It’s that time of the year when we think about what lies ahead in 2025 and even farther into the future.
Ralph and I plan many of our trips years ahead of time – sometimes around Regional and International Rallies. This past year, we faced unforeseen medical events, friends who had to quit traveling due to medical challenges, and even the unexpected passing of friends.
These things got me thinking about how we can try to set a good health foundation to be able to travel in 2025, 2026 and beyond.
Over the past eight years of our Airstreaming journey, we’ve counted every day a gift and tried to maximum our travel experiences, knowing that some day we may face the decision to stop our travels.
Setting achievable wellness goals is the foundation to our plan.
Achievable is the key word. Achieving or maintaining wellness involves more than vague aspirations to “get healthier” or “eat better.”
So, we’ll try to set clear, achievable wellness goals. These goals will provide direction, motivation and a sense of accomplishment when reached. Here’s how we plan to establish realistic wellness objectives that set us up for success and future Airstreaming journeys:
Starting Small
When we started traveling, we took small steps we knew we could achieve; small trips locally to get to know Stella and her capabilities. So, I think we can commit to not aiming too high, too quickly for wellness goals.
Sure, ambitious goals are commendable, like our 17,000-mile trip to Alaska in 2022, but they can lead to frustration and burnout. Instead, we’re focusing on small, specific wellness actions.
Instead of resolving to “exercise more,” we’re committing to walking for 20 minutes three times a week. And for some, this effort seems too easy but for us, they are a manageable challenge. Manageable steps are easier to incorporate into our travel routines and can become the building blocks for larger achievements.
Being SMART
During my corporate life, we trained leaders on using the SMART system to craft goals for our teams and individuals. Using the SMART system, here is our commitment for starting 2025:
- Specific: Define exactly what you want to achieve. Walk 6,000 steps three times a week.
- Measurable: Include a way to track your progress. Use our smart watches to track events.
- Achievable: Ensure the goal is realistic given your current circumstances. Step goals are achievable at home and on the road because we’ve done it before.
- Relevant: Align the goal with your overall wellness vision. Our walking goal is the foundation for health and wellness. And it fits with our travel goals of exploring.
- Time-bound: Set a deadline to keep yourself accountable. Start walking on Jan. 6 and keep up for three months before re-assessing.
Not Overloading
It is tempting to get excited about making goals in a new year, most of which relate to travel.
But making too many goals saps our energy. And it sets us up for disappointment when one goal is not achieved, impacting all the others. We’ll concentrate on one goal at a time to build momentum just like our travel plans – we create a vision – but we focus on one trip at a time. We can always move on to the next goal once our walking goal becomes routine.
Celebrating Progress, Not Perfection
Life is a journey, not a destination – same with wellness. Celebrate incremental progress and small victories, even if you don’t achieve your goal perfectly.
We’ve done this on our Airstream journey – we’ve made a few key mistakes, but we’ve learned and adjusted. For our wellness goal, if I aimed to walk 6,000 steps three days a week and only manage two, that’s OK.
Imagine if I never wanted to hitch up again after almost breaking an arm the first time, or giving up on water management after making a key mistake when backflushing the black tank.
I can acknowledge the effort rather than focusing on the shortfall. Positive reinforcement fosters motivation and helps us stay on track.
Re-evaluating
Life circumstances change, as we learned this past year, and so should our goals. If a goal feels unattainable, tweak it to better suit the current situation.
We’ve done this many times over our eight years of travel – changing our plans has always worked out for the better despite the disappointment at the time.
I recall in 2020, when we had to cancel participation on the Alaskan caravan due to COVID. It was such a disappointment after a year of researching, planning, making reservations and the anticipation.
But that decision turned into an amazing solo Alaskan adventure in 2022.
Another disappointment came in 2019 on our first long trip to the Maritimes when Hurricane Dorian caused us to evacuate from Nova Scotia before our planned four days in Cape Breton.
But that has led us to attend the 2025 Region 1 70th anniversary rally in Nova Scotia where we will spend a full two weeks on Cape Breton following the rally. Flexibility ensures that you stay committed to the journey without becoming overwhelmed.
Setting achievable wellness goals has a parallel to traveling. We’ll hopefully create a sustainable path to better health and well-being.
Remember, every small step forward is a victory worth celebrating. And we pray it keeps us traveling in our Airstream, meeting up with old friends and making new ones.
