One Thing At A Time

Hmm.

Every time I start trying to plan my next trip overseas I get myself all tangled up.

I start with a simple thought: I should visit Japan.

What I should do next is start researching Japan, looking up sights and cities that I'd like to visit, foods I'd like to try, festivals or events I might want to be present for, which seasons would be the best for what I want to achieve during my trip.

What I do instead is either get distracted by a part of my brain that is still listing other places I want to visit* or I am struck by the Australian Distance Justification and start actually trying to shoehorn visiting these other places into the same trip.

The Australian Distance Justification is essentially that since we're so far away from everything it is financially and ecologically** sensible to try and see as much as possible any time we go abroad.

The idea of 'just' visiting one country is a bit hard to wrap my head around.
If I fly allllllll the way to another continent, only visiting one place seems wasteful.

And of course skimming over countries doesn't do them justice either so by the time I'm finished with that line of thought I'm mentally spending six months to a year out of the country so I can see an appropriate chunk of multiple countries.

Visiting just one country could be worth it if I did it right but part of my brain won't stop saying 'well, whilst you're over there...'.

This shilly shallying isn't a problem exclusive to travel plans, I get this way about just about everything.

I start planning taking up a hobby or spending time on something and then get distracted trying to factor in everything else, get paralysed by choice and just end up dicking around or making plans instead of actually doing things.
Or at least instead of doing them properly.

I go to pick up my knitting and I start thinking maybe I should do some drawing or practise my Italian or do some writing or read something and I gather a bundle of things together and try to do a bit of everything and don't concentrate on any one thing as much as I should.

I still get things done, I still travel, but if I could break myself of this tendency I'm sure I'd get a lot more of everything done.

I just need to figure out a way to do it which doesn't involve going to far in the other direction and making things so rigid that plans and schedules can't be changed.

Like any pattern of behaviour, I know I can't change it over night but I can notice when I'm doing it and make a conscious effort to knock it off.

For instance I'm going to start looking into what I might like to see in Japan.

I'll probably also do a little research into Scandinavia but baby steps.



*I'd like to spend more time in Scandinavia, visit other cities in Europe I haven't seen yet, other countries in Europe which I haven't visited yet, visit different countries in Asia, visit Africa or South America at all, get back to the USA, see Canada...