My people have ideas for me. Start a business. Become a lawyer. Write books. Help kids. Make it on the Champions golf tour. Run for Congress. Create a foundation. Get a master’s degree in writing. Be a golf course architect. God bless them and every one of those ideas. I know they come from a place of love and desire for me to be a success in the next phase of my life. I’m grateful for their support and humbled by their belief in my potential.
As the end of my incarceration nears, I am doing more than dreaming dreams though. I am creating a vision, making a plan, and setting goals. I’m also working toward the fulfillment of that plan, preparing myself to hit the ground running when I get out.
I spend time each day journaling to hash out the details of my plan and chart progress, and I have visualization sessions to put myself in the associated scenes and align my state of being with home. As I go along, I bounce my thinking and progress off my family and friends to get their input. My first responsibility is to them, and they have a say in how my time and attention will be allocated.
My current plan has three parts:
First, I intend to have a job job, and I am already doing networking outreach into organizations that interest me. The reception of these inquiries has thus far been warm. There are good people out there willing to give chances to those who are prepared.
Second, I will continue writing articles, essays, and books. To enhance my resume and improve as a writer, I’m publishing an increasing amount of my work for public consumption.
And third, I previously created a golf media platform at GeekedOnGolf.com and an offshoot communications business called Golf Geeks Consulting that will be revitalized. In addition to helping golf clubs and resorts tell their stories, GeekedOnGolf will also explore the more soulful aspects of the game, particularly how golf is a vehicle for creating change in communities and the lives of others.
Providing needed income to my family is a goal of these pursuits. The other goal is to lend my talents, experience, and network to initiatives that give disadvantaged children and adults first chances at achieving success through education. If I can help replace the school-to-prison pipeline with a classroom-to-career pipeline, my time and effort will be well spent.
Every week that goes by, my plan becomes more concrete, and my preparations get more focused. I have purpose and the days fly by. It is vital for me to remain open and humble, however, remembering that reality often wins in competition with our plans. Prison was never in my plans. I never envisioned myself in a green uniform with a federal registration number on the pocket. Yet here I am.
Having a vision, crafting a strong plan, and setting goals are fundamental to success. As Dr. Covey tells me in the first two of his 7 Habits, I have been given the gift of creative vision. Take responsibility and put that capacity to work. Be proactive and begin with the end in mind. At the same time, I am ultimately not in control and so my vision, plan, and goals are best loosely held.
In the book club I started here at the camp, we read Everything Happens for a Reason, and Other Lies I’ve Loved. This passage stood out to me:
“Plans are made. Plans come apart. New delights or tragedies pop up in their place. And nothing human or divine will map out this life, this life that has been more painful than I could have imagined. More beautiful than I could have imagined.”
In this ball of chaos, we call life, it makes a difference to be aiming at a clearly defined target. The directionless typically get nowhere. But as I look back at my life with its twists and turns, my faith is not founded on the experience of always hitting the targets at which I aimed. It simply didn’t happen that way. My courage to forge ahead faithfully comes from knowing that whatever happens, whether victory or defeat, can be transformed into an asset and put to good use. As Father Gregory Boyle wrote in Barking to the Choir, “God protects me from nothing, and sustains me in everything.”
In the foreseeable future, I will leave prison. I can confidently say that I have done the work to be ready to go whenever my name is called. I will return home having made the most of my time inside and squeezed every bit of value out of the experience. I will enthusiastically execute my plan and chase my goals of contributing to my family and making a difference in the lives of others. If the Universe has other plans for me, I am okay with that because my designs are loosely held.
My attitude, which guarantees me success no matter what can be summed up by paraphrasing the simple daily prayer of my dear friend John: “For all that has been, thanks. For all that’s to come, yes.”
