Trip Planning: Tip #1: Set A Date

Your dream is to go on a trip. Not on a one week vacation, but on a big trip.

One day you will go since this has always been your dream. Not now but one day, maybe when this project is finished or after the car is paid off, then one day...

Sorry to disillusion you but I guess you will never go. There is always the new project, the car, stuff to do with the house, grandma's birthday, the dog and 1000 other things that get in the way. And you know why?

Because you do not have a set date. When the next project starts you have to deal with it. No matter how inconvenient it may be, you can not fight it however as that date is set, when you hit the date the project starts and you have to deal with it.  And the most amazing part is that you will.

But what about your big trip? It has no date. One day is no date, its merely a nicer word for never. So it will always be pushed further and further back by all these other things that may not be important but they have a date. Dates rule our lives.

So if you want to get serious about a big trip (or anything else you want to achive):

Set a date and...
The date doesn't have to be tomorrow. It can also be in 1 year. But you should set a specific date: "I'm am off on the 1st of May 2011"

But setting a date is not enough, you must

... tell everybody about it

By everybody I mean everybody, your grandma, your friends, your boss, your Postman, everybody.

This is important for 2 reasons:

First it adjusts your environment to the idea. It might take a while but eventually they will get used to it. And since the idea sinks into your environment it is much easier to refuse things which would fall into your trip period: Of course you can't start that new project because you will be gone. Its a pity but understandable that you can't go to aunt Wilmas birthday because you are on the tip.

The second reason is to make sure that you don't chicken out. You told everybody that you will leave the 1st of May 2011. Everybody knows, everybody talks about it. This creates a little pressure on you, you can't just drop the plan silently.

We are not saying that the only thing to do is to pick a date and to tell everybody to get going, but this is the most important one. Everything else, money, your boss, your car etc. will get solved (just like all your other problems and goals too) until the chosen date.

Speaking of dates, here is ours:

07.06.2011 (my mums birthday) is our departure date. We will ride to Newfoundland via Russia and South America.  It will all begin on June 1st 2011 when we meet her and my family members in Tuscuny for a week before riding eastwards. 

Here we go, now its out and official :-)

Patrick

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