ARE YOU READY?

what have you done to prepare for the future? some people set goals. some people make new year resolutions. some people make "to do" lists. some people write business plans. some people even make a budget. others just 'wing it' and decide what to do when they have to. researchers have found that people spend more time planning there next vacation than they do planning for their future.

trouble with trying to plan our lives is 2-fold. first, its so hard to plan long term because things change so much faster then they used to. and secondly, if you plan something and it doesnt work out, its feels like a failure. now there is absolutely nothing wrong with failing. in fact, i would rather have tried and failed then never to have tried at all. failing helps you learn. failing makes success feel that much better. failing makes you a stronger person. failing teaches you humility. failing sucks!

planning and failing. failing and planning. its a vicious cycle. but a necessary one. i like to plan. just the mere act of planning feels like a success. its the implementation that causes the problems. now that i've taken you away from the message, back we go.

during the past few months we've been warned by many of our leaders to plan for a long war against terrorism. that war started in afghanistan and is now moving to iraq. no doubt it will move to nuclear korea and then who knows where but i'm sure there's a plan for that. during these past few months, its fairly clear that the leaders of our country have been busily making there plans for the future and they seem very ready for either success or failure. my concern is that #1 i'm not prepared, and #2 i don't know how to prepare even if i wanted to get prepared. and now that we are locked and loaded, i think its too late to get prepared.

the warnings have been issued many times. but what am i supposed to do? how do i plan for the next world war? so far i've tried to basically do what i did before i knew that there was an "axis of evil". when the cold war ended i thought the world was at peace. globalization was bringing the world closer together and most governments saw the virtues of free-enterprise and democracy. and now this. i have no plan and i am unprepared. i am not ready! i guess the good part about that is i cant fail at something i did not plan. so i'll just hope it works out the way they say it will.

have a grateful day!

larry TGB