Eating your own dog food

According to the lore, Microsoft in the 1980’s started using the term ‘eating your own dog food’ to represent the value of actually using your own products internally in addition to selling them. If anyone used DOS in the 1980’s regularly as I did, the dog food comparison is apt. Maybe today we would say ‘eating your own cooking.’ 

I ate my own cooking last week and attended the Kinder Institute ‘EVOKE’ life planning training.  I expected to learn more about life planning, as Kinder is the most respected among the ‘values based’ financial planning programs. I will have Kinder’s ‘Registered Life Planner’ designation by the end of 2021.   

What I did not expect was to get life planned myself. The format is to practice on each other with the guidance from of amazing coaches. As a generally thoughtful guy and one that just made some big, positive life decisions in 2020 (changing careers, ending a dysfunctional marriage, beginning daily meditation) I thought it wouldn’t really apply to me.  

I was wrong! Although I am definitely on the right track, the process helped me see that I was delaying a few things that are really important to me. One is getting back to the circus school that is my community, church, and stage. I keep saying ‘next month.’ After the EVOKE sessions, I realized I WANT to start NOW.  

The other major revelation is that I want to travel more with my girls and one of the things we love is to scuba dive. So, I made the decision to go with both on a trip last summer. It felt financially scary because my risk-averse brain was telling me not to take a not-cheap vacation right then. 

But I treasured the time spent traveling with them more than anything on the planet. Travel is what we do, it’s our identity. As my coach said: “What possibly could get in the way of something that important?”   

It seems so simple when she said it that way, but I wasn’t doing it! I was letting myself get into the ‘I’ll do that all soon enough’ trap. Life planning is about using your money for a more fulfilled life. I’m glad I did it.