Last November I was with a colleague travelling and making stops from LA down to La Jolla. First hotel – we had reservations – every room had mold. Next hotel traveling now for at least a half hour – no double rooms – finally we settled in a dive near Disney another hour later. An extra 2 hours of talk time with my business partner.

Result of staying in the moment: Priceless…We knew it wouldn’t be a cake walk, but were determined to make the best use of our time. I drove and she wrote. A brand new approach to the presentation we were giving the next morning, albeit on no sleep. But the deal happened!

To Chris’s point (is that the right use of an apostrophe?), I was in two different hotels, as I went a few days early do to other presentations which took me from (north of) Orlando to Tampa and back. THE main issue was more of a split-second decision, and I made the wrong choice, it didn’t have to do with my hotel, or car rental, or stuff like that… I actually got of the plane quite prepared for what I had planned… but when presented with a split-second decision, I chose wrong.

The whole point of this post was something along the lines of carpe diem, which is easy to say, and easy to think, but I have a tendency to long for better times… and I found it kind of funny that the times that I longed for seemed to suck just as bad. And it reminded me that I need to cherish the here and now more

When I’m in one of those situations where I’m starting to feel sorry for myself and wondering who or what is trying to keep me from my destination, I have two choices.

Option one is I can be miserable (and make everyone around me miserable). Unfortunately, this is the easier option that takes less energy.

Option two is that I can give a special salute to whatever unseen thing is keeping me from my goal, grit my teeth, and determine that he/she/it won’t beat me. This takes more energy, but is usually worth it. And, often, people get annoyed when I’m determined to make something happen.

The good news is that, since someone is going to be miserable or annoyed no matter what I do, I can take other people out of my decision-making process.

As to GPS – I really like my Navigon!

Dan

I now book only 3.5 stars and higher and often use Priceline. I pay more for my hotels but I know that I’m going to be in a nice place with a comfortable bed. Saving $20-50 on a room and then have a lousy night’s sleep the night before a presentation is just not smart. I’m taking a similar strategy with airline tickets, car rentals, etc. I book for reliability and convenience. Price is definitely a consideration but not the primary consideration.

By the way, I bought a GPS last Thanksgiving after getting lost in the D.C. metro area. It was a great investment. I take it on all of my trips when I’m driving and it has saved my fanny a couple of times now.

The other thing is, I’m 110% sold on the value of a GPS system. Now I just need to choose which one.