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What A Year: The Next 365 Days & Your Journey…

One year ago, right about this time, Natalie and I slowly drifted off to sleep on an overnight flight, crossing the international date line, and woke up in Auckland, New Zealand to begin what would be an epic, 100 day travel adventure that would change our lives.

Though many people like to tackle new year’s resolutions in the last week of December, only to recommit, alter, update, and eventually let them fail within the first few weeks of January, I figured it was time for something a little different.  Since it has been a year since the official start of “The Next Journey”, I thought it would be a great chance to reflect on what has been accomplished and open the conversation for where the next 365 days will take us all.

In the last year:

  • We logged over 65,000 miles of travel to more than a dozen different countries (travel)
  • Said goodbye to one company and hello to another (career)
  • Got certified as Foster Parents in the state of California (family)
  • Started the process towards domestic infant adoption (family)
  • Set up and saved substantially towards the next set of goals (finance)

In this day and age of instant gratification, where we measure progress and judge success and failure in seconds, minutes, and hours, I am proposing a shift in mindset, a change in paradigm, and a fundamental flip of conventional thinking.

For a long while, I seemed to be caught up in short-term objectives and expectations, and just as they occurred and were achieved, the pride that came along with that seemed to fade just as quickly.  Looking back at the last year though, taking in the realities of an entire year of experiences, opportunities, and accomplishments, the impact was more substantial, the satisfaction greater, and it is just more enjoyable overall.

Rather than focusing on one moment of exceptional joy or one moment of searing defeat, these are neither forgotten or tossed aside, but rather incorporated into a larger running average of all of the experiences that ultimately culminate in an overall successful, memorable, and positive addition to the journey.

So…  What will the next year bring to my journey?  A family friend has reminded me of the importance and the benefits of lists, so I have decided to follow her lead and develop a list for the next year.  Some of the items will be simplistic, while others may require some out of the box thinking.  Others may not be possible to achieve, but if they aren’t even put on the list, they have no chance of happening.  And sometimes, the journey involved even if the item isn’t crossed off, is worth more than the item itself.

My List for Year 2 of “The Next Journey”

> 37 Days of Travel (10% of the year)
(Near or far, the journey will always bring us new and interesting places)

> Read 12 Books
(For those of you that know how much I read, this is a huge stretch)

> Turn $100 into $1000 to support a cause(s)
(Support a cause that is important to me and multiply its impact for others)

> Get fluent in Sign Language or Spanish
(So I can hold an intelligent conversation in some language other than English)

> Answer 100 travel questions via “The Next Journey”
(Had no idea our posts would get read as much as they have!)

> Skydive
(Indoor or Outdoor…  That is the question!)

> Become a dad again
(If its not on the list, it doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell)

> Be in the best shape of my life to keep up with a new kid
(So I can keep up with the sleep schedule and demands of a newborn)

> Find a Ballpit and do this
(And yes, I will say “Bazinga” the entire time!)

>  “To Be Added”
(The brilliance of the journey is that some of the best things to happen are not yet known)

What is in store for you in the next year?
What would you like to include in your journey 365 days from now?
Travel, family, career, challenge, knowledge, wealth, health?

The journey continues… Thanks for being a part of ours…

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