Hopefully, you noticed, I took last week off. Not just from my weekly blog article but from just about everything else I do during each week. I did a lot of things I don’t like to do, have never done, and can’t wait to do again!
I’ll detail some of the highlights in the contents below, but before I do, let me challenge you with a few questions. How routine has your routine become? What things have you never tried because you said you don’t have time but what you really meant was they scare you a little bit? Finally, who can you take time to experience life in a more meaningful and significant way?
Let’s address all three questions. I did last week and it was perhaps the best week of my life. Or at least in recent memory. We are all dealing with the effects of working from home, schooling from home, entertaining from home, etc. At this point, some seven months into adjusting to the COVID world we live in, we’re all a little fatigued and pining for something to break out of our routines.
So last week, after planning for a few weeks, my wife and I set out on a cross-country car trip from our home in Texas, traveling through Arkansas, Tennessee, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York. It was fabulous. And I hate car trips. I have said that for years. But last week I had a ball. Instead of counting the miles, I cherished every minute. I enjoyed the scenery, shared conversation with my wife, and saw places I had either never seen or hadn’t seen since I was a child.
Not only did I get over my avoidance (fear) of a long road trip, I also ate food I had never eaten before, drank things I had never drank before, and hiked through Watkins Glen State Park in New York. The picture at the top of this post is a picture I snapped in the Park. Exhilarating!
In doing all of those things, I celebrated life with people I love and care about deeply. We visited a cousin, aunt, and uncle that I rarely see. We had dinner with a friend who is now one of the top CIO’s in the nation, if not the world who got his start working for my wife and our company almost 30 years ago. And we met our son in the Finger Lakes of New York – a place which none of us had ever been. Stunning!
So how about you? What are you putting off? What do you wish you could find time for, but keep putting off? What scares you a little bit? Fresh off of answering these questions and more, I can only encourage you to do likewise. Find ways to make things fun. Seek opportunities to share life with people you care about. Get outside of your comfort zone and challenge yourself to do things that will push you in a direction that will change – and challenge – your perspective.
I didn’t take a vacation last week. I took opportunities available to me to challenge myself and to overcome uncertainty in order to experience life in a beautiful, new way. I cannot recommend it to you highly enough.
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