Travel - what else?

Travel is as much the journey as the destination.  There is the preparations: first the research - the history, the geography, the myths, the acceptable behaviour, travel options, hotel reviews, the best route - the one that offers the least connections, best price, shortest transit time and perhaps the most interest stopover option.  The the packing - what are the weather patters for the period, temperature, rain, sun, acceptable attire, dress up occasions, sun screen? umbrella?  a little black dress?  shoes, camera, lenses, extra memory cards, which hand bag to take that will hold all the gear and still look good and weigh reasonable.  The question of which books to take is somewhat solved with ebooks.  Now I just don't have to choose. I can take them all and have no more than the weight of one book added.  Once the decisions are made and the packing is done, next comes the question of what to wear to and from.  Finally the day arrives and you are all packed and ready.  the cab comes and you load up, heart pounding you are on your way.  The vacation has finally started and I have already had the time of my life just getting ready. 

When you are traveling through a destination whether it is the next state/province or a country half way across the world the experience of your five senses and the learning and growth that comes with it can never be replicated in any brick and mortar school.  It takes skill to keep your auto pilot mode at home and to really observe and experience to make the most of your travel experience.  Learning a few words and customs will help make you more attuned to what is going on around you. 

Questions:

1. What was the most memorable experience you had getting ready to go on a vacation?
2. What was the worst experience you had on the way to your destination?
3. What was the vacation that blew you away by exceeding your expectation the most?
4. What is the destination/destinations that you would go back to?
5. What is your dream travel plan?
6. What was the strangest custom you had to practice when travelling? 

More on keeping resolutions

Getting to where you want to be is like turning one of those giant cruise ships.  Every one degree turn in the right direction will ultimately get you there.

Keeping true to your New Year Resolutions

Charles Lamb said New Year's day is every man's birthday.  Every year we try to use this milestone day to remake ourselves - to be reborn in the image that we think we should be. 

Ogden Nash said "Every New Year is a direct descendent isn't it? of a long line of proven criminals. 

While the New Year resolutions are that milestone chance to change it seems we find comfort in rituals and revert back to our ritualistic - chip/chocolate binge eating, watching TV from dinner to bedtime or not writing daily. 

According to a psychologist a habit is a combination of psychological and physiological aspects.  People repeat behaviour.  Dr. Joe Dispensa autho of Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself says that "by the time we are 35 years old we reach a point where our personalities become a set of memorized behaviours and emotional reactions that runs like an automated program."  So his suggestion is to
reprogram yourself in the form that matches your intentions.

So what is the solution?  Be clear about your intentions every day and try to match your behaviour to them.  He advocates a daily practice of reprogramming your behaviours and thoughts, techniques like mediation during which you mentally rehearse how you want your day to go.
The neurologial hardware installyed during the process will start changing the behaviour.

One pitfall is that when we start changing we may no longer feel like ourselves and revert back to the safe and soothing automatic behaviour.

So the advice from Dr. Dispenza is:
Make a plan by:
Identifying what you want to change,
specify how you will achieve this change making sure of the practicality of the plan,
implement.
Make sure the goals are incremental and practical for yourself rather than lofty and distant.

Each morning ask yourself "What do I want to be today?"
Then yesterday's non-compliance won't matter so much.