{Be Successful} Just Do It

Hubby and I love to travel.  From very early on in our relationship we talked about places we had been and places we wanted to go.  Paris was high on both of our lists of cities we wanted to visit.

In 2010, we moved into our first house on my 29th birthday.  I started to joke that in order to top the gift of ‘a house’, Pete would have to give me a trip overseas for the big 3-0.  We joked about it for a couple months but then one day we asked ourselves ‘Why not?!’ Until that point it seemed to be an unattainable goal…something that would happen ‘one day’.  We realized the only thing keeping us from the ‘one day’ was our perspective of the dream.

There were still several things to consider – cost, logistics of Pete getting the time off while stationed on an extremely busy ship, etc – but we decided to view a trip to Paris as a goal we were working towards, not just a daydream we hoped would ‘magically’ happen one day.  By the first few months of 2011, we had narrowed down dates, Pete requested leave, it was approved, airline tickets were purchased, and a hotel room was reserved. We were officially headed to Paris.

However, the process was not without a few challenges along the way.  In December of 2010, a major home repair expense threatened our Paris trip fund.  Pete’s ever-changing schedule made it difficult to fully plan anything in advance.  It was a huge leap of faith to purchase non-refundable airline tickets when we knew at any moment his approved leave request could be revoked.  BUT we knew the goal we were working toward was worth it…so we navigated our way over the speed bumps and figured out a way to make it happen!

Do you have a ‘Trip to Paris’ in your life?  Imagine what could happen if you started to see it as a goal to work towards instead of just the subject of an occasional daydream!