never envisaged as a 17 year old and made some good descisions and some bad ones.

I would obviously like to be filthy rich and live at leisure but until I come up with that 'Big Idea' or win a lottery I don't play, I'll just tootle along as I am.