I recently bought a car mount for my cell phone so that when using the GPS feature, I can hear Siri and see the map — both — all the while keeping my hands safely on the wheel rather than fumbling with my glasses.
I don’t wear glasses to drive, but I do for reading, or map work — unless it’s far enough away — and this particular cell phone mount suits my needs perfectly.
Each of us has a different vision of how and where we’re going in life. Some of us are more spontaneous and drive by the seat of our pants, while others delight in detail, planning it down to the gnat’s whisker.
How do you get where you’re going in life?
“Whatever you are not changing, you are choosing.” — Laurie Buchanan
The Book—Discovering the Seven Selves
The Experience—Life Harmony
© Laurie Buchanan 2013
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Tuesdays with Laurie 
I’m definitely a planner. Without mounting a strategy, I’m not going to get much of anywhere.
Hope your week has gotten off to a good start, Laurie. Sara and I have been running by the seats of our pants. Life is busy. But good!
Hugs from Ecuador,
Kathy
Kathy – I love your term, “Mounting a strategy.” Now THAT’S my kinda gal! 🙂
I’m definitely a planner. Right now I have a list of 10 things to do today! You might think that’s obsessive, but with a list I don’t have to strain so hard to remember!
The car mount for the cellphone and GPS is smart. I hope it doesn’t create a blind spot for your driving. I’m still laughing at the photo of him as Cereal Killer–just genius!
Marian – You’re right, a list helps us to avoid brain strain! It’s hard to tell in the photo, but it’s mounted well out of my way (low and to the right) so my view is un-interrupted 🙂
I find that when I surrender to what I call the flow, I move easily and effortlessly towards an open ended mystery. Surrender to the flow is a conscious choice based on trusting in a higher self that leads me always towards my highest good.
Irma – yes, Yes, YES! 🙂
I like planning and delighting in details, and then letting go and flying spontaneously. This has caused some challenges in life, but lately the Planner and the Spontaneous One are getting along admirably and allowing each other to co-exist peacefully. Phew. Only took half a lifetime to negotiate a true. LOL. My detail part would love to experience the joys of a GPS someday. However, you really don’t need it in the woods and we don’t travel with a car in cities often enough. But you never know…
Kathy – I love your BALANCE! I have to admit that I enjoy “well planned spontaneity.” 🙂
The GPS I use comes part-and-parcel with my cell phone (or I probably wouldn’t use one).
Make it a great week up in the BIG woods!
It feels rather blindly at the moment!
Jeff – I hope you’re good at braille, my friend 🙂
Oh my am I a “planner.” Flying by the seat of my pants is terrifying – though I have tried it a few times with good results. But my poor husband … there must be a “plan” or “schedule” for everything; I drive him nuts!
Melissa – Clearly we were cut from the same bolt of cloth 🙂
Interesting analogy! When it comes to driving, I always plan which route to take. When it comes to life, I travel on a wing and a prayer! 🙂
Mywithershins – I admire people who use the “wing and a prayer” method. My hat is off to YOU!
Well, if my life is like how I drive, then I’m a planner. I have gotten lost too many times to not LOVE my cell phone’s GPS system, so I use it religiously if I don’t know where I’m going. Hey! Do you think, in the future, there will be a GPS system for our daily day – helping us decide which direction to take???
Roughwighting – With my cell phone’s GPS I’ve actually discovered new and better ways to get from Point A to Point B — places I’d been many times and never thought (pre GPS) to try a different route.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if in the near future we live much like “The Jetsons” (futuristic cartoon from when I was young).
I’m a planner. Even when I fly by the seat of my pants I scatter breadcrumbs as I go so I can find my way back!
Joan – Oh, I just love your breadcrumb method! It made me chuckle this morning 🙂
I never plan anything and never do anything till the last minute . I never know where I am half the time or where I should be most of the time . My husband says I live on cloud cuckoo land most of the time and almost always away with the fairies . Surely not me I say and yet I am a hopeless worrier …work that one out Laurie . Yes got it in one …one crazy woman lol
Cherryx
Cherry – Your self-description made me dizzy 🙂 They should do a documentary: The Timeless Woman!
Sometimes it’s nice to make things happen, other to let things happen to you.
Fatimasaysell – You’ve described a beautiful ebb and flow 🙂
I think that’s how I’ve lived my life so far! 🙂
To be literal, I always check Mapquest before I leave the house when going somewhere new to make sure I have the route in my head. Recently I got an Android smartphone so as soon as I get in the car I turn on the “Google Lady” to guide me. But as I love to explore and discover new neighborhoods I like to deviate from her suggestions knowing that if I get lost she can set me straight. I used to have to pull over to the side of the road and get out my paper map… now, technology has given me more freedom. So, I live my life the same way and I am still waiting for a “Google Lady” to get me back on the right path when I stray. It would be nice to have a direct connection with the “universe” through my phone guiding me towards my purpose in life when I get off track… or on second thought, maybe that would be too limiting!
RMW – Oh, what a fun response, I enjoyed reading it. Siri (my version of your Google Lady) gets rather testy when I deviate from her instructions. She hasn’t reached out to smack me — yet! — but I imagine they’re working on adding that feature 🙂
Kicking and fighting and a few frustrated tears mostly! lol 😉
Europasicewolf – Ohhhhh, that doesn’t sound like much fun…
Oh Laurie, as you may guess there is no gnat’s finding there way into my life’s trajectory. I cast my gauze as far yonder as I can imagine and then step forward, looking up and out once in awhile just to make sure I am headed in the same general direction. If I get lost I sit down and think awhile until I figure it out or play solitaire until someone comes by and suggest the next move. It is a serendipitous adventure with a few guy-lines to steady me as I jump off the next cliff. However, to the outsider my life often appears planned, organized and thoughtful – only my mother and my husband would disagree. It is a life traveled by intention rather than map but I do carry a carefully stocked and well kept survival kit. All the best of today to you!
Terrill – Two things really stand out to me from your reply:
1. “It is a serendipitous adventure with a few guy-lines to steady me as I jump off the next cliff.” (I love this!)
2. “It is a life traveled by INTENTION rather than map…” (I resonate with this, but rather than a survival kit, I DO have a map folded neatly in my back pocket, just in case)…
Onward!
I’ve always been a planner.
But…
Just recently, I’m learning how to remain open to the element of magic–new ways of finding a solution; new ways to the success I seek; new ways to live in the now as I build for the future.
Leanne – I read the word NEW three times. I love the way your’e cultivating NEW experiences and NEW ways to experience them, in your life. As my friend Sandi White would say, Yee-Haw!
I think I’m somewhere inbetween. I love having a plan but once I do it’s great fun to be able to deviate if I want to (I’m the same kind of writer, by the way, which is very interesting to me). For that reason I absolutely love having a GPS — so that even if I know I’ve managed to stray from the planned route, I can always get back to where I need to be when I want to! Great post!
Julia – Deviate from the plan…I find it exceptionally interesting that you write that way, too 🙂
Hi Laurie
I like to know the layout of where I am going ahead of time, so that I have likely options and major obstacles clear, and I am quite flexible about the exact path on the day.
I enjoy a certain amount of “seat of the pants”, provided I am confident that within a larger context it is safe.
On our recent trip around the North Island, the fact that we would visit our daughter, our clients, and attend my niece’s wedding were fixed, as was the date of the wedding, but everything else was flexible. It worked, and we ended up at Cape Reinga (Northern most point) and Spirits Bay on Ailsa’s birthday.
Similarly when we go offroad – I like to have and to have studied detailed maps, and to have a few “probable routes”, and “no go areas” worked out, and then see what happens on the day.
So too on the larger scale of life.
It seems clear to me that we need to get to a place where as individuals we care much more about each other than we do about money or nations or beliefs; and exactly how we get from where we are to that place I am very flexible about – infinite possible paths suggest themselves. And that is certainly the destination I aim to reach, within the next two decades.
Ted – I always love to open your comments because they’re so refreshing. For example, “And that is certainly the destination I aim to reach within the next two decades.” And I will be in your cheering section all along the way! 🙂
I got to see several of the photos from your recent adventure to visit Jewelia, clients, and attend a family wedding — FANTASTIC!
I have one of those on my dashboard. When it comes to traveling I am a planner. But I often deviate a bit from the plans, because I love spontaneous stops along the way, and when I get to where I’m going I often follow whims. As to daily life? Well, if I don’t make at least a mental list of things to be done on a daily basis nothing gets done. Of course, of late the mental list fails me far too often and I really need to start writing things down.
>
Carol – The reason I write things down is twofold:
(1) Like you, if I don’t, it won’t happen.
(2) I get a rush by placing a checkmark next to a completed item 🙂
The “gnat’s whisker”, I LOVE that.
Funny you posted this today as I have been planning to get one of those thingies to hold my phone, for exactly the same reasons.
Cynthia – Glad you enjoyed that Laurieism. I’m really glad I got! (I got the “iottie easy one touch car mount through Amazon.com).
Wow! Lovely illustration. Sometimes we take things as they come, at other times, we go out and fetch things so that they can come.
Our desires always find a way to find expression, as long as we believe in the possibility of their occurance.
I enjoyed your post, it properly portrayed the concept.
Welldone! 🙂
Teeceecounsel – I love what you shared:
“Our desires always find a way to find expression, as long as we believe in the possibility of their occurrence.” 🙂
Nice post, – I use a map…
Hans – With all of the remote places YOU go you’d need a map as there’s probably not much in the way of cell towers. I loved your Norway photo today 🙂
I’m a planner and I usually have a back-up plan. I wish I could be more spontaneous but it’s simply not in my DNA!
Becwillmylife – You’re preachin’ to the choir 🙂
First of all, I must get that cell phone mount! That would help me so much! I am a definite planner, but I like to think that I leave some room to let the plan evolve! I kind of work at that, as sticking to the plan is what comes most naturally. I like to say that I’m “strategic,” which sounds less controlling. LOL!
Three Well Beings – I like the way you said, “…I leave some room to let the plan evolve!” That sounds so much kinder and gentler than “change.” 🙂
(I got the “iottie easy one touch car mount through Amazon.com).
With a smile and a gentle breeze at my back …
CultFit – The only way to fly 🙂
I use GPS only when traveling with my husband or on a definitive time to be at an unfamiliar place. Other wise I travel by direction, sun rises on the east, sets in the west. When it’s direct overhead it’s noon. When the sun sets, so do I!!
Cindy – I can just HEAR your voice saying this, coupled with your mannerisms, and it’s made me smile 🙂
I don’t actually have a big vision right now, I am just working on my health with 3 hours of exercise a day and many hours of reading…well I have always been a huge planner, I do not think I could have gotten 2 master’s degrees without detailed insight and plans, but now I am trying to see what “being ” holds for my future.
I always seem to be in debt to someone or something I have chosen to do….that is feeling extremely uncomfortable right now but a plan is not forthcoming. 5 years ago a psychic told me that funds were just raining all around me and it was as if I was under an umbrella and could not see it – If I saw it then I could have it….I am hoping through meditation and contemplation the vision will arrive clearly….but all my planning seems to be naught forthcoming – so being is the state I am working
We did get $16,800.00 off our loan’s interest for our daughters and my surgery bills – Thank you Affordable Health Care Act…which says that loans for medical bills can no longer have extraordinary rates of interest…The Insurance Company may have to pay a little something for denying us coverage also….Being has had it’s first insight 🙂
Oh yes! and I made $13 in book sales off my blog in October….Now that is fun 🙂
Patricia – I have no way of knowing, but maybe the wealth the psychic spoke of five years ago exists all around you in a different form than financial. Your Westie, Zip, is certainly worth his weight in gold?
And the arrival of that multiple-thousand loan interest payment is fantastic news – great for you!
I was reading a map when I was in the third grade. I love them. My dad, who was a flight engineer in the Air Force, taught us navigation as a survival skill. I help navigate my family over most of the Eastern and Southern U.S. before I was really tall enough to see over the back seat. These days when I travel, I google, make a few quick notes and go. As for Life in General, I don’t make overly detailed plans, I set a goal, plan to move from A to B in the most efficient way possible, allowing for the inevitable snags, and go. I have discovered in the last few years that over-thinking is a serious pit-fall for me, once I become ensnared in too many details and bogged down in the small stuff, I simply cut the rope and re-align my sights and have another go.
Sandi – You’re the epitome of “Travel light, travel fast.” And if I ever get stuck on a desert island, I hope it’s with you because by golly, you’d be able to get us off (only after we’d had a darned good time).
In retrospect, Laurie, I am not sure how I have gotten this far since I was clueless for the first 30 years of my life. Now, I have to have a plan for most stuff and use that internal GPS called my conscience to guide my way.
Barbara – I’ve often admired your internal compass, it always seems to point north 🙂
Did you say spontaneous Laurie? Ha! I’m afraid to say that planning is not part of my DNA, and it seems like everything we do in this life is spontaneous. We kinds live for the moment, though I would like to think that the degree of obsessive-compulsive behavior under our roof hasn’t done any irreparable damage, and that there have been some positive aspects by way of cultural exposure, travel, and the beauty of family interaction. It is challenging though when just about everyone under the roof is the same way. Lucille is 50-50. She’ll plan and deliberate some of the time. Ha!
Great post!
Sam – Having met your family in person, it’s fun for me to read responses where you include them because I can picture them individually and as a group. In this scenario with Lucille being a 50/50, I picture her as a “rudder” gently steering and guiding 🙂
No Checkmarks here,I delight in being clueless.Sure,there are regrets along the way due not being ready.
Roamer – Your response put a great big smile on my face. Certainly being “clueless” as provided you with many wonderful opportunities you mightn’t have had otherwise 🙂
A planner who usually ends up winging it. 😦
The Vanilla Housewife – As a subscriber to your hilarious blog, I can very much appreciate your response. Thank you for stopping by today 🙂
Unfortunately, not as frequent as I want to visit Laurie. Life sometimes get in the way so I am a post and run blogger most of the time which is not good at all. 😦
I hope you will enjoy the rest of the week! 🙂
Of course, I would answer this question with the Brain Color Concept. “To get where they are going”: Yellow Brainers need a detailed plan, Blue Brainers need to intuitively feel comfortable, Green Brainers need to have gathered enough information and Orange Brainers need to have the freedom to take action in their unique manner. This issue becomes a problem when other people do not respect and/or value another Brain Color’s Point of View! “Cheerio ” and enjoy your Brain Color journey toward a new perspective.
Sheila – Oh, I just love that you stopped by and painted your answer with vivid color. THANK YOU!
while others delight in detail, planning it down to the gnat’s whisker…..
As a Quality Manager I am a planner……smile………and I need a larger screen so I dont hit someone looking at my GPS…..
Kim – I can well imagine a quality manager’s need to scrutinize details — making sure they all come together as a quality whole.
Hmmmmm, as to a larger screen…
I get lost more times than I wanna tell ya. One time, I was supposed to be visiting my aunt in Richmond,GA and next thing I knew, I was reading a Welcome to Florida sign. Just a mess when it comes to geography. I’m navigating in life better but I could do better still.
Totsymae1011 – …and before you knew it, you were on an adventure! Oh how fun 🙂
athletically. 🙂 I run, bike, hike or walk there. 🙂
Charron’s Chatter – Way to go! It’s good for the EARTH, and good for YOU! 🙂
Ha! I’ve been flying by the seat of my pants a long time. I wish to be more focused. I try… but get distracted!!
WordsFallFromMyEyes – Derailment is something we all encounter at one time or another 🙂
I’m a big picture planner and a small picture seat of my pantser. Love these short blog posts, Laurie. You are giving me ideas as I think about the next evolution of my own blog.
Shirley – I love the term you’ve coined — panster. As a minimalist, I embrace concision in my writing style. I’m glad your cultivating ideas here at Speaking from the Heart, thank you for letting me know.
Look at a map. Set off. Take whatever highways and byways and stops and diversions along the way, while keeping pointing the right direction pretty much.
Rest along the way. And get to play at least one song I like on the journey.
Paul – Now THAT sounds like a recipe for success! 🙂