The Journey: Are You Open to the Adventure?

“A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.” 

~Lao Tzu

 

The best thing about traveling is not arriving at your destination; it is definitely about being on the journey.  The moment I realize I have a trip set, I get super-duper HYPE! Yes, I have every intention of arriving at my final destination with zeal, but it’s going that really excites me.

In life, I have to be the most impatient person I know.  However, when I am going somewhere, although extremely excited, I have a calmness that embodies me and I’m not worried about the details of my arrival. The air that flows around me seems refreshing and my enthusiasm is like glass cutting skin for the first time, piercing. I give no thought to what’s going on around me. I see myself as going. I take on the adventure of travel and even the process of preparing to travel ignites me. I love preparing for the trip. I like shopping for clothes, packing, and being at the airport waiting for takeoff. The whole experience moves me to pieces.

However, it’s funny that in life when a problem arises, I can’t wait to get to the solution. I have no patience for the process of figuring out a resolution, none whatsoever. I do not enjoy the journey when it comes to methodically moving through life processing an issue. I want results. I want to know what the issues are and have the ability to fix it, no matter what. However, that is not how life works. Life is about being able to accept that you may or may not have the answers. In addition, you have to be willing to take the necessary steps to find a suitable solution for the problem. Sometimes that takes patients; maybe a little time, reevaluation, and acceptance that you may need to make some modifications.    

Life, just like travel, requires you to prepare, and even when you assume that you are prepared for an outcome, here comes a delay. In life, you get delays and detours that change your whole destination. What you desire might not be what you end up with in many cases. What makes that interesting is most real travelers call that appreciating the unknown. The appreciation of the unknown is what makes the adventure adventurous. However, it is difficult for most people to look at their problems and accept them as an adventure on a journey moving towards their final destination.  Most people, like myself, want to enjoy the happy moments and get through the unpleasant upsets so they can get back to happy sooner than later.

The best trips are about having freedom and learning to be in the moment of whatever is happening.

There is something called allowing that as a traveler you learn to value. Sure, many people purchase a ticket and leave from point A with an intention to arrive at point B with everything going as planned. The departure is great and you arrive on time without any mishaps or delays. This is the perfect trip for a businessperson. However, if you are a real traveler, then you learn to allow things to happen. The best trips are about having the freedom and learning to be in the moment of whatever is happening. You realize that a delayed flight gives you extra time to meet a new friend at the airport. You never know who you are sitting next to until you strike up a conversation, you will be surprised, some of the greatest business connections happen in the airport or on an airplane.  However, you have to be open to a new connection.

Those moments when you have no idea what is going to happen next and you walk vigorously into the window of opportunity accepting the surprise, those are the moments when you no longer exist, but rather live.

When you travel for the sheer enjoyment of being on a journey despite what happens you are able to experience so much more than completing details on a list of priorities. That is so manufactured to me, and the last thing I need while traveling is something that reminds me of work. I travel because I want to enjoy what I am doing, and the best way to enjoy traveling is to be in the moment. The same can be said about life. Some of the best experiences in life are when you stop trying to control the outcome and live.  When you wake up without an agenda and wing it, or when you see your problems as necessary components of living.  Those moments when you have no idea what is going to happen next and you walk vigorously into the window of opportunity accepting the surprise. Those are the moments when you no longer exist, but rather live.

You might be the person who plans a trip with every detail of what needs to happen for it to become the best vacation ever, but how boring. How exciting would it be to go on vacation and have all your dreams come true and never make one plan because you lived in the moment? Well, honestly in life when you release the rings of control on the outcome and stop anticipating what needs to happen next, that is when life gets interesting. When the things you never thought would happen, just happen. Yes, plans are great and in many cases needed, but your whole life does not need to be strategically planned. A great life is just like most great trips when you walk off the beaten path, you realize that there are so many hidden treasures. Your problems are those treasures and they teach you how to appreciate the journey. So, enjoy each moment and you will find the adventure, even though your most difficult problems.

@chajones, the nomadic chick