HAVE A PLAN B

Recent issues with redundancy again show… little in a way of a plan A let alone plan B

Life? Well – living. So what would happen if the current job went west? Would I use that as an opportunity to try something completely different or would i just panic into a similar job in a similar company and look back and regret that later?

One should always have a plan B, right?

Working on the “Mutual of Omaha” option. Very interesting.

Grateful that my plate is full right now.

Well, Plan A just went in the crapper, so it’s all about plan B, now.

I’ve put this task on ice until the “Davist Manifesto” is completed. I can’t come up with a plan B until I first map out what is important to me, and find a compass to give myself a direction to move in.

"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?" 
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.
"I don't much care where –" said Alice.
"Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the Cat.
"– so long as I get somewhere," Alice added as an explanation.
"Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."

start a business of some kind

Plan B. There are lots of levels to this, because really, plan B is all about boundary conditions. We live our lives according to a set of assumptions and boundary conditions, and optimizing within those boundary conditions is, by definition, plan A. Plan B, then, presumes you can remove one or more of those boundary conditions, and take your life down a different path. The more boundary conditions you remove, the more scorch marks you get on your life path. But you don’t have to toss all the boundary conditions at the same time; hence the need for multiple “plan B”s, depending on the level of disruption that we will allow in our life.

I need to work out what the boundary conditions are, really, and what would be my plan if I removed the LEAST number of assumptions. THAT is the best Plan B.

• work on the RI movie for most of April
• third weekend of April is the Penny film
• go to Toronto in April for home visit and get the car
• go to NYC Easter weekend for my friend’s art show

• Plan A: find myself a short term paid position at a production or distribution company and go to Europe during or afterward
• Plan B: find myself a paid position at a company through the Danish Trade Commission and go to Europe during
• Plan C: find a legitimate project to start in April that carries me forward to going to Europe in June (paid) and be in Europe for as long as I can legitimize it through the project until I am required to come back
• Plan D: not end up finding work; leave for Europe as soon as possible after EI runs out and rent the house so expenses are covered, and hustle like mad to obtain work there that will pay my living expenses
• Plan E: take any permanent position here that appeals, and sock away money as long as I can, making sure to fit a European term in there under the constraints of the visa program so that I can work in Europe

• decide on when I’ll go to Europe and apply for the visa
• send inquiries to Denmark companies for work while there
• consult with R as he is European as to how he figures this all could work out for me

• get the roof reshingled
• Aliea moves out June 1 most likely, so find a new roommate on a temporary basis before then
• prepare to rent out the house July 1, in order to get it taken care of while in Europe, at the inconvenience of moving in with someone else temporarily for the rest of the time I need to stay

• Elderly boys – will need to go to good familiar homes
• Elderly girls – most will pass on, I’ll make some good arrangement for those who are still with me then
• Young girls – do everything I can to get them all adopted out.
• New mgmt to take over adoptions and promotion, general communications, fostering, vet bills, basics.

I really want to think this through. A real plan B can be as enabling as what they call a BATNA (best alternative to negotiated agreement) in business school. If I know what plan B is, and really have it worked out to the details, then when depression rolls in, I can resist it with a plausible alternative. There’s always “plan B” after all.