The Long Game

Published Jan 16, 2017 (7 years ago)
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I'm not sure about you, but for myself, I have a hard time thinking what lies beyond this coming week...

A photo by Priscilla Westra. unsplash.com/photos/YeBXoqD_VOo

Between school schedules, work projects, work meetings, chores around the house, assisting with meals, family events, and more, I tend to just focus on making it through the week, often one day at a time. I've gotten into a bit of a routine to help me through each weekly "sprint" of life and not make it too chaotic. Keeping a mindset on just one week at a time helps keep things digestible.

Now the perspective needs to shift a bit. We are Washington bound. There's a lot to be done before then: purging old things from the house, selling some things. boxing up things, getting the house ready for sale, actually selling the house too. On top of that there's looking for houses/land in Washington to buy, though the prospect of renting for a little and saving up a bit more given the housing landscape seems a bit more reasonable at this point. Then there is the move itself and unloading everything once we get there and a new drive to work to adjust to.

This isn't happening within the one week timespan that I'm used to. The plan is to be out in Washington by July, but things could change in March if the house sells quickly. But thinking in a "monthly" frame of mind instead of a "weekly" frame of mind brings up its own challenges and changes. Sickness has plagued the house in one form or another since the day after Christmas, so the packing and sorting plans have not gone as intended. However, we still have a long road ahead and we can "pick up the pace" a bit to help. We have been able to do a lot of house hunting and researching during this time, which is something that could have been reserved for later, so there is flexibility there.

The most interesting part is continuing in the day to day routine that is already laid out while being mindful of the future at the same time. It's new, and different, and reminds me of a lot of my distance running training from college (and RAGNAR runs). How often do we plan and train and run with a perspective set out far ahead of us instead of "just surviving" to the end of the week? While I know that life can change abruptly at any moment, seeing something in the long game provides some focus, some planning, some picture of endurance that I think is healthy to one's personal growth and something I should start doing more of beyond the six months on the horizon to move my family across three states.