The alarm went off at 4:01am (every minute counts, amiright?) to get ready for an early flight to Phoenix to visit my family. (Richie and I decided years ago not to travel for the holidays, so we try to get to Phoenix in between Thanksgiving and Christmas to do festive things with our nieces.) As I stretched in bed, Richie checked his phone. Turns out, while we were sleeping, the family text thread lit up with news that my brother had COVID. There were lots of emojis and some finger-pointing about who gave it to him, but the texts stopped without any guidance about our trip, presumably when everyone went to bed. One text from my dad, which came in a little after midnight our time, simply said, “Plans are changing. Stay tuned.”
We were leaving for the airport at 4:45am—there was no time to stay tuned.
Richie and I thought through our options:
- We could proceed to Phoenix, avoid my brother, and spend all of our time outside.
- We could get on the plane and check in with the family (or at least my mom, who would be awake) on our layover in Atlanta. If we had to turn around, we wouldn’t be too far.
- We could cancel altogether.
We decided not to go. We canceled our flights and our Airbnb, but we didn’t cancel our petsitter.
Getting a petsitter can be really hard, and while my attachment to my dogs is somewhat unhealthy, we didn’t want to lose the opportunity to enjoy a little freedom from them (and let them enjoy a break from me and my Elmyra-from-Tiny-Toons-like behavior).
I quickly searched for fun events and accommodations in areas within a reasonable driving distance. I booked a condo in Carolina Beach, we switched out some of the clothes in our suitcases, and we were out the door by 6:45am.
The last time we took time off, we completely failed to act. We thought about where we should go for too long and the lack of decision became an accidental decision to take a staycation.
When I posted some photos from our trip to Carolina Beach on Instagram along with a caption that more succinctly told this story, lots of friends commented to praise the pivot. And it got me thinking about why this pivot was so successful. The answer: decisiveness.
First, we had to decide not to go to Phoenix. Then, we had to decide if we were going to go somewhere else or stay home. Finally, because we decided to go somewhere else, we had to act on it.
As we were thinking about where to go instead, I could feel the desire not to decide—or at least wait to decide, which can lead to a lack of a decision—creep in. (It was so early! It was so cold out!) In my head, I watched us drift into another staycation on a raft made of comfort, indecision, and inertia. I had to remind myself that I wanted to go somewhere and it was up to me to make it happen.
So, the next time I’m faced with a change of plans, I’m going to remind myself of the level of decisiveness it took to execute this wonderful beachy pivot.
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