“Searching is half the fun: life is much more manageable when thought of as a scavenger hunt as opposed to a surprise party.” ~ Jimmy Buffett
I sensed that my son was feeling a little down or, better yet, off. He seemed a combination of blue and restless. When I asked him how he was doing his answer was, “I am frustrated. I am just not having any fun.” Coming from young man who has made tremendous strides in the last ninety days was disappointing. I would have thought that he would have been enjoying the celebration of his continued successes and progress. Instead, he was still looking at the distance he still needs to cover in his journey, rather than on how far he has come.
In sharing my thoughts with him about his mood and his progress, I was attempting to get him to reflect on what happens if he stopped his progress, regressed, and started over. Eventually, he would find himself back at the same spot he is in today, except further in on in his life. If the journey looks long today, imagine how long it looks if you have to start over later on in the future. I am not entirely convinced I changed his perspective; but, I am confident I interrupted his thinking and provided him something to think about.
There are periods in our life and on our journey where not much happens. There are no massive breakthroughs, there are no finish lines to cross, and there are no symbolic wins. There will be those days where progress is merely a matter of staying focused to your goals and your commitment and staying in motion toward them. When those moments come, like they have for Brandon, you may not be having much fun.
This quote resonates with me for one simple reason – sometimes you need to create your own fun within your routine. Treat something you are doing as an adventure. Explore a different way to manage, handle, or complete a task. Take a different road home and see what you learn. Try a different flavor coffee and see how you like it. While doing these things, explore the opportunity to get excited about simply changing it up.
For many of us, we believe there is only one path to an outcome. In reality, there are multiple paths to an outcome. Today’s bike ride was a perfect example of this. I went on three streets I almost never ride on. I rode a significant part of my main route backwards because of it. When I went to map it, I had to focus on where I went, because it was so different from my habits. I was able to find excitement in riding from an entirely different perspective.
Your journey will not always be fun! Getting to a goal will be unbelievable! Sometimes in the middle of the routine, you may simply need to force yourself to bust out of you routine and celebrate your success in a different way. There is a lot of fun in that!!
