Take a look back over your life so far.

Are you a planner or do you drift along nicely?

Have things ended up the way you hoped that they would or have you been very disappointed?

If you could change just one thing what would it be?

I wish that I had spoken and listened to my grandma more when she was alive. She was born in 1899 and could have told me so much about her life and times and about the community where she and I grew up. At the time I wasn't interested but I so much wish that I had recorded her tales or made some written record.
:(

As I sit here next to my pool, cocktail in hand, Kylie draped over one shoulder, Sophie Raworth over the other, I think I can say my life has gone as planned.

Oh, hang on a mo, that's not happened. Sadly, I've made a few wrong choices and drifted occasionally where I should have driven. Nowt I can do about it now though other than try to make the rest the best I can.

I never really had a life plan, I can't plan more than a year or so in advance for even the major things (uni, jobs etc) My dad has been seriously ill since I was about 12 and my brother has an amazing ability to throw many spanners in the works just when you think everything is moving along nice and smoothly. Consequently I learned to plan only for the short term and not get my hopes up for anything beyond that. Deciding to start uni was a decision made only about 6 months before the term started and I never really expected to finish (that was a whole 3 years ahead and therefore beyond my control).
I've never really had ambitions, have never had an ideal job, house, family situation etc, I just see how life goes and if i like it I carry on, if not I try to change things. Even though ultimately I'm in control of my life I still cannot bring myself to plan things out.
I know this really annoys my boyfriend (though not my family as we are all very similar) because I can't look forward to things like moving in together as its probably more than a few months away that that will happen!!!
Am I weird????
Em
xx

Never had a plan in my short, sweet life but at the moment do seem to be hurtling from one catastrophe to another.

Always seem to manage to get myself back up even when times have been really hard though so guess the day-to-day approach isn't too bad for me!!

Am terribly undisciplined and a terrible time-keeper as well as outspoken and strongwilled yet have always been in employment and never been fired. Have my own house and car, 2 great kids, lots of friends and appropriate store cards, credit card debts, tales of lurid past misdemeanours for a woman of my age, 35 *coughs*.

A tendency to be impulsive has always dogged my life somewhat, hence going into a pet shop for a dog toy and coming out with two lovebirds and a parakeet..., doing motorbike riding and abseiling off tall buildings...

Can never plan where to be more than 2 days ahead and if I do, I generally have to cancel it, rearrange it, forget that I have made it or turn up very late and unorganised.

:help:

I was suppose to be a famous actress by now, so no, I can say my life has definately not gone to plan!

But after a few mistakes along the way, which hopefully you learn from, if the plan is to lead a happy life, then yes, its going to plan now.

I wish I'd done more and seen more like a similar thread about life passing you by.

Like my signature says - Youth is wasted on the Young.

You have so many idealistic plans when you are young then reality kicks in!

I think your plan changes throughout your life - now my plan is to provide a happy home for my kids, keep my relationship happy and hopefully everything will fall into place. :clap:

So far so good lol

Ask me that question again in a year

I'm 3 years behind schedule but catching up fast...

Not really I drifted like anything, I spent quite a bit of my working life just doing a job and quite a large chunk of my life either with mental ex-birds or single.One of the few things that was a positive constant was my mates,most of whom unfortunatley lived quite a way away. I hated my job, my love life and generally bumbled along with the opinion that life was crap.

Now I've just been accredited in my future career, have loads of good mates nearby and back home, enjoy my life and to cap it all have a fantastic fiancee who I love dearly. I wake up each day knowing what I'm going to do and that I have even more to look forward to in the future.

I suppose that all I needed was a firm kick up the backside and I could have maybe had everything sooner but then I don't think that I'd know how lucky I really am. My life is now focussed on what I want and keeping all the good things I have.

If I could change one thing, I should have appreciated my childhood more. My family gave me a very good upbringing and I didn't recognise at the time what a unique position I was in and squandered time and opportunities in abundance.

I thought my life was going exactly according to plan. But then I realised I had been holding it upside down and in my panic I spilt coffee all over it.

Now I just have to improvise for ever more.

What plan??

Im happy and i have money so i guess its so-far so-good!!!

at my age life goes according to ComPlan

If I knew what plan I had, then I'd know if it was going to plan.

My life has up's and down's like most other peoples, but if I thought this stage in my life was a plan, well then the architect sucks and I'm gonna sue his ass for misleading information :D

I've never had a plan for life. If I had, it certainly wouldn't have been the life I've had up to now, I can tell you that! On the other hand, I've not done badly out of it and have managed to make it through my formative years into adulthood reasonably successfully, albeit a little worse for wear ;)

I always find that life is like riding the rapids; no matter how much you keep the boat in check you're never really in control of where it takes you. Just hang on in there!

Does life ever go to plan.. I certainly didn't plan the last couple of years and I'm not saying I haven't enjoyed it :clap:

I changed careers at the end of Feb and never looked back, I'm still settling into the job but loving every day of it :thumbsup:

I'm never gonna plan life, I'm just gonna be grateful for everyday I have left :D

My life plan a few years ago was quite clear to me. I held up several smart young men as role models, (Ivan Massow being one of them), and was sure that by the time I was thirty, I would be settled and successful.

Never did I guess that my life story would resemble some ridiculous story penned jointly by Harold Pinter and Victoria Wood.

I have certainly had my share of hare-brained schemes and pipe-dreams; the time I decided to become a nurse, but was sick when the leaflets arrived from the NHS careers people arrived, after I saw a photo of childbirth. The time I wanted to become a store detective, and was nearly arrested in Asda while 'practicing'.

If you want to talk relationships, there's the guy that I had one date with who booked us a holiday the next day, and then stalked me. Or the time I totterred into HSBC on Fargate to use the minibank, and came out with a signicicant other.

So, life now; thirty, bitterly single, and jobless. Life plan? What bloomin' life plan! :help:

As a spirit I planned to have no life at all - then without my consent I became a fetus and was promptly delivered into the world - All went well for a few years leading what could often be refered to as a picture book existance - then the chemical power of my reproductive instincts kicked in. Again, I adapted, and reached a state of near perfection. Because it came easy I got rid of it easily and so it went along..... no regrets.... I don't know where I should be right now ... I never cared about a material existance ...if I should be here now then Ive reached my goal.

On the larger picture - I reckon one day when mankind is looked at from a distance people who were born in the 60's and 70's in he west, will be regarded as the luckiest of all humans - we are having the best ride of any generation so far or any Generation will ever experience in the future. Humans as a species will die out soon enough and return to pre-plague numbers!

Enjoy the rest of the evening!

I had plans to continue in my wonderful job until retirement age. Then 3 years ago, ill health suddenly struck, which has left me deaf in one ear, subject to constant tinnitus, and I have permanently lost almost two-thirds of my balance mechanisms, suffer from a lot of nuasea and have periodic vertigo attacks.

Never returned to work - and in any case, in my absence, my job has been abolished, and my staff have been reassigned to other jobs (which none of them wanted).

So, my life plan went up the spout. Now I try and live every day as it comes, though some of those can be crap beyond belief. But my son recovered from being paralysed below the waist, and my mum is still with us, despite being seriously ill earlier this year. Soon, the mountains of Wales will beckon once more. The potted plants in my back yard are giving me an amazing display of flowers, and I found a £1 coin down the back of the settee this afternoon! I've recently made a new friend on the forum, and was welcomed at an enjoyable forum meet last Sunday.

Hey, never mind this life plan business - it's actually not looking too bad on a day to day basis at the moment. Don't grow old, just keep on growing up.

Originally posted by redrobbo
I had plans to continue in my wonderful job until retirement age. Then 3 years ago, ill health suddenly struck, which has left me deaf in one ear, subject to constant tinnitus,

This rings a bell!

Originally posted by miniminch
Originally posted by redrobbo
I had plans to continue in my wonderful job until retirement age. Then 3 years ago, ill health suddenly struck, which has left me deaf in one ear, subject to constant tinnitus,This rings a bell!

It's nice to see you making such a valuable contribution once again Miniminch. I take it you're still attending the charm school?

How can you plan your life! what happens, happens.

Thats life!

I think things are going reasonably close to my 'plan'.

Any plan is always subject to revision of course. And i have short term goals (quite clear), medium term (fuzzier), and long term (pretty damn out of focus).

Sometimes deadlines slip and things have to be put back, but i'm only 27 and I think everything is proceding remarkably closely to how i'd like.
I would of course like more $$$, a bigger house, a faster car with less seats and my own caribean island. But these things will all come (maybe not the island).

Currently i'm trying to balance putting a bit more drive into my career, in terms of certification and training in order to score the next promotion on time and also get lots of focus on my jiu jitsu for my upcoming grading in July. This is the big one, 8 years of training, 4 years since I last graded, and they've gone and added loads of new bits that all need to be learned, damn.

That's causing me some problems as putting energy into both things is a bit difficult, but I'll get there, I hope.

Originally posted by sayz
How can you plan your life! what happens, happens.

Thats life!

life happens to us, but you can certainly predict a lot of what's going to happen (or the possible outcomes). Having a plan allows you to pre form your decisions to certain outcomes and saves time when they happen (it may even help you get ahead by making the decision quickly).

You can't plan for everything, but planning for nothing (personally) would be very unconfortable.

Originally posted by sayz
How can you plan your life! what happens, happens.

Thats life!

And then, 20 or 30 or 40 years later, you say "what happened?" You drift from one place to another, wherever the current takes you, until you realise that you don't like where you are.

It is possible to take control of your life and get where you want to be. If you don't get exactly there - at least you will have moved in the right direction.

I had no real direction or plans and it has gone very badly.

Originally posted by MrHelicopter
And then, 20 or 30 or 40 years later, you say "what happened?" You drift from one place to another, wherever the current takes you, until you realise that you don't like where you are.

It is possible to take control of your life and get where you want to be. If you don't get exactly there - at least you will have moved in the right direction.

All I can really add is i am 29 and my life is brilliant so far so good as they say. Live every day as if it was your last.

Well,

I was sort of OK until my early 30s then it went pear shaped. I have to hold my hands up and say 'mea culpa' because I made a few bad decisions that screwed things up big time.

However......

I think had I carried on in the same way I might have been dead by now - I was overweight and almost certainly heading for a heart attack. I'm also financially more secure (though with less money now) than I was back then - back then I had a truck load of debt but was servicing it, whereas now I have little debt. I'm more of a mature person - actually, I think I'm a better human being than I was.

I've also done stuff - written books, articles, etc. done film scripts, made short films, tried to make a feature film, presented radio shows, travelled to Alaska.

Overall, I'm happier now than I was then, feel that I'm more together and am looking forward to doing all sorts of stuff with my life!

So, here we go!!!!! :)

Joe

My mum says 'life is what happens whilst you're making plans...'

Originally posted by Strix
My mum says 'life is what happens whilst you're making plans...'

Come off it Strix, that's not an original unless your Mom's stage name is John Lennon! :D

she says it. I didn't say she invented it K

Remember ,this is not a rehearsal for Life, It is the real thing and it passes so quickly.
I do have a plan now.I try to plan a year ahead and not too much in advance as things can change, but I do think it important so that you can take some control of your life.

None of my life has gone the way I thought it would.
Which isn't a bad thing.

I started uni four years ago doing an English degree, halfway through my second year I got married and had a baby so took some time out until my baby was older.
Month after she was born I found out I'd got thyroid cancer. So the treatment for that has delayed my return to uni. Thankfully I will be able to go back after this Christmas and fully intend to do so (have already told uni I'm coming back!) but here I am, FORTY this year and with a 13 year old and a 22 month old, a husband and uni to go back to! So while I never planned my life much I NEVER expected to be where I am today having gone through so many experiences in a short space of time.

But funnily enough I wouldn't change anything, even the cancer bit, as it's 95% curable that's easy to say.

I had a plan. To be a high flying singleton business woman, in a smart apartment, travelling the world in her spare time.

Plan update: I am married to the best man in the world.
: I have a really good job that I enjoy and gone much further up the career ladder than I thought I would have at this time in my life.
: I have a nice big modern house to live in.
: I'm now in a position to do the travelling that I always wanted to. Dublin, Italy and France this year.... Africa on safari next year.


the marriage was a bit of a suprise, but having someone to share the travelling experiences with makes them so much more fun and exciting.


Hope all this happiness doesn't make people hate me. but considering where I started from in life - I am truly proud of what I have achieved.... so there !