Something To Look Forward To

Tuesday, June 17, 2003

Lindon Crow, Productive Learning & Leisure, http://www.productivelearning.com

What are you looking forward to? Is there anything you have coming up in your life that you are excited about, planning for and feeling a sense of anticipation around? If not, I think there should be.

A lot of our day-to-day lives are centered around repetitive activities; things we need to attend to for our lives to march on in an orderly fashion. This is not a bad thing. In fact, I think it has many positive aspects to it. The problem is when that’s all we really do. With nothing of a more meaningful or exciting nature to disrupt it, we begin to fall into the rut of the mundane. I think it is best if we add some life-expanding experience to our life every week or every month at the least. These can be simple things that allow us to have an out-of-the-ordinary experience: a new or seldom done activity, a different type of cuisine ordered at a new restaurant and/or you do something you do with new people; all are examples of what I am writing about.

Most importantly, I think you should have something big, something really exciting out in the future to look forward to. Have it require planning, and have it be something that you’ve not done before or go to a place you’ve never been. It could be something you’ve done before, but it should have a twist to it. Don’t let it become the once a year vacation to the same condo in the mountains or Hawaii etc. How about tickets to the World Series or SCUBA diving in the South Pacific? Maybe you could plan a trip to your family’s origins. I am sure there are places and activities you’ve dreamed your whole life of doing. Those would certainly fit.

Whether it is something you’ve thought of before or an opportunity for something you’ve just found out about, you’ve got to make a commitment to your future happiness by planning some of it now. I remember imagining what it was going to be like swimming with humpback whales in Tonga, photographing lions and giraffes on the Serengeti Plains and traveling in luxury on the Orient-Express. Those experiences burn brightly in my memories. They generate a tremendous feeling of satisfaction, accomplishment and joy. I felt that way leading up to the trip, and I feel that way looking back. As I sit here writing this, I have some more things I’m looking forward to. They bring me a great sense of excitement making some of the day-to-day tasks more meaningful.

So what are you looking forward to that will expand your experiences of yourself and life in general?

Lindon Crow

President

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