Plan? No Plan? A plan written on beach sand?

[daletournier]

Hi Pelagic, I think that's the key doing something you love.

Some of the happiest years of my life were when I was building my (previous) business. I had little money and everything I did have would go into it, magic days when passion and direction match. Later on when I was earning alot of money it wasn't fun any more, of course this wasn't because of the money but I stayed longer because of the money.

Sometimes the "what you live" gets totally smothered by the day to day demands of "busyness" and the fun dissappears along the way.

Interestingly I was contacted this morning by a ex employee that has put a proposition to me, surprisingly I felt a tang of excitement.... who knows what the future holds. The only constant is change.

[weavis]

I made money in my early years, to see all disappear in a divorce. Some lawyers are better than others.

So I started again and had it all taken away in a huge fight with the tax office...4 years ago. 15 clinics, independent of each other got singled out for attention. We are fighting back and so far are working our way back up through the illegality of it, and if we win, there is my retirement fund.

Now I live modestly, in the sun, enjoying the Spanish way of life and get to travel to Asia to teach medicine. Without true friendship and the help some gave, I could not have achieved it. They aided me from love.

Living to work is not my philosophy... I work hard when I work and I make sure I deliver above what is needed so I get asked back. I also have a deep love for my profession.

When I am in Hong Kong or Thailand, it is friends I hang out with, and I let them make all the business deals and I collect a generous fee for the teaching...

I work 8 days in 30, explore everywhere I want to go, or just stay in my hotel room, go for lunch and dinner alone in different restaurants where I am known by the staff... get to talk to interesting people, arrange dinners for 15 or 20 of the college staff, have a ball and find the total bill is only between $40-$80 US. (Thailand)

I have a boat in the UK, a share in a boat here and my income is less than I earned when I was 25.

Do you know what changed? My attitude. I'm not working the plan to be a millionaire any more. I take each opportunity and examine it completely, If it is not what I want to do, I do not do it. Other offers ALWAYS come along afterwards. Life is like that.

Life is a mixture of what you make, what direction you take and a measure of luck. Luck can be turned in your favour too.

If you have the right mental attitude, nothing is impossible and you don't need a wad of money to enjoy life. If a bill can be met, then one more obligation is discharged. If there is spare, then the choice, the direction and the spending of it can be a great thing.

Accepting and a willingness to go with the flow is an absolute in my world...

Enjoy what you have and work hard for the next step if you need to.. I just note a man in a $15K 30 footer can be anchored next to a 1million dollar boat and enjoy the same scenery, the same waters, the same restaurants in the town if he chooses...

Make plans by all means. Life is neutral but the Monty Python boot sometimes squishes us...... and then we find out who we really are, we find out we put out our faith in things we had no right to... Where will you go if your wealth disappears?

Plan to live as it happens and as you can make certain things happen... the rest is what it is.. but for goodness sake enjoy it! Or else your life will end up striving after material things.

This will only resonate with less than 5% of you...

[Tayana42]

Weavis, I do so appreciate your posts and your philosophy. After 70 years of ups and downs and ups (financially not from riding the swells) after deaths and jobs and health challenges the only things I’ve learned are that I need to focus on the joy in every day, the amazement in the world and the people around me and to have faith in the love I share with my wife and family. All else is folly.

Weavis, you seem to be able to ride out the troublesome time you’ve been through and not be overwhelmed by them. You seem to be able to find joy and love and acceptance. How far does one need to sail to find that kind of happiness?

[daletournier]

Hi Weavis, I to intuitively realize "attitude" is everything, putting less demands on ones life and adopting simplicity. Its a pity (or not) that it often takes age and pain to contemplate enough to come to these conclusions.

Just started reading a book on wabi-sabi due to this thread, its interesting that i understand it and intuitively have for a long time ,YET the western brain gets in the way......it should be (and is) so easy, yet a life can go by without ever understanding it.

[conachair]

Originally Posted by daletournier

Just started reading a book on wabi-sabi due to this thread, its interesting that i understand it and intuitively have for a long time ,YET the western brain gets in the way......it should be (and is) so easy, yet a life can go by without ever understanding it.

Just to add to the mix...

Imho of course... Western tradition seems to push hard the idea of the self being this rock solid "me" little guy in charge, deciding what's what and running the whole "me" show. Though Eastern traditions like Buddhism et al (ignoring the supernatural bits) and modern neuroscience point to this being largely an illusion. The brain does what it does, sets things in motion then after that creates this illusion of a "me" making the decisions. Does it brilliantly well if that's the case, seems so real

The good news is you can rewire your brain, a bit anyway. Google neuroplasticity. Personally with my mad head i find meditation helps a lot but very subtlety, just recognising all those thoughts and impulses and emotional responses as head noise helps stand back and have a logical think before getting really angry just cos you think someone is getting served at happy hour before you, me was here first! That western bit will be in there forever, but with just a little and often practice you can often recognise it (and many unhelpful responses) then by the time you've thought "oh, that's interesting, getting mad because of such a little thing" you'll have your 2 for one rum and coke anyway

Imho....

[Mike OReilly]

Nicely put Weavis. No surprise that I agree.

Life is too short, and the universe doesn’t care. Work to live, not the other way around. But too many of us live to work. It’s part of our western training. The old “protestant work ethic” is largely a artifice aimed at keeping the masses distracted, precarious and under control.

Enjoy life as much as possible. Make things better for those around you, and try not to hurt too many people along the way. Understand what is enough. Don’t sweat the small stuff.

Or to put it another way:

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by daletournier

.....

Some of the happiest years of my life were when I was building my (previous) business. I had little money and everything I did have would go into it, magic days when passion and direction match. Later on when I was earning alot of money it wasn't fun any more, of course this wasn't because of the money but I stayed longer because of the money.

......

And there goes the saying It's the journey, not the destination. Something tbat applies to entrepreneurs and cruisers.

[Pelagic]

When Mike started this thread it was about 'planing' and then it morphed into
"What is Good Enough"?
There we differ in opinions and
my take on striving for perfectionism, became a red herring.

Excerpt from this marketing article puts it better into perspective than I can

Being “Good Enough” is not Good Enough If You Want To Enjoy Life’s*Journey.



Being “Good Enough” is not Go

Stagnation in life is all too common. We buy into the idea that all we need do is get educated, get a job, find a life partner, have a family and life will be great. The reality of course is not that simple.
We humans have a natural ability to stagnate, to find our comfort zone and stay there. We don’t like change. It’s built in. That’s why moving house or changing jobs is so stressful. These changes involve us moving outside what we perceive to be comfortable and there is a fear of the unknown. Will the neighbourhood be safe? Will I be able to do my new job? Our instincts fight these changes and even though our house might be too small for our growing family or we hate our jobs, we find ourselves reluctant to change.
But life doesn’t make it easy to stay comfortable. Life makes it hard. It knocks you about, it pushes you down and it changes the environment around you. It might feel at times life is against you, always trying to make you change. Of course, that’s not what it’s about. Life is testing you, pushing you, forcing you to improve and grow. Imagine a child, after falling down when trying to walk for the first time just giving up. It would never learn to walk. Children get up and keep trying until they walk unaided. They get stronger and stronger until walking becomes the natural way to get from point A to point B. If we want to move around our environment unaided, we have to be able to walk.
But here lays the problem. Once we get to a point where we are ‘good enough’ we stop trying to improve. We do this in so many areas of our life. When we learn to drive we develop the ability to drive and once we pass the test, we stop trying to improve. We can drive a car. That’s good enough, and for the most part that is probably quite true. The problem is we also become just good enough girlfriends and boyfriends, just good enough mothers and fathers and just good enough taxi drivers, salespeople and doctors. We live lives of being “just good enough”.
I would suggest this is not good enough. We should not be striving to be just good enough. We should be striving to improve. To be a better person each day. Imagine the motivation you would have if you woke up each morning with a purpose to improve an area of your life. It could be “today I am going to be the best daughter I can be” and your focus for the day is your parents. You go visit them, take them out for afternoon tea at a beautiful riverside cafe and find out how they are really doing. Or you could decide today you are going to be a great colleague to your coworkers and go into your work and help out your colleagues in a way you have never done before.
When you strive to improve small areas of your life every day, you soon find your whole life starts to improve. When you feel you are improving every day, you start to feel happier, more energetic and have more purpose in life. Waking up in the morning gets easier, your thinking becomes clearer and you sleep better. All these little improvements are moving you outside your comfort zone and all these little improvements very soon add up to large improvements in your career prospects, your relationships with the people you care about and in the way you live your life.
Life should never be about being ‘just good enough’. Life should be about exploring the possibilities we all have to make a positive change in the world around us. Being just good enough is conforming to what society says is okay. But that is not how great lives are lived. Great lives are lived by pushing beyond comfort zones, by always seeking ways to improve. It is about setting goals and each day discovering new ways to achieve those goals by making improvements in our lives.
Making improvements in your life does not mean making extreme or radicle changes. Improvements are made by little steps. Things like getting off the bus one stop earlier and walking into work, or greeting everyone you meet on a Monday morning with a positive “good morning!” instead of a negative “morning”. It means making the commitment not to eat chocolate for a week, or spending an extra hour each day playing with your children. These little changes can make a huge impact on your life and the lives of the people around you in such positive ways. Very soon these changes become your normal behaviour and your comfort zone changes. Then you make further changes and become even better.*Life is never about the destination, after all, we all share the same destination: death. Life is always about the journey and the experiences and achievements we have on that journey.
Over time these changes and this commitment to continuous improvement start to reward you in such positive ways. Your relationships improve, you start to enjoy your work, you feel more energetic, more positive about life and this just leads you to make further improvements to your life. It’s a great way to live and one I highly recommend you try.
Being just good enough is not good enough. Being a better human being each day is what life is all about and you can start today. What can you improve about yourself that will have a positive impact on your life and those around you today?

https://medium.com/carl-pullein/bein...y-29266a131ccd

[daletournier]

Hmmm...... Not trying isn't good enough, good enough is good enough

Being lazy or not having enough pain to change isn't good enough.

One must be honest about what's really good enough!

Having less and learning to appreciate what one has often results in having more.

Less hustle, more calm, less complexity, more clarity, less work more time with family etc etc

I'm not suggesting don't try in life, I'm suggesting maybe what we strive for should be questioned, our values and what we see as important particularly this idea of acquiring more stuff, more status etc.

I think your mixing up laziness and sloth with awareness of enough. Striving for perfection in an imperfect world seems futile to me but laziness and not trying to make the most of your life is worse... maybe this is just a definition thing of what making the most of your life is?

[Mike OReilly]

There is a difference between “good enough” and stagnation or sloth. And no surprise it’s a marketing article — this is the very industry that is dedicated to making people feel like they never have enough.

No need to butt heads on this. There is no right way for everyone. If it works for you, then I think that’s great . I know you know there are other paths that are equally rewarding. I think that’s what some of us are trying to get at here.

[Kenomac]

I find the work hard-play hard model works best for me, so that’s what I do and what I plan for. I have a job which I find very rewarding in many ways, which didn’t just drop in my lap by accident, I needed to work towards it.... without a beer in hand.

There’s no way I could just sit around and stare out at the same scenery day after day... I’d go nuts.

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


I view most problems in terms of an exponential graph, with accomplishment running the vertical axis, and effort/resources running the horizontal. It takes few resources to progress along the first ~75% of the curve. Beyond this the input demands to achieve each incremental progress percent rises steeply, until we reach perfection which requires an infinite amount of resources. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Good one, Mike.


I learned this as "The Excess Perfection Curve."


This is turning into engineering & management 101.


Too much fun!

[Jdege]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

I would suggest this is not good enough. We should not be striving to be just good enough. We should be striving to improve. To be a better person each day.

We should be striving to be what we think is better, not what someone else thinks.

[evm1024]

Along those lines I tell everyone who asks:

My boat is not a work of art it is a working boat.

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by daletournier

Hmmm...... Not trying isn't good enough, good enough is good enough

Being lazy or not having enough pain to change isn't good enough.

One must be honest about what's really good enough!

I remember visiting an island in PNG called Goodenough
.... It wasn't! ... but maybe we should all meet there to discuss further.[emoji4]

QUOTE=Jdege;2888610]We should be striving to be what we think is better, not what someone else thinks.[/QUOTE]
Agree...

The bottom line which I think we all agree on (except bullish Kenomac[emoji6] ) is that every person has the right to decide what's good enough for them.