Destinations and Goals

Vacations usually have destinations, but shouldn’t necessarily have goals. Having a goal is a little bit too much like work. But my road trip has some goals.

I’ve said right from the start of my three years of blogging that I’m on a road to discovering who I am; it’s a boomer preoccupation that I make no apologies for. I’ve led a charmed life so far and have hit most of my original career goals and many of my life goals. Now I am at a crossroads. I can coast, savor the moment(s), stop growing … or I can set new goals and expectations for the future.

OR … I can do the best of both, a balancing act that includes living in the moment and savoring it as well as looking ahead to new challenges, opportunities and experiences in both work and life.

I recently read part of a book called Stop Thinking, Start Living, written by the author of Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff. I don’t buy everything he has to say, but I do accept his main point … don’t spend all your time thinking about the past or the future, just live in the present.

So one of my vacation goals is to be more spontaneous. My long-time friends know this doesn’t come naturally to me. So far, so good, especially the first two days, thanks to a new old friend who is spontaneous by nature. I’ve done some planning on this trip, like hotel reservations and start times each day, but mostly I’ve chosen to go with the flow.

Another goal is to break some of my usual travel patterns. For example, I’ve mostly eaten at local restaurants rather than franchises.

Yet another is to do things with no reason other than I just feel like it.

OK, one more: to express myself more clearly and directly. I’ve been told I send mixed signals.

I guess the real goal is to make spontaneity a big enough part of my life that I just do without thinking about it.

I’ve edited this post twenty times… enough. No more thinking. Hit Publish!

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