Getting Lost in Life - 6-17-09 Editor's Column

Every now and then we find ourselves sitting at work or at home and we have one of those (what I like to call) “mini epiphanies.”

It may be the result of high amounts of stress or a prolonged stagnancy within our daily lives, or it may simply be sparked by seeing something on the street or the television. Whatever the case, we often find ourselves saying “you know, I’d like to get out of here for a while.”

But then something else happens. We start to reason with ourselves to determine what the best place to go would be or how much it is going to cost, or when we should do it and how much time we will have to take off work. We, in essence, try as hard as we can to talk ourselves out of doing it.

However, what if we stopped for a moment and simply put our ideas of perfect reasoning aside and put our feet to the pavement?

Though strange as it might feel at first, exercising our spontaneity muscles has the potential to lead to great things in life.

After all, what fun is life without those instances when we don’t know what the immediate future holds, but we’re hanging on for the ride anyway?

Every day we work our jobs, often times knowing what to expect, even if the situation is likely to be different. Many of us have our routines at home where we come home from work and, depending on the day, make a certain meal, watch a certain television show or read a certain book/magazine. We then go to bed, get up again and repeat.

Now picture yourself waking up one morning and deciding to take a three-day weekend trip to destination unknown, or deciding to try an activity that you never thought you would.

Nothing breaks the monotony of a simple routine like an unexpected surprise. In fact, many people who engage in regular irregularity in their schedules seem to find themselves enjoying life more.

By not allowing ourselves to become swallowed by our usual routines, we may find ourselves smiling more often, running into more opportunities than we would have otherwise and even enjoying our relationships with others more than we have before.

As working professionals, we owe it to ourselves to get out of the typical and start enjoying the atypical in our schedule, hopefully for the betterment of our lives.

Now, the only question becomes, what are you doing tomorrow, and how can you change that?