What travelling can teach you about goal setting

First of all I would like to say a very big thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes, it was lovely to receive them and yes I am back, but will be issuing a proper daily dose of motivational medicine tomorrow. I will also be spending the next couple of days answering some individual issues with regards to motivation you have expressed to me - please bear with me as I try and put everything back together again.

The reason I say that is simple - Have you noticed how much longer it takes to unpack and put things away than it does to get ready to go away? I think it is one of those motivational phenomenas we hear about.... you know - when time drags when you don't want to do some things, and disappears in a flash when you are excited and happy about others?

There are many other parallels between holidays and goal setting too, especially driving holidays. As you have probably realised, I have had some time to think about motivation over the last couple of days, and want to share a couple of thoughts with you:

1. Choose your travelling companions carefully. You will only move at the pace of the slowest person. If they're not as excited as you about the journey or the destination then you won't get very far and you probably won't enjoy the experience - thankfully mine were great :-)

2. There will be many road blocks and encounters that are completely out of your control. But if you know your ultimate destination - you will succeed because you can "see" what you want to achieve, and so what if it takes a little while longer to get there. Sit back, crank up the music and enjoy the journey - after all you are on the road so why not enjoy the process.

3. Likewise, detours are OK because you know where you want to end up, but that doesn't mean to say you can't enjoy the scenery on the way. We were on the way back this morning from Kalbarri, WA and noticed a turn off to the gorges we hadn't tried before. It was only a few kilometres off the main road - but the view was oh so worth it, and worth the minor detour to experience. Don't forget to take in as many experiences as you can, life can be more fun if you go from A to B via C, D, E and F

4. Travelling long distances teaches you patience, or not as the case may be. You can risk life and limb by overtaking everything that gets in your way, you can get angry about the inconsiderate road users and give yourself a hernia or a heart attack, or you can sit back and accept that some things just are, and you will get around most things in time.

And finally for today

5. The journey is just as important as the destination. If you don't enjoy the journey, you probably won't enjoy the destination quite as much when you do get there.

I'll speak to you again tomorrow, but until then

With many thoughts
Elle

To add your comments or join in the discussion -

p.s. and yes there will be some pics in the not too distant future :-)