to listen to a podcast
We recently went on a trip to New Zealand. It was amazing. I'm still working through all that we saw and experienced and it was an elephant of a trip. We were gone for a month and when people ask "how was it", I simply say "amazing". I almost need a whole month to process it because I don't know what the highlights were yet. I'm having a hard time deciding on which picture will go on our wall to commemorate a month in a camper van.
While in New Zealand we drove. A lot. 4712 km in 23 days. Comparatively, we drove from Calgary to Mexico City in 23 days, going an average of 60 km/hour. I googled distances.
When you're driving you can only listen to music for so long. It gets a little gritty. You know the moment where music becomes noise and you realize at the end of each song only three and a half minutes has passed, it makes me batty. We also don't have the same taste in music so my music becomes noise for him much quicker and I wouldn't let him download any country so we turned to podcasts. We listened to Malcolm Gladwell's Revisionist History (my favourite), Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend (meh), Hackable (our shared favourite), and BreakThrough Real Estate Investing (his favourite). We can still get a chuckle imitating the guy from Hackable saying (over and over) "oh my God" when he found out how easily his whereabouts could be discovered using a simple website. Protect your data people!
These are the kinds of experiences you can't easily sum up when someone asks you how your trip was. Uh, we listened to podcasts while on an epic road trip.
I got home and Rachel Hollis had taken over the world. I'm late to that party, obviously. Everyone was asking each other to borrow her book. Every way I turned, her face was to be seen. I got back to work and all of my coworkers were going to her movie. I decided (cheeky) to check out her podcast. It was January and she had a "this is what I do every year at the end of the year to start my new year off right". And as you are well aware, dear reader, I am a sucker for a good goal setting session.
I listened, skeptically, I didn't want to be a convert too easily. She had me go through my calendar that night and sort all of my events (I added my blog posts) into three categories. Each category had a few entries but an example of AMAZING: New Zealand, duh. THE WORST: My Keds blog post. And what I labelled ✔️, which translates to things I want more of in 2019. Then you had to pick your top 5 from the ✔️ to take forward into this year.
My 5 ✔️ list includes tennis lessons (I signed up for them tonight), longer dog walks (it's currently -34 with the windchill so we are running around the partition wall in the living room/kitchen), more consistent blog posts (and a 16.6% increase, you're welcome!), to have people over to my house more often (I like to be at home with my dog, won't you join us?), and to read more books. Man, I like reading books (and I like to be at home with my dog, did I say that already?).
The thing that stood out the most to me was that our trip to New Zealand happened because I had set a monthly reminder in our shared calendar. The day and time fluctuated around the middle of the month, and each had a picture of some spot in New Zealand.
When people asked why NZ I told them about how my dad had a picture of a family hanging out in ski chalet pasted on our fridge at home. It was an unrealized dream of his to go skiing instead of have a typical Christmas. "I didn't want life to go by and to be pining after NZ when I was in my 60s." Don't I sound so pious and live in the moment, my dad would be rolling his eyes at that response. It wasn't until I audited my calendar that I remembered through the milieu of 2018, we were thinking and working toward going even before my dad had passed away. Yes, his passing and 1995 magazine clipped dream helped to tip the scales for my resolve in going to NZ but it wasn't the driver. I needed a goal to work toward and a reminder on the tough teaching days of what I was rewarding myself with. It was entirely selfish and wonderfully indulgent. And I am so glad that I literally scheduled in reminders of a vacation I was working toward.
As I sit here with my intentions set for 2019 and 2018 nicely squared away into three neat categories I am anticipating an even better blog post for next January. I really wish you all the very best,
🎉Happy New Year🎉
That's all.
Here is the link to Rachel's podcast about Auditing Your Calendar. It is Episode 2 from this year, podcast # 78 from January 7 of 2019.
And there will be more to come, I'm certain, of NZ in a camper van, sorry to tease you with that picture and then not deliver the goods.
Ok, now for real, that's all. For now. ✌️
While in New Zealand we drove. A lot. 4712 km in 23 days. Comparatively, we drove from Calgary to Mexico City in 23 days, going an average of 60 km/hour. I googled distances.When you're driving you can only listen to music for so long. It gets a little gritty. You know the moment where music becomes noise and you realize at the end of each song only three and a half minutes has passed, it makes me batty. We also don't have the same taste in music so my music becomes noise for him much quicker and I wouldn't let him download any country so we turned to podcasts. We listened to Malcolm Gladwell's Revisionist History (my favourite), Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend (meh), Hackable (our shared favourite), and BreakThrough Real Estate Investing (his favourite). We can still get a chuckle imitating the guy from Hackable saying (over and over) "oh my God" when he found out how easily his whereabouts could be discovered using a simple website. Protect your data people!
These are the kinds of experiences you can't easily sum up when someone asks you how your trip was. Uh, we listened to podcasts while on an epic road trip.
I got home and Rachel Hollis had taken over the world. I'm late to that party, obviously. Everyone was asking each other to borrow her book. Every way I turned, her face was to be seen. I got back to work and all of my coworkers were going to her movie. I decided (cheeky) to check out her podcast. It was January and she had a "this is what I do every year at the end of the year to start my new year off right". And as you are well aware, dear reader, I am a sucker for a good goal setting session.
I listened, skeptically, I didn't want to be a convert too easily. She had me go through my calendar that night and sort all of my events (I added my blog posts) into three categories. Each category had a few entries but an example of AMAZING: New Zealand, duh. THE WORST: My Keds blog post. And what I labelled ✔️, which translates to things I want more of in 2019. Then you had to pick your top 5 from the ✔️ to take forward into this year.
My 5 ✔️ list includes tennis lessons (I signed up for them tonight), longer dog walks (it's currently -34 with the windchill so we are running around the partition wall in the living room/kitchen), more consistent blog posts (and a 16.6% increase, you're welcome!), to have people over to my house more often (I like to be at home with my dog, won't you join us?), and to read more books. Man, I like reading books (and I like to be at home with my dog, did I say that already?).
The thing that stood out the most to me was that our trip to New Zealand happened because I had set a monthly reminder in our shared calendar. The day and time fluctuated around the middle of the month, and each had a picture of some spot in New Zealand.
When people asked why NZ I told them about how my dad had a picture of a family hanging out in ski chalet pasted on our fridge at home. It was an unrealized dream of his to go skiing instead of have a typical Christmas. "I didn't want life to go by and to be pining after NZ when I was in my 60s." Don't I sound so pious and live in the moment, my dad would be rolling his eyes at that response. It wasn't until I audited my calendar that I remembered through the milieu of 2018, we were thinking and working toward going even before my dad had passed away. Yes, his passing and 1995 magazine clipped dream helped to tip the scales for my resolve in going to NZ but it wasn't the driver. I needed a goal to work toward and a reminder on the tough teaching days of what I was rewarding myself with. It was entirely selfish and wonderfully indulgent. And I am so glad that I literally scheduled in reminders of a vacation I was working toward.
As I sit here with my intentions set for 2019 and 2018 nicely squared away into three neat categories I am anticipating an even better blog post for next January. I really wish you all the very best,
🎉Happy New Year🎉
That's all.
Here is the link to Rachel's podcast about Auditing Your Calendar. It is Episode 2 from this year, podcast # 78 from January 7 of 2019.
And there will be more to come, I'm certain, of NZ in a camper van, sorry to tease you with that picture and then not deliver the goods.
Ok, now for real, that's all. For now. ✌️
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