Tiger's Nest monastery, Bhutan I have a five year diary where each day I answer a question such as “Which song is stuck in your head?” or “Are you seeking adventure or security?”. The idea is to fill in 365 pages with answers and start again the following year, reflecting on earlier entries.
Last January one of the questions was: “Where do you want to travel next?” Travelling is my raison d’être, so wrote down a list of my dream destinations, starting with Bhutan.
The same question came up again a week ago. It is with disappointment that I realised that my wishlist had stayed the same. It’s not that I have not travelled over the last 12 months, but somehow I missed the very places I had yearned to see.
This habit of putting dreams under a paperweight is not mine alone. Just this weekend my friend Richard was telling me how much he’d love to retire from the City and go travelling for a year or two. And my friend Natalie is planning to take her daughter skiing for the first time, while her brother George is dreaming about opening his own gastropub. The trouble is, Richard has been talking about leaving the City for the last 5 years, Natalie’s daughter turned six and George … George is all talk.
It’s remarkable that while Richard, Natalie and George do have dreams and are well capable of articulating them, it has not occurred to them to give their ideas a go. A mini-retirement or a sabbatical is well within Richard’s reach but he’d rather romanticise about it and file it under 'One day to-do list’. It seems we don’t dare to give ourselves permission to make our dreams come true. Or worse - we wait to be able to afford a nicer house before starting a family and find ourselves in a fertility clinic.
I dare you to write a list of 3-5 things that you really, really want to do and create a reminder in your electronic calendar to check up on yourself 12 months from now. If you don’t trust yourself, just email me and I’ll surprise you next year!
Stuck for an idea? How about:
1. Get a dog
2. Go on a surfing weekend to Newquay*
3. Climb Kilimanjaro*
4. Learn to tango
5. Start a family
Run out of excuses and do something amazing this year.
*8th Day Adventure, a membership-based adventure sports social club, organising affordable skiing, surfing, kiteboarding and trekking trips as well as weekly events, is offering £10 off their £60 annual membership for Life Tonic readers. To take it up, register with 8th Day Adventure for free, then 'upgrade' your account to ‘gold', entering promo code 'GOLD-LT10’.
Last January one of the questions was: “Where do you want to travel next?” Travelling is my raison d’être, so wrote down a list of my dream destinations, starting with Bhutan.
The same question came up again a week ago. It is with disappointment that I realised that my wishlist had stayed the same. It’s not that I have not travelled over the last 12 months, but somehow I missed the very places I had yearned to see.
This habit of putting dreams under a paperweight is not mine alone. Just this weekend my friend Richard was telling me how much he’d love to retire from the City and go travelling for a year or two. And my friend Natalie is planning to take her daughter skiing for the first time, while her brother George is dreaming about opening his own gastropub. The trouble is, Richard has been talking about leaving the City for the last 5 years, Natalie’s daughter turned six and George … George is all talk.
It’s remarkable that while Richard, Natalie and George do have dreams and are well capable of articulating them, it has not occurred to them to give their ideas a go. A mini-retirement or a sabbatical is well within Richard’s reach but he’d rather romanticise about it and file it under 'One day to-do list’. It seems we don’t dare to give ourselves permission to make our dreams come true. Or worse - we wait to be able to afford a nicer house before starting a family and find ourselves in a fertility clinic.
I dare you to write a list of 3-5 things that you really, really want to do and create a reminder in your electronic calendar to check up on yourself 12 months from now. If you don’t trust yourself, just email me and I’ll surprise you next year!
Stuck for an idea? How about:
1. Get a dog
2. Go on a surfing weekend to Newquay*
3. Climb Kilimanjaro*
4. Learn to tango
5. Start a family
Run out of excuses and do something amazing this year.
*8th Day Adventure, a membership-based adventure sports social club, organising affordable skiing, surfing, kiteboarding and trekking trips as well as weekly events, is offering £10 off their £60 annual membership for Life Tonic readers. To take it up, register with 8th Day Adventure for free, then 'upgrade' your account to ‘gold', entering promo code 'GOLD-LT10’.
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