I’ve never been the type of person to have a five-year plan or a list of 1,001 things to do before I die.

It’s not that there aren’t some things I’d like to do.  Rather, I think seeing the utterly unpredictable way in which life played out as those five-year periods passed has made me less prone to trying to plan out what’s coming next.

To some people, like AV, that makes no sense.  She has 387 life goals (and counting) and they’re all good ones.  I was talking to her about those one day and she naturally asked for mine, and after a lot of thought I reluctantly named my writing project.  I say reluctantly because it’s not like I have ever written down that I want to write a book and get it published.  I thought of it more as something that would be cool if it happened someday.

But now, you can count it as an official goal because of something AV told me (which I believe her mom told her): A goal is a dream with a deadline.  This may be her new favorite thing to tell me.  Repeatedly.  But that’s a good thing.  I have a dream, it’s getting a deadline, so now it counts as a goal.

There may be some others joining it, because again, the list didn’t exist at all before now.  Part of what I like about the writing project is that it’s a creative expression, like what I write here, which is far outside the newswriting I do professionally.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m a totally committed journalist, but there are lots of times I think I should be doing something more creative with my career.

Enter Mindy Kaling’s book, “Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?”  If you’re not familiar with her, Kaling plays Kelly Kapoor on the NBC show “The Office” and also serves as one of the show’s writers.  She is really funny and one of those people who seem to excel at anything.

In the book, Kaling talks candidly about her childhood and the kinds of kids she spent time with growing up.  She describes forming bonds with creative people and the process of realizing the types of personalities she has no interest in being around.  This, of course, is something we all do, but a lot of her path felt very similar in that regard to my own trek through high school, college and beyond.

There’s something really fun and inspiring about being around people who are into creating things — in whatever format — those who can be a little less linear in their thinking and indulge in silliness at appropriate times without worrying about being judged.

Kaling got noticed when she and her friend wrote and acted in a play about Ben Affleck and Matt Damon having the script for “Good Will Hunting” literally fall from the ceiling in front of them.  That is, the two women played Affleck and Damon themselves, with a story that has no basis in reality.  But it was a hit.  They sold out shows and eventually she got the offer to write for “The Office.”

I’m always fascinated by how others approach the creative process and encouraged when I read or hear things that sound very familiar.  Kaling says she has found her “productive-writing-to-screwing-around ratio to be one to seven.  So, for every eight-hour day of writing, there is only one good productive hour of work being done.”  The rest of the time is taken up by things that are in no way important in a to-do list kind of way, but who knows how vital watching YouTube videos of babies dancing is to her final product.

I’m very much the same way, but my procrastination involves things like reading my old blog posts, thinking about going for a run, deciding not to run, updating my Netflix queue and wondering how many more bowls of Cocoa Puffs I can squeeze out of my current box.  But whatever, distractions happen.  Kaling is proof that in your spare time you can create something great that takes you in a fulfilling direction.

Other things we share:

-Inability to reliably throw a frisbee with any skill
-History of quoting comedic works to our head-shaking mothers
-Diplomas from small-town colleges — “If you’re a kid who was not especially a star in your high school, I recommend going to a college in the middle of nowhere.”
-(Related) Finding your own way as life progresses –“What I’ve noticed is that almost no one who was a big star in high school is also a big star later in life.  For us overlooked kids, it’s so wonderfully fair.”

She even supports my one-time life plans involving Natalie Portman: “That’s nice.  You can have that.  That’s not hurting anybody.”

Thanks, Mindy.