As a kid, my parents took us camping and to lots of State Parks. New York has a beautiful park system with hiking, swimming, camping, waterfalls and nature galore. I remember loving every minute of our time in the parks. This instilled in me a love of the outdoors that has only grown as I have gotten older. Since I moved back to New York five years ago, I have returned to many of these parks and still am in awe at the beautiful scenery.
By nature, I am a homebody. My 2 favorite places in the whole wide world are my house and the cottage. I love the familiarity, the comforts, the convenience. I love knowing where everything is, I love knowing what is in the fridge, and I love being with the people I find sitting next to me.
With that said – Don’t you love to get away from it all? One of my long term goals is to visit the National Parks to hike, camp and explore. Last year, we went to Acadia in Maine and had a wonderful time with Number 9 and his wife. My honey and I just spent 6 days in Virginia. We drove from our house in the Finger Lakes to Front Royal, Virginia and then entered Shenandoah National Park.
The only road that runs through the park is Skyline Drive which runs north and south for 105 miles along the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The scenery is magnificent and there are at least 70 place to pull over to view the scenery, take a hike, camp, grab a bite and learn about the park. We didn’t hit all of these stops but we came pretty close! Child #2 and #3 met us one day for a hike and lunch.
A few years ago, I completed a personal development exercise know as “Be, Do, Have”. Basically I spent some time clearing my head and than an hour or two jotting down everything I want to BE, everything I want to DO, and everything I want to HAVE on little pieces of paper. This is a day dreaming type of exercise so I had to take off my reality glasses and put on my rose colored glasses. I had to turn off the negative voice in my head and listen to the positive voice. I had to focus on my dreams and listen to my heart. Once I was done, I rearranged them into 3 lists titled BE, DO, Have. Then I created a 1 year, 3 year, 5 year and 10 year plan to help me accomplish some of my dreams. The idea for this exercise was found here!
You see one of the things I wanted to DO was to visit the National Parks. Once I got that idea out of my head and on to what essentially boils down to a To Do List – why my brain started figuring out ways to do it. I loved this exercise because I am typically grounded in reality. I am not good at day dreaming and tend to go with the flow of my life. This exercise forced me to really think what I want to do in life. I don’t imagine I will BE, DO, or HAVE everything that made my lists but I have already hit a few milestones that I don’t imagine would have happened had I not completed this exercise. This includes the trip to Acadia, Alaska and Shenandoah.
Another item that made my DO list was to drive cross country. My brain has been busy figuring out how to make this trip happen in 2020. I think the trip will include several National Parks to make me doubly happy!
Personal Development books and exercises can help you shake things up to get out of the rut. I know they help me get the hell out of my own way and on a better path to explore what makes me happy. If you have any Personal Development exercises that you have done – please share them with me in the comments section. . I enjoy the challenge of getting to know myself better as well as the opportunity to grow and learn!
Other posts on Personal Development Exercises can be found here and here!
Lake Girl
