Catalyst Strategic Consultants

The first issue of this year is to have a full impact on how long time it will…

That sentence was built entirely out of the “suggested word” function on the IPad. Don’t let 2018 turn out that way! What do you think? Do you want your year come at you in that form, just followed what comes at you from one incident to the next?

At Christmas, Elaine and I were both mired in horrible respirados. It was my second – yes I had the flu shot – and her first. Hers was a doozy. She was hacking so hard, she had back spasms.

I wanted a break from the cloying winter.

I’ve had this long nurtured intention to visit the secondary cities of Mexico. I got intrigued ever since I read On Mexican Time. I gave voice to that intent with Elaine who has no small adventurous aspect.

By getting that far, I’d put out some bait for life to send me some catchable fish. Next thing you know, like 2007, I’m reading an ad in the Globe and this jumped out of the water!
“B and B in sunny Mexico. Escape winter by Lake Chápala. Etc. Etc.” So it was we were on our way to Guadalajara to meet Millie and John. Riding from the airport we saw a dead horse parching in the divider of the desert highway. We are definitely somewhere else! And, otherwise, it was extremely stimulating and refreshing, toodling up and down the sun drenched lakeshore towns in the including Ajijic on the local bus and into the metropolis to see the hyperactive craft center at Tlaquepaqui and the historic bullet pocked mural of Diego Rivera in the centro.

Since then,

• La Paz [with buddy Peter] with a swim amongst sea lions in the Sea of Cortez,
• Cuernavaca [in the most charming hotel ever – the Colonial],
• the big one, Mexico [when son Evan with Erin was resident in the fashionable Polanco district],
• Puerta Vallarta [with a side visit to Sayulita, a funky town due north]
• Mazatlan [less thrilling – and a beach town to boot]
• Guanajuato [through tunnels to the city centre]
• San Miguel de Allende [subject of the book – and worth every word]
• Now Puebla [right up there with the best]

Still to come are Oaxaca [mystical city in the south – rave reviews from visitors] and the sultry Meride [near Cancun]. Plus the silver city of Taxco, and…

What a rich school we tapped into. It has enlivened our lives.

Setting intent is simple. What has been whispering in your ear all these years? And forget the balderdash about letting your reservations, doubts and concerns overwhelm your sense of adventure.

Adventure never comes with a guarantee! That’s why it’s an adventure…

We have an increasing tendency in our world to want to know every last thing about what will happen ahead of time. Despite worrying away to ascertain [pointlessly] every last particular about how a new attempt will turn out, it never works out that way.

Thank God. Talk about boring. If you know all in advance, why bother trying? And you don’t know. You can’t – despite the internet. And too much of the “information” we get there appeals to those disabling concerns, doubts and reservations. Sure there is lots of useful material that can draw you on, if you let it.

I’m not just advocating travel, although it’s a big one, uniquely available with relative ease in our era. There are professional moves, new interests and diversions waiting, study and growth opportunities to explore. What has been quietly and insistently speaking to you? That voice is your best friend…

Folks are worried about regrets following commitment. That they might commit to something that was a “waste of time” or “too difficult” or “not rewarding enough”. Later on, believe me, regrets all flow from the road not taken…

Besides “commitment” starts with one step. Sign up, take a flyer, try it out. Don’t talk to yourself in demeaning terms “I can’t play music”. Mozarts were not born that way! [Well, maybe Mozart is a bad example…] They made themselves, and they get as far as their own initiative takes them. And they are powered by the best wisdom I can impart – it’s all about the journey. And if the journey is never begun…

We’re flashing home today – incidentally having missed the worst that winter has dished up this year.

The sun and wandering about has done wonders for the colds. This exceedingly nasty bug – we’re mostly over it. Now, to avoid catching another on the plane!

 

Sincerely,
Doug Bouey
Catalyst Strategic Consultants Ltd.