Planning

I used to be a planner.

Well, I guess I still am a planner, but with age and life experience my planning style has changed.  It used to be I would want something and only see one way to get it, which would lead to disappointment because life doesn’t often give you a straight path.

When planning vacations I would map out each day and all the things we needed to see, with that feeling of desperation that we would never be back so better get it all done now.  While we had great experiences and we did ‘see’ everything  we would all be exhausted at the end of the day.  After realizing there were side bets of when I would finally crack under the pressure of providing the perfect experience – not literal bets but everyone knew it was coming – I worked at finding another way.  After all, it’s no fun to be caught on camera with tears running down your cheeks because you are too stubborn to say “Uncle”*.  (and I like my scrapbooks to show the good/bad/ugly so those pictures made the final cut too)

Over time I realized I love the research as much as I love the vacation but now I don’t write ‘the plan’, instead I make notes of the possibilities of the journey.  I write down the days places are closed or have extended hours with a note of why it would be interesting to see but I’m good if we don’t make it there at all.  The first times with this new approach was confusing to the family – ‘we didn’t get to the places on the list today’, it is nice to see the look on their faces when I am able to respond with honesty, ‘we can go there next time’.

I am approaching life differently now too.  We are going to live fulltime in an RV when he retires, but I don’t need to have the path on how we get there set in stone.  We are going to have notes of things we need and want to do along the way, but in life you need to bob and weave to get to the prize at the end, not just barrel through with the original game plan.

*The response “Uncle!” is equivalent to “I give up” and indicates submission.

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