NORTHERN PLANNER

So after this about building a habit over 66 days, it's only right and proper to publicly prove my point (or fail in the trying), by seeing if I can get into the groove of properly blogging again. 

That's right, a post a day for 66 days. No one is asking for it, I'm very aware, but why the hell not?

Don't expect lots of planning and strategy stuff, I'm not sure the world really needs much more of that.

Don't expect a stream of typo free, double checked prose. My brain works faster than my typing, it's how I roll. 

Do expect more rubbish about tea, swimming (and maybe open water swimming, we'll see) and what it's like being 45 and not having a clue what you're doing. No one tells you this, but older people flail just as much as anyone else, they just get better at hiding it. 

One thing about the day job though, I have to write and play around with a lot of stuff to work out what I think. Reductionism is a must in our job, but I've always found I need to go very broad, before I go very narrow. I find blogging like this.

It's a little like making small talk with someone before you hit on a rich vein of conversation. You could say these posts are like making small talk with myself before I hit on something I like talking to myself about.

It's why I like to talk things through with people I work with, suddenly someone says something, the eyes widen and you go, yes, this, lets crack on now, thank God for that. 

Come to think about it, on the subject of talking to oneself, you know that phrase, 'getting cross with myself'? Who exactly is getting cross with who?

Anyway. 

It doesn't get nearly as much traction as it should in culture, but the most miserable demographic isn't young men working out who they are meant to be and asking Google if it's OK to cry (they do by the way). It's middle aged men who have no idea either. Problem is, they have less people to talk to and find it really hard to express their feelings. 

I'm sure this is made worse by the British social disease where no one is really supposed to say exactly what they mean, and certainly not talk about how they feel. I'm lucky that my friends are very un-British and have more to talk about that football and cars. We certainly are there for each other. 

So I'm also going to write in a very un-British way about what's really going on. I know it will be a revolution of just one, but if just a couple of people feel they can be more open and not pretend to be something they're not as a result, that would be a result.

I remember when I did write a bit more about the job and the odd email would come through from someone starting out, thanking me for something or other then found helpful. That made my day.

Maybe now I can be a do something else and help people see, we're just as confused as you, and this is actually a good thing. 

Can't hurt trying can it?