As of last week, my future plans are becoming real! Now is the time to get the wind in my sails and plot a course to success (<< Bad cliche… but fits the image well)!

I now know the last day that I will be working for my current employer and therefore know the date of the first day I will be working for myself! What a cool and scary thought! I have got so much to do and organise that I really have no idea where to start. I think that I had better re-read a couple of my past posts…

• Work – Planning for change.
• Time, Vision and Mind Mapping
• First steps to freedom

Once the adrenaline settles down a little, I had better get started! If I want to be ready, I need to make sure I am ready!! This is exciting… did I mention that?!

Beer has been brewed, in Europe, as far back as 3000 BC by Celtic and Germanic tribes. By the 7th Century AD, beer was being made and sold by Monastaries. Today, 135 billion liters are brewed each year around the world. My contribution will be about 23 litres (40 pints) to start with- lets see where it goes from there!

There is a practical side to this chemistry experiment. Is it cheaper to brew my own? For example, when I go to discuss important matters in local public houses, I am charged around £2.50 for a pint of the miracle thinking juice!  To buy 40 pints at the pub, will cost £100. The complete brewing kit I am using cost just over £50. This includes the fermentation bucket, ingredients, tools and a pressure barrel. If I never use the equipment again, the beer is going to cost half what it does in the pub… £1.25 per pint!

Lets assume I do the sensible thing and start brewing some more as soon as the first batch is ready. Each time the overall CPP (Cost Per Pint) will reduce as I will not need anything, except ingredients. To save webspace, lets just see what it will cost after 5 brew-ups!

Equipment = £30
Ingredients = £100 (5 x £20)
Total cost = £130
Cost per pint = £130/200 = £0.65

That speaks for itself. The more beer I brew, the cheaper it becomes… I need to start drinking more

The next question to answer is, will it be good enough to drink? This will be a task for a night in after the brew has finished. I will invite some friends guinea pigs to test it out and give me their comments! Expect that report in about 8 weeks!

As part of my lifestyle assessment, I have looked at the above and tried to decide if I am trying to do too much. Is my focus in the right place? Should I be shifting my priorities?

My short term goals need to consider where I want to be in the future. I need to get a clear idea of what I want to achieve in order to decide on how to get there. My experience in Marketing will help with this but knowing the method alone is not enough… I must develop a vision! It is time to break open the Moleskin notebook and get mind mapping.

Mind Mapping

There is nothing more effective than a mind map to help get things into perspective. Actually, there are likely to be hundreds of effective methods but Mind Maps work well for me! It is one of the tools that I use when making decisions or plans that revolve around a number of different factors. In fact, I have used them during meetings and for planning answers for study assignments! The simplicity of the process means you can get all of your ideas put down quickly and in context with each other. They are also very easy to return to at a later date because of their logical structure.

The idea is that you start with a central idea and develop it along branches to further points. These points can then also be expanded upon. The benefits of this non-linear approach is that you can add information to any point on the diagram at any stage, as and when the thought occurs. At the end, you should have a complete overview of the subject you are mapping. You can find plenty of detailed instructions and guides with a quick Google search, but its important to understand that anything goes.

Some explanations provide details of what different shapes mean, different connecting lines, different colours etc. As long as you are using the maps in the way your mind works, you are doing it right! If you are interested, here is a short list of mind mapping resources I found.

• Wikipedia guide to mind mapping – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map
• Mindmeister: online mind mapping tool – http://www.mindmeister.com/
• Freemind: Free cross platform software – http://freemind.sourceforge.net
• XMIND: Free software with online collaboration – http://www.xmind.net/

Some people like software tools, some like online systems and some, like me, prefer to use a pencil! If you get comfortable using mind maps, whichever tool you use, there will be ways to modify it to suit other needs.

Defining my vision

To be honest, this is really hard. It’s easy to consider dreams and aspirations but these are not tangible goals. By completing the above assessment, I know how much money I need each month to cover outgoings and I have detailed the aspirations I would like to reach, but formalising the statement is very difficult. For today I think I will settle on a few statements!

• I must earn enough money to cover my ‘needs’ and save towards my ‘wants’.
• I would like to earn money through flexible and fulfilling means.
• I must take opportunities when they are available.
• I must put more focus on health and fitness.

This might seem to be an open-ended list, however, I think it will provide enough basis with which to work on. These are my first draft notes and will narrow the parameters for the next stage. I am going to leave these for a few days and then look again. With decisions like this, a bit of reflection time is valuable as it allows you to look again with ‘nearly’ fresh eyes. The next post will be on planning an ‘Experience’.

By considering the worst-case scenario that my job is no longer based in Guernsey, these are the steps I need to take now:

1. Get to grips with my current financial situation.
2. Update my CV – This is good practice and might be needed.
3. Decide what I want to do!

Should I decide to take a new direction, completing these steps will give me information regarding my current situation and what further steps are needed to reach my goal. In theory, I should be able to do all of these in my sleep. That third point above is hard though, I have got many ideas that range from climbing Everest to becoming a full-time television watcher. It is important that the choice is well thought out and has a future to it! It’s time to pull out my copy of  The 4-hour Work Week and brush up on the options available for joining the ‘New Rich’!