The Trip of a Lifetime!

In five days, I am embarking on a trip of a lifetime! I am spending a day traveling to a world class golf resort. I will be taking in the natural beauty and the love of a game while my friend and I celebrate close to half a century of friendship. I am so excited about this trip of a lifetime! I have been experiencing some of the same feelings I had as a little boy on Christmas Eve.

I was thinking the other day about some of the elements of a trip of a lifetime. A trip of a lifetime certainly seems special. Maybe it is a trip that you will only get to do once. Maybe it is the people you travel with that makes it a trip of a lifetime. It could be the hours or days of planning that makes it special. It could be months of dreaming and anticipation that you experience, long before the day you leave that makes it special. It could possibly be the research you do to learn about the possibilities of what you might do, or what you might experience. Perhaps it is the joy you see when you are talking to people who have made that journey before you. Or could it be the pictures you take, the memories you make and stories you will tell throughout your life? Are you ready for the trip of a lifetime?

I should prepare you for the fact that things may or may not go as planned on your trip. There will be times when what happens turns out to be better than you planned and there will be times when the things you plan don’t work the way you envision them.

I wrote an article a few years ago about a trip that did not go as planned. The morning after I arrived at my destination, I tested positive for Covid. I had to quarantine myself in a hotel room alone and I was very sick. When I could leave the hotel, I got evacuated due to an approaching hurricane and 9 of the 10 events I had scheduled were cancelled. I will never forget the people who cared for me, the hospitality I experienced, the people I met, the opportunities that opened up when my plans were not an option. The space and solitude and time for creativity I was given. It was truly the trip of a lifetime.

Now here is the big news! You can have a trip of a lifetime without all the travel.

Last weekend we had dinner with a young couple who are engaged. They are planning a wedding and planning a life together. They have truly embarked on the trip of a lifetime. On the day I am writing this Rose and I have been married for 16,173 days. The other day we were reflecting on our trip of a lifetime. We had hopes and dreams about what our life together would bring but we couldn’t have dreamt some of the things that have made this trip so special. We didn’t anticipate some of the hardships and disappointments, but they were all part of what leaves us in such gratitude about the journey.

Twenty years ago on September 1, Shelley MacDougall left her club, started her own company and joined me in a career of coaching. Similarly, we couldn’t have dreamt of some of the places we would go, the clubs we would visit, the people who would let us into their lives, the things we would get to create, and the relationships we would have. Without a doubt it has been the trip of a lifetime, filled with many trips of a lifetime.

Shelley and I get to support people in making their trips of a lifetime better. We get to support them in discovering the best of themselves for the journey. When someone is starting their career or even a new career, it is a trip of lifetime. A couple preparing for their first child are truly packing and preparing for a trip of a lifetime. When the day comes when children leave the nest, both they and their parents are starting a new trip of a lifetime. When someone begins their retirement, they are starting a trip of a lifetime.

You have probably figured out by now that the point I am trying to make is that we are all on a trip of a lifetime. On our individual trips the destination is exactly where we are at this moment. It is wonderful to anticipate where you might go, but don’t miss out on being where you are now. There were years for us when travel wasn’t a thing. It was partly due to a lack of resources like time and money, but being in our home with three little people discovering the world through their eyes was a trip of a lifetime.

A lot of people are anxious and worried. We have learned to worry about a lot of things that we have little control over. On my upcoming trip, I have no control over the weather, the airline schedules, the quality of the service I will receive or even my health, but I can plan to prepare for how I will be if the conditions are not perfect. I am also prepared for the elements of my trip to be better than anticipated.

What can you do to make today “A Trip of Lifetime?”

I don’t know everything that is going to happen for me or to me on this journey I am embarking on but I am quite sure it will be a trip of a lifetime. I am also sure I will experience a number of trips of a lifetime before my youngest son, and I leave for our trip of a lifetime in New Zealand.

May you all have a wonderful trip!