Going with My Gut

Do you talk yourself out of doing things even though you know they’d probably be exciting and enjoyable if you did them?

This summer I had every reason to talk myself out of taking a three week road trip to San Diego: 

• The overinflated cost of a gallon of gas  
• The fractured ankle I was still healing from
• The possibility of car trouble in the middle of nowhere. 
• The possibility of getting really sick far from home. COVID was still a thing, after all, and I’d be visiting A LOT of people.
• The thought of getting less work done while I was away, despite this being a “working vacation.”  
• The EXPENSE!  Three weeks of food, lodging and travel ain’t cheap. 

I could have reasonably found more and more reasons.

But I’ve let endless reasons smother my enthusiasm and shut me out of doing what I wanted to do on so many dang occasions, that I decided to make this time different…

This time, I let the voice trying to talk me out of going have its soapbox, but after I listened, I pressed on down the country road toward the interstate.

I packed up my car and put South Dakota in my rearview for a few weeks.  I saw countless sights I would have otherwise missed along endless highways, visited many beloved friends and family members, walked on ocean beaches for the first time since February of 2020.  I returned home with my heart full, soul renewed and mind refocused.

I’ve spent a lifetime slowly learning that we have two options when it comes to the lives we most wish to lead: 

1. We can reason ourselves out of them.  OR

2. We can risk actually living them.