Welcome to the page
Hi I’m Al Shield, the one in the picture who desperately needed a shave (I can’t explain why my daughter Sophie had a lime in her mouth at the time either, she’s full of surprises) – full time Australian breakfast radio announcer, dad, writer, blogger, amateur mechanic and rubbish guitarist. And this ‘One Man Many Plans’ is my latest blog after more than a decade of writing about anything and everything that takes my interests – note quite a lot of stuff takes my interests.
If you want to check out many of those interests my previously blogging work is still in its own corner of the internet at Almigo’s adventures. If you want to know how to clean out the IACV on an RB25 turbo engine, learn why you should be wary of EJ25 engines in mid 2000 Subaru’s or just love cars in general, well I have a blog all about that side of second hand motoring too over at Drive Another Day.
Which leads to this one, a blog about three words…self world domination.
So what’s One Man Many Plans all about then?
Honestly, the title is pretty self explanatory but here’s a little back story. Once upon a time I was a man with no plans who’d happily jump from random adventure to random adventure (and if any industry can fuel random adventures, it’s certainly radio) and write about it along the way. You want me to jump out of a plane? Point me to the airport. Take a spin in a monster truck? Why the hell not. Wax my chest live on air? Well if I have to..
I’d go where the wind would take me, sleep wherever they had a vacancy and spent a fair bit of my life waiting to see where fate would take me next rather than look at a map and think ‘you know, I wouldn’t mind spinning off in that direction.’
That was the basis of my blogging career and eventually my first book because I thought ‘Well if I wrote a blog, how hard could it be to write a book?’ – the answer is not as easy as you think but quite rewarding when you do. But sometimes the randomness has to take a side step to a little reality check. Sometimes you’ve got to look yourself in the mirror and think ‘Well we’re not getting any younger, maybe it’s time to really knuckle down and make the most out of this world around me? I wonder what we could change if we made a concerted effort..’
Because now I’m 42 and there’s quite a lot I’d like to change about my little universe – like stepping out of years of renting and back into home ownership. I’d like to have successful investments that I don’t have to dip deep into when something goes wrong with the car again. I’d like to own a car that doesn’t need running repairs on occasion just to keep it going. I’d like to finally be able to master the guitar or at least not make sound as bad I can currently. I want to have stronger relationships with my friends because that’s something that suffered in my years of travelling around and not paying attention. I’ve got debts, I want to see the back of them. I’d like to be fit, I’ve never really been fit but I’d enjoy trying it out. I want my family to want for nothing (like all dads do…I hope.) There’s quite a few things I want and improvements I want to make.
For the last few months I’ve been building a list and now that I have a list, it’s high time to work on some plans.
So here we go!
This will be part self discovery, part learning experience, occasional triumph, occasional failure. From minor things (like drinking better coffees on weekends instead of the usual instant junk we go through) to major moments (being in a position to buy a house!) this is the latest adventure/challenge/whatever you want to call it. I’m trying things out, sharing what I’ve found, sharing good experiences, relating tips and tricks along the way and hopefully you’ll be able to find your own inspiration to improve your own world in little or huge ways. (Naturally there’ll still be plenty of humour along the way because I’m a firm believer that life shouldn’t be spent mostly wallowing in your own misery)
And maybe just maybe, you’ll be able to help me out with some timely advice or point in the right direction with things because if I’ve learnt anything about working with plans, it’s that they go so much better when there’s others on board.
Input/feedback/saying hi certainly isn’t mandatory but it sure will be appreciated – Al @ Onemanmanyplans.com.au
Wish me luck, there’s lots to do!
-Al Shield