Today is an adventure!

Today is the fourth day of our Christmas holiday trip to New Mexico and I am finally taking some extra alone time. This morning I felt a little wound up and I knew that I needed downtime today. Overall, I’m enjoying our trip. And yet, spending so much time with family is a big shift from my normal every day activities. It would be so easy for me to fall into the trap of expecting myself to spend every waking moment with my family…especially while on a family vacation. The truth is taking some private time for myself now will support me in enjoying my family later.

So here I am taking some “me-time” and when I look back on the last three days I am reminded of each day’s focus. The first day I focused on enjoying the process of traveling; the second day I focused on relaxing; and the third day I focused on laughter. Each day’s focus helped me move through the day and to process each challenge that came my way. Every morning (even when I’m not on holiday) I take a few minutes to think about what I have planned for the day. I ask myself what I value the most from the day and then create a statement of intention to help keep me centered on my focus. When I take the time to do this I am equipped to deal with whatever comes up because I have a clear picture of what is important to me. For example, when we approached the gate at the airport to find that we would be waiting for hours it would have been so easy to step into frustration and disappointment. Instead, I took a deep breath and thought about enjoying the process of traveling. What could I do in the next few hours? How could I enjoy the unexpected extra time in the airport? I chose to take photos, read, eat, and play cards with Will and Carina. I actually enjoyed the delay! Yes, I would have preferred to travel on schedule, but I made the most of an undesirable situation.

Today I have the opportunity to do a couple of new and exciting things. When I sat down to consider what I value out of today the first word that came to mind was adventure. Yeah…I am looking forward to the adventure of today. Come to think of it, adventure is a perspective, a willingness, and a state of mind. I can bring the spirit of adventure to whatever I do: the old, the new, and even the mundane. Well, I better sign off now and go enjoy the adventure of the day!