Enjoying the Ride

When I was young we would travel to Canada each year to visit my Mom's family. We started at 3 am and drove as far as we could. We didn't stop at landmarks, we stopped at the same gas stations each trip and you learned to "hold it" until we got there. These trips were all about the destination, Grandma and Grandpa's house, and not so much about the drive.

I have been thinking and am starting to see that in my personal life I might be all about the destination and not so much about the drive. And I am feeling like I might need a bit more balance.

Lately I have been told that I am an "Over Achiever" by quite a few people. I take this as a wonderful compliment as I wouldn't have it any other way. I have a very high expectation for myself as well as for my children, and lets face it, my husband too.

As I lay down each night I plan out in my mind what I will accomplish the next day. This normally includes some mixture of the following. Big things like home and sewing projects. Household things like sweeping the floors and cleaning the toilets. Errand things like the all detested grocery shopping. And finally kid things like teaching them, feeding them, playing with them, and loving them. So normally my day is a juggling act, Whose isn't?

It is probably a little crazy that I try to shove all of this into my life. I function best when I have a million things to do. I love being able to mentally check of completed things and it drives me a bit nuts when I don't finish what I had planned for the day. (Probably my touch of OCD coming out there.) I just love getting things done and love it even more if I happened to "go the extra mile"!! It gives me a great sense of accomplishment and makes me feel good about myself.

With that being said, I have been coming to the realization that often in my drive to finish things and not leave something half done, I tend to get lost in the completing and forget to enjoy the doing. I think this tends to apply to every facet of my life. Now I am not saying that I now detest the person that I am, but I am saying that I want to try to learn to get as much joy out of doing my daily tasks as I do completing them. I remember in Conference last year one of the apostles spoke on having Joy in the Journey. So that is my goal for this next month. To try to focus more on just Enjoying the Ride.