lifeinflux

Confessions of a PMP CDO DRP

// November 15th, 2012 // Featured Post

I have a confession.  I love to travel.  I love to travel for business, I love to travel for pleasure.  I love being gone for weeks on end or just a quick weekend heading out for an adventure somewhere else.   I have another confession.  I love throwing parties.  People in my house, eating good food, listening to great music, chatting up a storm and having a good time is my version of a good time.  And for reasons I cannot quite explain, I have not indulged in either for a really long time.  Granted, until recently I haven’t really had an opportunity to travel for business.  Additionally, when I travel for fun, I like bringing my kid along because, well, she’s a lot of fun to have around.   Her recent homeschool schedule makes travel difficult during the school year.  And I know parents who elect to educate their children in a public or private school setting run into this all the time.  But one HUGE attraction of homeschooling Drue was having the freedom to go where we wanted, when we wanted.  And sometimes that works – we are heading to South America in December by way of Mexico and the Panama Canal in a few weeks – and sometimes it doesn’t.

As for the lack of parties, my primary issue is the size of my postage stamp home in Palo Alto.  I have a huge backyard (that is a PITA to maintain and keep nice enough to have folks out there) but if it is cold or if it rains, that puts everyone in my house and the house itself is not very party friendly.  It’s a narrow U shape and the majority of the square footage is bedroom space.  And while it’s fun to type “party in my bedroom”, the reality is that I really don’t want 20 people hanging out in my private space.   You know?     I haven’t been very motivated to do much with this house since our plan since two summers ago is to move out of this house and somewhere else as soon as we can.  That date – next summer – is quickly approaching but not being able to host has left me feeling that something is lacking in my life and has made my home a less enjoyable place for me to be.   It’s a nice retreat from the traveling and the parties and fun at other people’s houses but not really a place where I can invite more than say 10 people at a time and feel relatively assured that we won’t be breathing in each other’s stink

The third thing that makes me very happy is feeling organized.  I know this is my OCD but it really does help me structure my days and make long term goals that are feasible.   And, as crazy as this sounds, having my life organized allows me to be more spontaneous.   I know I’m about to sound like a project manager here but when my life is scoped out appropriately, I can identify gaps in my time where I can afford to drop everything and go do wild, fun, unplanned things.   Additionally by knowing when things are due, and having a list of personal and professional milestone and deliverables list, I know when I can throw caution to the wind and do wild, fun, unplanned things.   So then when someone says, “let’s go to Europe for five days” (and by someone I may be referring to that little voice in my head), I can look at my life project plan and say, “Yes, I can totally do that!!  Let me shuffle these three things, send two emails and deliver one thing early and then let’s totally GO to EUROPE for five days.  Hell, let’s make it SIX!”  See!  Spontaneous!

2013 is gearing up to be a crazy, fantastic, amazing year and I am really looking forward to it for a plethora of reasons that I will get into at a later date.  And to prepare for that I’m looking at my personal goals, professional deliverables and a long list of “want to do’s” and figuring out when to do what.  And I’ll be bringing in as many fun, awesome, wonderful people into the fun as possible (and will let me).   So let the planning begin!!!