Journeys and Destinations (Part 1)

The destination is what gives a journey its meaning. As someone who has made the trip between Georgia and New Jersey countless times, I think I can say that with confidence. Sure sometimes the trip is fun, but let's be honest - we wouldn't be in the car in the first place if it weren't for the destination. And when the trip is not fun (think 4 hours on I-95 south of DC going 15 miles an hour), it's the destination that makes it worth continuing.

If you don't know where you're going, you can't plan the trip. You need to know where you're going to know how long it's going to take, what you should pack, if you need to book a hotel room. And plane tickets would be really hard to buy if you didn't know where you were headed. Just try searching Expedia for flights from your local airport to nowhere in particular. You won't get any results.

The destination changes everything. The destination, really, defines the trip.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. It's changed how I went about making New Year's resolutions this year. I love New Year's resolutions. I love to think that on December 31st at midnight my whole life becomes a blank slate again. Even though it doesn't. Even though I'm still the same person with all the same strengths and faults on January 1st as I was 24 hours earlier. There's just something promising about a brand new untarnished year. And so I usually make a resolution or two. Or ten. Thinking that I'm really going to change everything in the upcoming year and finally be who I want to be. It doesn't really happen. Yesterday I found my resolution list for 2009. I'd kept exactly 0 of them.

So this year, I decided to look at it a little differently. This year, I'm taking a trip. And so instead of just trying to say what I'll DO in 2010, I've really thought about who I want to BE by the end of the year. And I came up with three broad goals:
1. To get healthy (isn't that on everyone's resolution list?)
2. To get organized
3. To get connected

Now that I have these broad goals to know where I want to be, I can start planning the trip. With three broad goals in place, I started marking the stops along the journey with tasks for each month. For example - under my goal to get healthy - in January, I will walk 1 mile 5 times a week with Kona, cut out soda from my diet and start taking my vitamins every day. Very doable, right? My organizational goal for January - to create and start following a cleaning schedule and cut out daytime TV. Not too tough. And for getting connected? Make a list of family and friend birthdays and buy cards; and join a church small group (cheater alert - I already had that lined up before January 1st; it was a gimme).

Each month of my year has a different task within my 3 big goals. I'm gradually upping my workouts, adjusting my diet, organizing my home and schedule, and becoming more intentional in my relationships. I'm giving myself time to travel. I'm focusing on where I want to be instead of just what I want to do. And as Bob says, "I'm baby steppin! I'm doing the work!" I'll keep you updated at the end of each month to let you know how I'm doing.

Stay tuned for Part 2 :)