I have learned that I need to schedule fun activities in order to ensure I do the things I say love to do. If I don’t literally get it on my calendar, I don’t find the time to go biking, hiking or kayaking. I get caught up in work, chores and the day to day tasks of running my life and the weeks slip by one after another. I have to literally schedule date night with my honey and overnights at the cottage with Mother Fran or these incredibly important things don’t happen. One of my rules for living my life is to spend time with people I love doing activities we both enjoy. In order to make this happen, it needs to get on the schedule. I also need to be willing to do the work that is involved with having fun.
My honey and I just spent 27 hours away from home for a biking adventure with my cousin. 27 hours sounds inconsequential. It sounds like nothing. All we had to do was get the bike rack on the car, the bikes down from the garage ceiling, the tires pumped up. We had to pack the car, arrange for Fenway care and get the day off from work. Making this biking trip happen involved work AND it was well worth it!
Getting away from home, even for a 27 hour period of time can feel like a vacation. It doesn’t have to be expensive, it doesn’t have to be far, it doesn’t have to be loaded with activities. For us, just getting to a new environment and spending quality time together is wonderful. It gets the oxytocin activated – you know the feel good cuddle hormone! Yes it involves a bit of effort AND it is worth it!
One of my Happiness Goals for 2019 is to go on to two bike/kayak/hike weekends away from home. The trip to my cousins counts as one so one more to go! It has taken a long time but we finally purchased 2 sets of JBars for the kayaks and a load assist device to help us get them on top of the Rav4. It is time for me to do some planning and get a kayaking weekend on the calendar! Now we have to figure out how to assemble everything and make sure we know how to secure them on the roof! Sometimes fun sounds like work AND it is worth it!
The 2 hour drive to my cousins house was a breeze. Making this happen was easy but only because I got it on our joint calendar. We use the Google Calendar – we each have our own calendar and we have a joint one. We can both see all three of them at the same time (color coded) or can easily turn one off to make it look less daunting. I don’t know how I kept track of my life in my 30’s and 40’s but I know I didn’t use any phone Apps or even a paper calendar. All I know is this process works well for us!
When I feel overwhelmed, I tend to shut down and disengage a bit. That makes planning fun activities more difficult. I don’t know about you but I intend to have a wonderful summer and that means it is time do the work so I can have some fun! My honey and I are also talking about a return trip to Florida this winter and a drive cross country in 2020. It is time to start some planning to make these both happen!
Go do some work AND have some fun!
Lake Gir
