A Five Year Plan

As a senior in my previous career I had to interview people for new job roles. It was an uncomfortable role. I knew what it was like to sit down in an interview room with three strangers judging the way I dressed, introduced myself and answered their questions.

On one occasion a guy walked in for his interview. Quite a confident chap, or so he portrayed, and a little different from the other interviewees. One of my questions was…

“Where do you see yourself in five years time?”

With hardly any hesitation, he looked straight at me and said…

“Where you’re sitting.”

I tried to keep my poker face, interviewer style persona about me but I just loved his answer. I grabbed my pen and put a big 10/10 on my question sheet.

I left the company a couple of years later and, in keeping in touch with old friends at the workplace, found that he had indeed started to sit in my chair doing my old job.

I used to hate that question. It isn’t down to a lack of ambition, but I couldn’t honestly tell any prospective employer that I would not only be still at the company in five years time but I’d be a senior within it.

And yet I understand entirely the need for planning. I plan fitness plans 2 or 3 years ahead in some cases. Olympians need to plan four years in advance to achieve a weight target, a strength goal and an incredible amount of ability in their field for them to compete. My own fitness plan is an annual plan.

And although life throws hurdles that I need to jump, my fitness plan stays on track. But I’m qualified to deal with that. I’m experienced in knowing where the pit falls will be and how to overcome it. As a Personal Trainer, it is simply a part of my job. I see the pit falls before my clients do. That’s how I can prepare them for their fitness goals.

However, there’s no text book or a University of Parenting. There isn’t a rule in how to be self employed during and after Covid lockdowns or a cost of living crisis and there’s no secret formula to a happy marriage. We have to, somehow, stumble through life doing the best we can. Often, we have to wing it.

My wife and I had a five year plan of moving to France. This was about 6 years ago. This was being planned quite well until March 2020 when the UK went into lockdown. As two self employed workers who were not classed as ‘key workers’ we had to stay indoors with our two boys. Slowly, our France fund and all of our savings disappeared.

My time structuring hypertrophy programmes, weight loss plans and sport specific macrocycles counted for nothing when we were faced with a life changing event that could not be stopped. This sort of event was not planned.

And so here we are coming to the end of 2022. We have dusted ourselves off and began to think about our future again. But a five year plan? Oh no. Not this time. This time, we’re looking to see what we can achieve next year. We can’t wait for another financial crash, a pandemic or another dodgy mini budget from a chancellor. We need to act quickly.

Our plan has become so pragmatic that it is something that is unknown to my wife and I. We have moved around the North of England quite a bit in our 15 years together so a house move doesn’t bother us. But this time we leave the country. In 2023, we move to Portugal.

The kids are pretty cool with the idea. I’m sure they’re a little miffed that they’ve just learnt the basics in French and now I’m trying to speak Portuguese to them. I’m doing quite well on Duolingo. I can now say “The armadillo reads the newspaper” in fluent Portuguese.

Our skills can be transferred and our immediate plan is to create wellness vacations for tourists and spa days for visitors and locals alike. If nothing else, it will be a challenge that we haven’t yet done. It’ll be an adventure. Only time will tell on the level of success we have.

Do you ever get the feeling that you keep promising yourself something and it never happens? Our five year plan could have easily turned into another five year plan, and another, and another. But I don’t want to grow old with a bunch of “What ifs”.

Sure, life can upset the norm sometimes but if things go wrong I want it to be on my terms. I want to own my mistakes if, indeed, there are any. And whether I do this in parenting, my health and fitness, our marriage, our business ventures and where we live then I want it to be my journey. One that I take charge of with my family.

And if I wait another five years I am giving the Universe a chance to throw me another curve ball or I might even Invent a problem myself that isn’t actually there!

So now is the time. Not five years. Now.