To Plan or Not to Plan

You. Hi, guys. My name is Donny Rouse and you are listening to the podcast One Life. To plan or not to Plan. When is it better to plan rather than just to commit to a decision and cut yourself off from any other option? By committing to a decision and by cutting yourself off from any other option, what you're doing is you're locking that decision in place. You're saying, this is what I'm committed to and this is what I'm going to do and I will figure it out afterward. By planning, what you're doing is you're saying, okay, you know what, I'm going to do this strategically. I'm going to plan this to minimize all the bumps in the road. Sure, there's going to be some things that I can't anticipate, but there are things that I can anticipate and I will handle those. Which one is a better option? Ryan. This is for my friend Ryan. He'd asked me a question because he was thinking about moving careers. He's currently doing realty and now wants to transition into doing some video vlogging in Europe and traveling around the world. When he asked me what he should do, I told him, well, you know, it's not a straightforward, it's not a straightforward answer. And I told him I was going to tell him some stories or I'm going to tell him here about when I committed and the results I got from that and when I failed to plan and the results I got from that. One of the decisions I made when I went to, I went to Nepal. So I had wanted to do the Mount Everest base camp, which is a 14 day trek, but I had been scared because the trek itself could be very dangerous because as you're going up in altitude, there is a chance of getting altitude sickness and maybe even dying. When I was looking to book that flight, I had been going back and forth for weeks. I had been looking at the flight and like, about to pull the trigger, but then I'd pull away. About to pull the trigger and then I would pull away. Then one day I was talking with my friend Paul on the phone and she was saying. And I was, prices had dropped on that flight. So I was like, oh my God, if there was a time to book that trip, it is now. She goes like. And she was encouraging me. She said, book it, book it, book it. I said, okay, took a deep breath, filled out the form, clicked non refundable and bought the ticket. So after I did that, I was ecstatic. I was like, oh my God, I Cannot believe I just did that. I cannot wait. I am going to Nepal. I am going to climb to base camp in Everest. Few minutes after that, I was nearly crapping myself. I thought about all the worst that could happen. I'm like, well, what, what happens if I get there? What happens if the plane crashes? Because it's one of the most dangerous airports in the world, Lukla, which is literally an airport on the side of a mountain. I mean, the Runway has an incline to it. So when a plane is landing, they have to kind of like come down and come up to land. Kind of weird. So that was just one of the things. Well, then the other one was, all right, well, what if something happens in the town? What if I get sick because of the sanitary conditions of the food? What happens if? And it just kept snowballing in my mind. And while I was there. So I booked the trip and then once I was there, I had to go. My family, everyone was kind of freaking out. But I did the trip anyways. While on the trip, there were a couple people who had like one guy I think had a stroke and then another one had to be helicoptered down because she had altitude sickness and was literally about to die. I mean, we went out for a hike one day and you know, we went out, she looked kind of sick. We came back and we're like, she does not look good. And they literally, the Sherpas had actually put her on, like on their shoulders because they were. Had to go through these mountain passages that were very narrow. And as a result of that, on top of that, I should say, not as well, on top of that, it started snowing. So there's no way they can maneuver, stretch her. So she literally had to be carried on someone's shoulders and make our way down. So that was. Those were like the worst case scenarios that had been going on in my mind. Thankfully, none of this happened to me and I had the time of my life. It was an amazing trip. That was an example of just committing to the outcome and booking decision without much planning process and figuring it out along the way. In hindsight, I realized, all right, wow, all the stuff I could, the equipment I bought, I could have literally rented everything in Kathmandu. I didn't have to purchase all this stuff and carry all this luggage with me. So there was lessons to be learned in retrospect. Now let's fast forward. So I just came back from two months in Miami, Florida, something like that. I don't even remember the time I'm trying to remember when I Went there maybe almost three months, Miami, but while I was there. So the intention to go down there was to find an apartment. I was there a month before I went there this past trip. I was there a month earlier for a week and a half. While I was there, I was trying to figure out, how do I get an apartment. Clearly you can't do month to month because there was rules about doing month to month. And if you want to do month to month to month to month, it had to be on Airbnb. And Airbnb literally inflated the price to almost double of what you would pay for regular rent. So that wasn't an option for me. So when I went back there the second time, I was, you know what, I'm not going to worry about this stuff. I'm just going to fly there and I'll figure it out on the fly and, you know, I'll get my work done. I had this, this beautiful fairy tale of how everything was going to play out once I was in Miami. It did not play out that way. I was down there. And because even hostels, they have this two week period where you could only stay two weeks in a hostel per calendar year. And while there a long time ago, there were many hostels in Miami, a lot of them had closed down because of COVID And as a result, some of those you really wouldn't want to stay in because they're just sketchy. So jumping around, around. I had a hard time one, doing work because every hostel I stayed at was like a club. There was always like loud music. I mean, I couldn't concentrate. And secondly, the environment wasn't always conducive to doing work because, you know, Miami. So need I say anymore? So when I was looking for apartments, it was kind of like this very chaotic vibration, like, all right, well, I want to do work. No, but I have to find a place. I would go looking at places and you know, they may not be open to renting for six months. They might want a year. And it was this constant back and forth. I could have done all the apartment searching while I was in Connecticut for that break of a month. So this way I'd gone down there and I had things. Look, granted, like the, the real estate was moving rather quickly down there. But I could have done all the paper, I could have done all the prep work, which would made my time there a lot less stressful. So in this instance, planning would have helped tremendously. In hindsight, being 20 20, I, I would have planned that one with the Kathmandu thing. No, I'm glad I, I booked that on the whim. I'm glad I committed and I just dove into that decision. But with the Miami, it would have made more sense to plan. So to address my friend Ryan's question, I would say that it's rather a combination of both. He again to re address, to quote, the question was like, all right, well, I want to do vlogging in Europe and I want to cover coffee and do all these other things. Is it better to drop everything and just commit and just go there and figure it out while I'm there, or should I work here, work for a couple more years, plan things out and go in two years? So I said, it kind of depends on where you are. I mean, yes, you can go there, yes, you can figure it all out. But granted you're not a citizen, so you can't work in Europe and now you have to figure it out. And there's no financial buffer. So worst case scenario, you may have to take a trip back to the United States early, earlier than you anticipated. Again, not a bad thing because now you would have gotten some experience, you would have figured out some things and how to do them better. There would be more strategy as a result of having been there. But if you plan a little bit up front and if you set milestones and markers for you to meet, then you can still make progress to where you can still commit to going, but be working towards that goal the entire time. So the, for this scenario, I would say the best, the best decision is a hybrid between making the commitment, like the do it now thing and for strategy of planning. So during this time, you could take all the time. You could learn the video skills, you could learn the business of doing it. Because there is a business to doing podcasting, to doing vlogging, to, you know, having a YouTube channel. It's all a strategy. So if you don't know the strategy, you're just going to literally spin your wheels. You're not going to get any results as a result of all the work you're going to have to put into it. And that's another thing. Well, how much work you have to put into it. True. You could have one of those, one of those brands or one of those channels that literally hits it right off the get go. In reality, those aren't all that common. So it's going to take a good deal of work, maybe a year, two years of creating content before you're actually going to get that hook where people are going to start to become aware and watch your channel. Are you ready for that? Can you afford to take that buffer? If not, then yes, plan. Put some away, put some money for savings for a rainy day just in case something happens. And then also this way you have living expenses. And if you could think of a way to do it where you don't have to maybe even worry about that day to day, maybe there's people who are willing to sponsor you who would say, okay, listen, we believe in what you're doing. We like the story behind it. We'll advertise for you, whatever it may be, so it'll lessen that financial burden, the risk of doing it. So, Ryan, that is my suggestion to you and anyone else out there who's willing to do the same thing. I just got back from like two months in Miami and every single person I spoke to, everyone wants the freedom of location. Everyone wants, you know, to work from a computer and have like, just the freedom of deciding what time, like how much they're going to work, where they're going to work from. So this one is going out to you. If you have any questions, you can send me a message via Instagram onnydonyrous R A U S. You can also send me an email through my website, donnyrouse.com and lastly, I invite you guys to check out the Facebook group Donny Rouse. If you search in Donny Rouse, it'll come up. It's my podcasting page, but I'll be doing some challenges there going forward. All of these posts will be in that group as well. So, guys, thank you so, so much for tuning in. If you enjoyed this, please share the podcast. Please share. It's One Life podcast with Donny Rouse again. One Life podcast with Donnie Rouse. I hope you got a lot out of this. Go bless and I will see you again soon.