Heart Plans

It’s Boxing Day and here I am on a flight to Penang… I’ve got a meeting early tomorrow morning.  I’ve decided to give my boss the day off so he can spend Christmas with his family.  (Now I dictate my boss’ schedule, it seems).

So what am I doing blogging…? Well, the flight attendants are never around long enough for me to hit on them… so what else could I do?  I might as well write.

I probably won’t get this post online until tomorrow when I’m back in KL, but at least it will keep my mind occupied.

So what do I have to say about air travel?  Absolutely nothing.  Now everybody flies all the time.  That’s nothing worth writing about.  So I’m going to write about something else… relationships… (do I ever have a different topic?)

Image: Grant Cochrane / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Anyway… recently my friend was planning out his life… trying to ascertain where he is in his life and when he can possibly share his life with a partner… In other words, he was trying to figure out whether he should get married.

So he came out with a chart… a proposal… business plans… peer reviews… and all sorts of official looking documents.  Another friend was with us at the time and asked me, ‘so, did you do all these charts when you decided to get married?  My answer was quite simple…

‘No, I knew what I wanted.’

Here’s the thing with me.  I do believe that everything should have a plan and your decisions should be based on actual facts and figures… that’s how I do things at the office… that’s how I plan most of my life…  except for matters of the heart…

To me, matters of the heart are things that are totally unquantifiable.  How could you quantify how much you love a person and how much you yearn to spend the rest of your life with them?  Let me give you another example.

I have many friends who really try to plan when to have kids… they look at finances, work schedules, availability of a home in a good neighbourhood, baby sitters… all this planning takes place before they even have sex!!   Now where’s the fun in that?  Could you imagine the conversation that takes place then?

Husband : I believe we should copulate tonight…

Wife : Are you sure about that?  What is the rationale behind this decision?

Husband : Well, I have just secured a $5mil project that is set to roll out within the next quarter of this year.  The bonus I would receive would be enough to start and education fund for our future child.  My travel schedule for the project would mean I would be home nine months from now so I can attend your delivery of the abovementioned child

Wife : That’s excellent news.  I’ll check my body temperature to see if it’s suitable for coitus. 

Huh!?

The heart should get what the heart wants… the conversation should be like this:

Husband : wink wink
Wife : wink
(censored)

You shouldn’t deny what the heart yearns due to budgets, timing, etc.  Just do it.  You then plan your financials and schedules around those ‘heart plans’… When it’s something from the heart you will be able to meet those tight deadlines and budgets for sure.  You’ll work harder at it because you future happiness is at stake.

‘Ladies and Gentleman, we are about to land.  Please switch off your electronic devices like your laptop because you can’t upload the post to your blog now anyway.  Thank you for flying with us.’