We No Speak Americano

Such brilliant coordination & super creative. I just fell in love with these folks! ♥

Mystery of a Plan

How do I make a five year plan , when I don’t even know what tomorrow will be like!? Yes, in my head, tomorrow will be identical to today. Not too many day- to - day variances when you are running in a full-fledged power saving mode. But then, there is still scope of a random phone call, a conversation or a reading that would trigger something to break the pattern.

How much into the future can you see? How clear is the future you see?

I have been asked to make five year plans before, but never been taught how to make one. Weird enough, I don’t think anyone I know has had a clue about it themselves, and if they did, they have guarded it like their best known secret. Well, that or I being the proud epitome of impulsive and random never bothered to ask. Plans never work for me, I always said.

Whatever the case, this one is now turning out to be just as obscure as gazing into the crystal ball and fortune telling.

This art of planning is something one is born with, I have started to believe. I surely missed the whole lesson on plans when it was being taught in some remote corner of the galaxy. As usual, I may have been up to learning some “more important” random lessons somewhere else.

With a void in my head where the lesson was supposed to be, I decided to try unravelling the mystery on my own.

It’s been close to two weeks since I started pondering on this one, and while it was triggered by a catalytic little incident, a plan chalked out in oblivion. I believe I may have cracked the code.

There are text books that will give you all the theory you need about plans, business plans to be more specific, but, it is only knowledge. You gain some, you lose some, it is just data, and is useless unless you know how to apply it. The true value is in its application. Life is surely more than planning about business, and I haven’t come across any text books telling me how to plan my life, a bigger issue that, compared to a Business Plan. Planning your life is something you just do along the way.

So we plan, a 99.9% in B School, work for a Fortune 100 company, get married by the age of 28, have kids by the age of 32 , make the first billion by the age of 40. Sure, this is a great wish list, but is there a detailed plan around this? Are the action steps well defined and do we have counter measures for the possible glitches. Most ideas fail because of a lack of proper planning. We leave half baked thoughts floating in space, hoping for them to find their way home. They eventually do find their way home, but they also bring along the 3 little pigs and the big bad wolf, because we let those thoughts wandering without specific instructions - "Don't talk to strangers"

We wonder where we are headed as time and again we encounter road blocks, twisted wishes and everything ugly. Wonder where we went wrong.

In time comes realization,even if your life seems like a chain of random events, a crack of lightening through the gray clouds over your head,one fine day, exposes the order in the chaos, brings into vision all that fits perfectly in the divine plan. While some seem to have a head start, eventually we all catch up.

A plan is all about being able to clearly see your objective, your cause. The machinery of this world runs on planning. We run our own personal universes, all our individual universes fitting into the master plan.

The towers touching the sky were built by architects who could imagine these tall structures speaking to the sky, no scope for mistakes, they imagined it all, the foundation, the concrete mix, the earthquake resistance, the tint on the glasses, they saw it all.

It is only with such depth of detailing can we plan, and plan right. There are no uncertainties, no coincidences. You design your own fate. You plan the future you want. It’s up to you to blind walk the road or rid yourself of the blind fold and be aware of every step you take and the consequences of each step, absorb the scenery.

Being an optimist is great. If you are one like I am, faith should come fairly easy. The difficult lesson though will be preparing for adversities. In our world, everything is perfect and when we are hit with a not so ideal situation, we break, and how. We eventually do rise like the phoenix from the ashes, but it would be so much better if we didn’t burn to ashes every time there was a fire and had a fire extinguisher handy, just in case.

A good plan is one in which we can clearly see our goal, and the path to our goal. The clarity of path includes visions of all possible road blocks and solutions to get past them. It is an exciting adventure, this treasure hunt, with codes to decipher and riddles to solve, each step taking us to a higher level.

Easy Peasy, Exciting? Now all we need is a purpose, a cause we feel for. An active imagination. And Faith, tons of it.

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08 Jun 10

I am still learning the art of detailing, and here's something that I found - a brilliant tool for planning. It's a step-by-step methodology for chalking out a plan. Check it out http://chrisguillebeau.com/Ideal-World.doc

Better Still! Chris Guillebeau's Guide to World Domination . I broke into a Joy Dance after this one ;D

Electric Whips, Iron Man and Me

This isn't a movie review. Just a lowdown on what it did for me.

Don’t understand how anyone can wake up early to go catch a movie. It’s just a movie for God's sake! I did wake up though, yesterday was my first - the first show of a movie on the first day of screening, and what a first! I walked out of multiplex, with a skip in my step and a wide grin pasted to my face. Don’t remember the last time I was exhilarated by a movie like this. Don’t remember the last time I was ecstatic about anything like this.

My senses are all cranked up as I hear the whips crack in my head. Iron Man 2, with its brilliance and its flaws has left me very inspired.

I have seen creative genius before. Many films out there, alternate universes, trailers of the potential that is, a life that can be. A book is probably a better trigger to my imagination, it gives me the creative liberty to do what I want with the story, go as big and loud as I want to and I am not restricted by another’s vision. A film like this once in a while however does more than it was meant to do. A visual treat with its double dose of brilliance - the brilliance of a reality created by special effects you want to be a part of and the brilliance of characters. Characters that you cannot take your eyes off, characters that leave you wanting for more.

Whip lash aka Ivan Vanko aka Mickey Rourke leaves me stunned. A genius of a character and very misunderstood, at that. Like many geniuses out there, gone to waste over an inane lost cause. The grace of a man of that bulk cracking his electric whips to a beautiful dance. I want to play the whips like him. Feel the power, be one with it.

And of course, then there is the Oh so narcissistic genius of Tony Stark aka Iron Man aka Robert Downey Jr. Very few people who can be narcissistic like he is, and be loved for it. Anyone who recognises the brilliance within is allowed to be proud, he better be proud. I do not understand humble brilliance. Well, I do understand it, but it’s not for me.

I am a borderline narcissist and I don’t know how to say that without the pejorative hue that comes with it, but I am very proud to be one. Don’t know how one evolves like that when the programming is to live modestly, be humble, and stay within limits. But I am probably one only because of the program. To never forget the humble beginning, but to also not believe in limits anymore. Not made to be mediocre.

Ever felt power that left you overwhelmed, scared and in awe of the brilliance all at once? I am in search of that exuberance. In search of the electric excitement, triggered by the whip lash, I want to crack along and feel that power every moment of my existence.

I know what I want to be when I grow up Mommy... I want to be Tony Stark and I want to be Whiplash, all rolled into one. I want Brilliance.

I'm the super hero just out from my coma. Struggling to remember my super power. Learning to be the super hero I want to be.