Planning not to plan

I once read about a military man who said that planning was absolutely essential, but once on the battlefield you should throw your plan away. That might sound absurd, especially if you are the sort of person who prefers things to be completely premeditated. The problem with premeditation is that it murders spontaneity.

My son plays cricket for his school on Saturdays, he is a useful opening batsman and routinely takes his share of scalps when bowling. This morning I dropped him off at the field (I have to admit that I can't watch cricket,… 'mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun') and decided to return home by a different route, past the beach at Takapuna. The scene was idyllic; perfectly calm, sun sparkling on the water, people promenading along the sand. All in all a reminder of how lucky I am to live in Auckland. Which is not to say I don't like London, Paris and New York - they are wonderful places for different reasons. But this is a kind of paradise and one that I enjoy.

Having experienced the mood elevation of a stroll on the beach I made a terrible mistake. I bought the New Zealand Herald and was regaled with page after page of the disgusting story of the infamous police rapists.

And so it goes. Even paradise has its problems.

Comments

Addict-o-matic

A cool resource for you to try. Aggregates search topics from a number of sources. Thanks to Brand DNA (again) for the heads-up.

Johnny Bunko competiton

The Great Johnny Bunko Challenge from DHP on Vimeo . There's a young chap in Indiana, one Alec Quig , who has written to me about creating a career based on a polymathic degree, from which he has recently graduated. He's an interesting young man and his concerns about going forward in life are the anxieties we all face at crossroads in our lives when we are forced to make choices. Dan Pink's latest book The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need might help: "From a New York Times, BusinessWeek, and Washington Post bestselling author comes a first-of-its- kind career guide for a new generation of job seekers.There's never been a career guide like it.the fully illustrated story (ingeniously told in Manga form) of a young Everyman just out of college who lands his first job. Johnny Bunko is new to parachute company Boggs Corp., and he stumbles through his early days as a working stiff until a crisis prompts him to find a new job. St

Shoulders of giants

"A failure is a man who has blundered but is not able to cash in on the experience." "Life is just one damned thing after another." (Both from Elbert Hubbard - look him up on the wikipedia . If it's wrong - change it)

ThoughtSpurs

Search This Blog