It's Your Thing...

Training notes: 8526 steps today. It was a gorgeous day and it made for great walking. I'm tired tonight, but at least not as stiff as I have been the last two nights. Stretching has helped! I look forward to a week or so from now, hoping that it will have gotten at least marginally easier.

Travel notes: Doing some travel planning for a friend as I undertake my own trip creation. The plan is for them to start in Milan, Italy and then go to Greece. To my surprise I originally heard myself trying to talk them out of this. Milan is in Northwest Italy; Greece sits off the south east coast. Madness! Thankfully, he was persistent and I stopped being a know it all for a few moments to really listen to what he wanted to do.

Turns out, this isn't that hard. There are inexpensive (i.e., EasyJet) flights from Milan to several places in Greece. What's the big deal? Where's the problem? The problem, sadly, was with me. My idea of the trip was that if he was going to be in Northern Italy, he needed to stay in that region. It would take too long, I reasoned, to get from point A to point B. Except that it doesn't. It is, in fact, relatively easy.

All it took was a little planning. Thinking outside the box? Not really. Just paying attention and digging a little deeper. Oh, and listening - really listening - to what he wanted for this trip.

It got me to thinking though, about how many people probably end up modifying their trip because someone else thinks they need to change it. I know I have. No one died, sure; but more than once I changed significant portions of a trip because someone else thought I needed to do something different. A good travel planner, a good friend, should ask questions and listen to the answers.

I am now applying that to my own trip. Where do I want to go? What do I want to accomplish? What do I want to see? Where do I want to stay? I have been trying to create a trip that will please everyone, a trip that will be irresistible to the people I invite to join me. And yet all that gets me is a trip that pleases few people, most of all me. It comes from statements like "that sounds...interesting. But you know what I would like to do?" or "well, if you were going to this place instead, that I would be up for."

Trips are personal and individual, make them your own. Don't let people talk you out of your ideas - unless of course, they really are dangerous or un-doable. I am taking that advice to heart.