Great title hey? It should really read “What I learned driving my children to Sydney to see Taylor Swift”.
This is a great story. A lot of things had to go “wrong” in order for this trip to happen. We tried to get tickets but, like so many others, we missed out. I really wanted to take my 10 and 16 YO girls to see her for a few reasons:
I took Amelie (the 16YO) to see her 6 years ago for her 10 birthday and the concert was amaaazing. She also wanted to go.
My current 10YO loves Taylor. I listen to this music everyday in my car. Mum’s want to make dreams come true for their kids.
I really wanted to see the concert – I had heard amazing things.
I knew that these are the moments that make memories.
So how did this happen?
Great things can come from seemingly boring (or wrong) stuff happening. My 10YO was home sick that day (so she didn’t go to school), and my 16 YO asked me to pick her up from school (I haven’t done a Thursday school pickup for years because they all go to their Nonnis for Thursday night dinner. Because I picked up the oldest one, we drove past the ticketek booth and saw a line up. Quickly googling what it was, we discovered last minute Taylor tickets had gone on sale 20 minutes earlier. We quickly raced to the booth and secured 3 tickets for the price of 1 due to “restricted view”. In the mad panic I didn’t really listen to when the concert was or where. The concert was in Sydney in 3 days’ time (we’re in Adelaide) WHAT THE HELL!
Okay, how are we getting to Sydney in 3 days? Airfares? I check and the return airfares are $900. Ummm don’t have that money available. So, I guess we’re driving. In my old Holden Captiva. And my husband can’t come because our dog has diabetes, and we can’t really leave him with anyone. Okay so I’m driving to Sydney, on my own and I have NEVER done that before. Okay, cool, no problems…. Then I had to get accommodation. After 2 hours of looking at all the options I selected a home AIRBNB with a pool for the girls to swim in after 10 hours of driving and got a 3 BDR apartment 4kms from Accor stadium. So, we’re actually doing this.
We embark on the drive – and that is a whole other story. I enter the address and let maps determine the fastest route. Before I know where I am we are on a route that I had never been on and hadn’t expected – the Mallee Hwy. I thought we would be going via the Riverland so hadn’t really thought about petrol, where we would stop etc. It’s Sunday morning, 530am. I am a country girl, so I know that nothing is going to be open in the tiny country towns…. I contemplated turning back but I decided to continue on and deal with whatever came my way.
On the way home I had set my intention to get home in 1 day. An epic undertaking. This meant I had a LOT of time to think and to observe my surroundings. As always, I am often thinking about my clients, who I really feel called to serve.
Okay so what did I learn that you can apply to any goal in your life?
You need to set an intention for what you are planning on doing and where you are going: I really wanted to get home that day, so I needed to focus on that being my outcome.
I needed to set out with the understanding that unexpected stuff might happen so I might need to pivot and that’s okay ie the car dies, I get too tired to go on.
Whatever happened on the journey I would ultimately get to where I wanted to go?
The journey was really long so I needed to settle in for it.
Mentally I needed to set mini milestones to help me accomplish to bigger journey ie next town 136km, no stops unless a bush wee was needed. I celebrated those milestones as part of that bigger journey.
I factored in fun things to do along the way, so it was all absolutely arduous.
I would get over it at times – I needed to refocus – mini goals, favourite music, next stop for a yoga stretches or a coffee.
I had to make adjustments: about 5 hours out of Adelaide the weather conditions were horrendous. Catastrophic fire conditions. I had to slow down to ensure the car didn’t overheat/die prolonging my journey. That was part of the “shit” that would happen.
I needed to preserve my focus: no eating crap road food that would make me tired, lots of water drinking and zero tolerance for car arguments.
The final part of the journey was the hardest (and in some ways the riskiest). I was desperate to get home. It’s easy to get distracted and lose focus meaning I might miss kangaroos hopping across the road or fail to make an adjustment because a truck was driving past. I doubled down on my focus and adjusted my speed accordingly.
I got home. I celebrated my magnificence at doing a really hard thing. I always believed that I couldn’t drive in a big city on my own. I proved that was just a story. I always thought it was too hard.
I can do hard things. I can STILL do hard things even though I’m 51. I can do new things.
Losing weight in your 40’s and 50’s is hard, and some of these learnings could also be applied to the weight loss the journey too. A guide or a coach would have totally made the whole road trip to Sydney less stressful and much more enjoyable to be honest. If you want to avoid the anxiety and complexities of losing weight and keeping it off as a mid life woman - you need a coach! Find out how I can help you HERE
What stories have you told yourself that is stopping you trying something new or doing something hard?
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