Or Not

by Daddy X

O my—goals. I’ve never been fond of goals.

Short term goals--sure. I’ve managed to stay busy and productive all my life, working in a variety of situations. It’s what has made my life the wild, eclectic trip it’s been. Stumbling and lurching from situation to situation, career to career with nothing but a drive for something new and doable (plus a hungry belly) to guide me through to the next opportunity. Freedom has always included making my own way in the here and now. I rarely had the luxury of making plans for the future.

Long term goals—not so much.  Except for our marriage itself, vast changes in lifestyle have taken place for Momma X and me because of our collective ability to not only think out of the box, but to sniff out opportunity as it presents itself and act upon that information. I’ve had the business cards printed before the interview, lied on resumes, learned something about the interviewer before he/she knew anything about me, and did virtually anything I thought might make me and my ‘brand’ stick out. Hell, everybody embellishes a resume, using whatever devices to make their own qualifications appear to hit the nail on the head. It’s about acting on opportunity.

In restaurants I wanted to work at, I would go and have dinner a few times, get to know the menu and the owner. I’d hang out at an interesting bar. Become a regular. When a position opened, they already knew me. Often, I found out about a job just as it came up. Maybe I even heard somebody was leaving before the fact.  

I’ve always been leery of plans. Plans seldom if ever go as scripted, considering the random quality of life itself, throwing curves and monkey wrenches at our involvements with such capricious intensity. I’ve seen too many plans come apart in situations where people have left themselves no other choices. Not for me. Secure escape hatches with several options help me stay alert and quick on my feet.

It’s a great perk to make one’s living doing something we love. That’s basically what I’ve always done. Since I could never afford to court hobbies on a level that I wanted to pursue them, it was necessary to turn my hobbies into businesses. That’s how my cooking career began. Also my antique business.

Of course that’s not to say all of my enterprises were successes. Forget “Willy-Nilly Construction, Instruction, and Destruction Company” or “Let Me Take You For a Ride”, (when I bought an old classic car and advertised drives through the Wine Country) and “The Visiting Chef”, (which actually led to my first restaurant job). And let’s not get into the snail farming. Poor Momma X still has nightmares about that one!

Currently I have a collection of stories in the works with an April 2015 target date. For now, that’s my most significant short-term focus. Beyond that, I guess my only real goal for the next year is staying alive and healthy. Heh. Come to think, that’s not much different than when I was younger!

Not that I ever tried that hard to stay healthy. (See bio in ‘About Us’) Alive, yes. At least that goal has been fulfilled—so far.