The essence of pleasure is spontaneity. — Germaine Greer

New Year has yet again snuck up right behind most people and bitten them in their crap-tastic metal ass. Don’t you just love how unexpectedly this happens?!

Barely recovered from a slue of shiny new toys, laptops, iTunes gift cards; eggnog and cookies, parents, siblings and nieces and dizzying rate of text messages, people who have evolved from making resolutions (to be broken no later than January 6^th) will happily sit down and spend thirty minutes or so planning the rest of their year. Please refer to your own list for a more relevant example.

What? You didn’t make the list? What about your five year plan? I see – not that one either?!

Whoever came up with the GTD methodology could be a genius (thanks David Allen!) but that only works for exactly what it says it does. If you’re putting together a car micro steps are very important: cart before the horse seems like an appropriate analogy.

Most accomplishments in the end can be broken down in to a multitude of relatively simple steps. Executing steps in backwards order, then, would lead you to a result. Often enough, at least, to warrant it a go.

What if you didn’t need to do any of that, and still were able to accomplish all of the things that make you – you? At first the idea is unthinkable: if we don’t plan for things, then they don’t get done!

Now, take a second and reflect on your day. So far, exactly how many things did you do without having to explicitly plan them? I’m going to venture here and say that most of them were in a very useful category of “it just happened.”

So then most things, it turns out, don’t need to be planned at all – they happen on their own.

The secret is that many things can’t be measured – and so the step-by-step approach of a top-down design simply doesn’t work. Don’t believe me? Look around.

I’ve recently made an effort to reconnect with several old friends – not many just three – I haven’t spoken to in years. Not a single one of them was happy. My first thought was: “man, those people were my friends?!”

They’re accomplishing goals, alright, only when they’re done it looks like what they got wasn’t really what they wanted. A day or two later the answer arrived all on its own. Knowing what you want tomorrow is really easy. Knowing what you want in 2 years is hit or miss. Five years in the future is just a hairline above tasseography.

Many people will have a problem with this suggestion but if you’re brave give it a shot for a few days.

Run with your first instinct.

That’s it. No catch.

Let who you are define the things you do, and they will speak to who you are all on their own.

— What about big goals?
— I’ll be having onion rings, mate.