Or, “How I was reminded that stuff gets better if you prioritise it.”

We were hoping to move onto the boat this weekend. It’s not entirely off the cards, but it’s more than likely we’ve added a week or two to our move aboard.

Why?

Prioritised the wrong things and spent my energy flailing like a moron.

That’s right – I started this post with a John Wick reference. You can do these things when you have a website.

So we were in this pub…

I brought both pints over to our table.

Lady SierraWhiskyMike was taking the news a lot better than I was.

The pub was her idea: having failed spectacularly in our one big job for the weekend, we might as well salvage something and have a break for the afternoon. It was Saturday, after all, and you can’t do much in the Channel Islands on Sundays.

“I know you’re disappointed, but there’s no way she was going to fit.”

We’d been hoping to park our boat stern-to. It would have been an easy fix to get the dog aboard: the boat has a “sugar scoop” stern, so we could just put out a gangplank for him.

Unfortunately, due to the shape of the mooring berth, the boat can’t do that.

Which wouldn’t have been a problem, except that…

If we’d checked weeks ago, we could have made modifications by now to the boat to allow him to board sideways.

Why didn’t we check?

Well, you know why. I’m quite accountable to my audience on this blog. We got complacent, went out partying and socialised too much. We drank too much, danced out too much, ate dinner out and about too much and now we’re delaying our own main effort.

“We took our eye off the ball”, Lady SierraWhiskyMike said.

She was right.

Can we fix it? Yes we can!

Heh. A Bob the Builder reference in the same post as John Wick. Anything goes.

Things aren’t as bad as they seem.

We have asked to move to a wider berth, but being in the most oversubscribed marina in the Channel Islands means the answer is a polite but firm “no”.

We can fit a full gate in the guard rail. That’s a lot of fibreglass, drilling and faff, but it can be done. Weirdly, the design of our boat adds challenges. I could geek out, but this isn’t the place for hardcore boat chat.

The steelwork on the back of the boat could benefit from a complete redesign so that we can mount solar panels, but that involves (a) money up front and (b) a full renovation plan. I’m not willing to commit to either until we’ve at least lived aboard for a bit!

Finally, we can just add in temporary access gates using halyard-style shackles and splicing eyes into the wire. Not pretty and the guardrail will be useless for safety while the connection is open, but it’s also cheap to do and cheap to fix if we don’t like it.

It’s probably going to be the last one, followed by the second one at a later date.

Importantly though, I’m going to need to make this a priority if I want to move aboard before New Year.

We don’t actually know how long a delay this will cause

It’s possible that the delay is simply a day or so.

Much more likely though, this is a week or two. Boat jobs tend to spiral out of control fast, and essentially every part of a boat is specialised.

The lesson: keep your eyes on the prize

Look, not everything needs a razor-sharp focus. If everything turns into a sprint, burnout is going to happen. We knew that.

Where we messed up is by going too far the other way and not being deliberate.

What I mean by “deliberate”

You want to take a break, so you decide to give yourself a weekend without making progress. You then return to routine on Monday.

What we did instead

“This boat is basically there. All I have to do is turn it around! You know what? I will go to the club after the pub closes, I’ve earned it!”

“Weather isn’t very good. We can stay indoors, we don’t have to go to the boat now. The internal chores aren’t that important anyway, it’s the outside ones that need to be done.”

“She’s on the island, we’ve crossed the Channel, now we just have to do a little bit each weekend. I don’t think we need to be accountable, we just need to turn up and do something.”

Idiots. Since when did failing to plan ever get a project finished?

Applying this to the financial independence campaign

I’m usually very good with spending intentionally. It’s a big part of my campaign and it’s something I think I’m learning to get better at each week.

It’s also true that my Campaign Plans each year (check out my 2023 Campaign Plan for example) are one of the things that are making my financial independence campaign work. I hold myself accountable, too. On this blog I review the previous year’s progress, too.

I’m miles ahead of where I thought I would be just three years ago and that’s not a coincidence, it’s about planning and holding myself accountable to that plan.

The final stages of the boat plan – our moving aboard – are in stark contrast to this. Things are dragging on because I didn’t prioritise the project over other pressure and I haven’t held myself accountable.

It’s easy to get complacent.

My advice to you, fellow financial independence campaigner, is to find some way of keeping your eyes on the prize. Something that stops you getting too distracted, or some way to be called to account if you’ve deviated off the path of righteousness and gotten caught in bad habits that aren’t getting you to your goals.

I’m not saying “don’t party and have fun”. I’m just saying to be deliberate about it, and don’t get sucked into a spiral.

Well that’s a post I’ve written for myself to read. Damn, need to have a word with myself. Time to press on.

My financial independence campaign continues.