Dreams to Reality

I am back from vacation, facing the real world and giving some serious thought to how we take our dreams and make them reality. We went to Kiawah Island, where my family has been going for 20 years, before it was the island it is today. As I think back to the last 20 years and what has changed, I realized that while the island has changed, grown and evolved and so have I, the feeling I have while I am there has not. There is a sense of contentment, happiness and peaceful relaxation that starts the moment I drive onto the island and stays with me until I get back to everyday life. For years, we have had this ongoing tradition of identifying our favorite house on the island, one that it is discovered as we ride our bikes around the island, finding features that fit our dream of living there, at least part of the year. This year, I found my new favorite home, one that looks large enough to share with family and friends who come visit as well as special features that bring to life some of my favorites, including an outdoor kitchen and a great outside social area for enjoying a glass of wine and the gorgeous marsh views. Every year that we go, I say that I would love to find a way to have a home there, a place to live part of the year, capturing a dream that has stayed with me for 20 years. I started to think about how to make my dream happen - what would it take? So, a plan has begun to take shape and the pot at the end of my rainbow is a home on Kiawah Island. It won't be simple, easy or quick but I think that setting my mind to achieve my dream is the first step in making my dream a reality.

As I put the words down on paper (or the computer screen), it is one more step toward making my dream a goal and then creating a plan for achieving that goal. And, as the reality of the money and resources sink in, I will stay focused on my goal, knowing that commitment, tenacity and the challenge will motivate me to bring my dream into the real world. It makes me wonder what we could all accomplish if we really set our minds to it.

The Value of Vacation

I am getting ready to go on vacation this week and, in the process of wrapping up work and finishing all my household duties (laundry, cleaning out the fridge, taking out the trash), I started thinking about vacations and what they mean to me. I was not always a fully engaged person in my life around me and often took work on vacation with me, logging onto my computer to check email or spend some time on my latest project. It was a standard expectation by friends and family that I would have my computer and work with me and I missed out on some important things because I "just couldn't get away from work". And then, I lost someone important to me unexpectedly and had the chance to go with his wife and daughter on a trip to Italy. No computer, no phone, just a chance to travel and experience my first vacation overseas. When I came back after two weeks, I had more than 400 emails in my work inbox - talk about overwhelming! And then, my boss said "just delete them all" and after a minor reaction of "you've got to be kidding me!!!" I did it. Wow, was that a liberating feeling! At that moment, I made the decision that to be the best person at work and at home, I had to make time for me and learn to put work away.

Fast forward to today - I have a personal cell phone so I can leave the work phone at home, the computer is not even an option in my packing plan and my goal is to be fully engaged in whatever I am doing, whether it is laying on the beach, playing in the ocean, biking around the island or hanging with family and friends. To quote my boss, "I work to live, not live to work" and so I am off to do just that...live!