PLANNING PHASE - THE NEXT DAY

FAMILY MATTERS (Written January 6, 2010)

At this point we haven't bought any plane tickets to South America but a surprising number of things have happened over the last 48 hours: 1) Vicky, my wife, completely supports my ideas, 2) we've been pre-approved by the bank to not only purchase a new house but to keep our existing house as a rental property, 3) we've gone to visit a house that is for sale, 4) I've actually been productive for the first time in quite a while (ouside of caring for my son Jack), and 5) I've met a guy named Brad.

So, if you've read my last blog post (also my first blog post) you'll know that I left the story with a bit of cliffhanger. Well, it turns out that the 'next morning' actually came much quicker than I thought it would... 10 minutes after finishing up my writing, Vicky is awake and I start the conversation off with, 'Do you know how long I was just in the bath for?'.

THE PERSONAL FALLOUT

What you all want to know is what I was thinking when I woke up the day after my big epiphany. I think it went something like this, "Oh f--k. What have I done now?" You see, after my glorious self realization the other night I told wifey everything about it. She gave me the, "It's about time" sort of response, as if to say that she was going to hold me to it. So I woke up feeling good, a little scared but good. The first thing I needed to do was improve the quality of my task lists. I really like carrying them around with me but since I don't have an iPhone, I'm relying on a pen & paper. This wasn't going to do, not with all the stuff I now have on my plate. I visit a website called 'rememberthemilk.com' that I remembered reading about in the '4HWW'. This website completely blew my mind (take note that this is the 2nd thing to blow my mind in the same number of journal entries / blog posts). I can't measure it precisely but I think my productivity has increased immensely in the last 48 hours. The result is that I no longer need paper.

Now to my experiences over the past couple days. None of them are really all that important to write about. We looked at a potential new home and we got a mortgage pre-approval. Did I mention that I met a guy named Brad? I met him because I'm giving away my computer desk and he's the guy who picked it up. Coincidentally, he's the CEO of a company that does a lot of stuff that I'm interested in. He was interested in talking to me for two reasons 1) he saw my cross country skis and wanted to tell a story about skiing nakes in Gatineau park, 2) I wrote instructions in pencil on my now dismantled desk so that he could put it back together easily. He asked me, "Do you really work for the government?". Keeping in mind that Vicky had emailed him earlier in the day my response was something like 'Hell no, my wife does'. "Makes sense, you're way too..." he used some word that made me sound smart and non-government like so I took a liking to him. We talked business and I soon realized that he's in the game and I'm nothing. Nonetheless, I wore my 'humble-hat' (is that even an expression!!??) and he offered me some amazing advice for a project I'm working on. I might have arrived at the same conclusion but he just helped with getting there a little faster. I guess that's the point of networking... I probably should have figured that out a long time ago.

AROUND TWO MONTHS LATER

I wrote back in January but right now it's early March and only those who 'follow us' know that we're in Florida... one step away from our departure to Uruguay. Anyhow, if I had to summarize what I learned prior to writing that last journal entry it would be: 1) if you're going to make a big move make sure to consult your husband/wife and try to get their support (I was lucky), the conversation will help to justify actions taken later on 2) take immediate action towards your goals, it will help you from not looking like 'douche bag failure' down the road 3) be proactive in all areas of your life to reveal things or people that/who are hidden just under the surface (like Brad). As it turns out, nothing is as easy as it seems as you'll find out in a future post.

Most importantly, I should probably mention that part of the reason it took me so long to start this blog is that I didn't want to share our plans with my little world... in case they failed. They still could fail... so at least I'm not a total wuss.

Oh, and just to be clear, I have plenty of respect for people working for the government (I'm obviously still married to one of them). That occupation is just not conducive to realizing the goals that I have for my life.