One day (Part 2)

I bought the car.

I called the friends who knew how to drive stick and asked for help. I had no idea how to drive it and so another friend of mine drove it home for me and began teaching me.

In the beginning it seemed like only a handful of friends knew how to drive this particular car. I wanted to learn as much as I could so I watched youtube and asked for advice. Over time I discovered that more people than I’d realized had this cool skill. By then, people were coming out of the wood works to encourage and help me. 

What a fun and terrifying experience. I got the basics after two days but I had so many issues learning to maneuver through traffic and impatient Toronto drivers!  One afternoon on the way to an impromptu emergency I actually started rolling back on the highway and didn’t know how to get my car to go forward! I got so frustrated I thought about abandoning the car on the side of the highway and getting one of my friends to pick me up! I’d like to report that I didn’t end up doing that. I figured it out and was able to get going. It took a few months for me to be fully comfortable in any situation and that came with taking a lot risks and being uncomfortable. During that experience there were days of confidence and days of leaving my car at home. Now I absolutely always love driving my car. (Except in traffic!)

Another example of a “One day” dream that I hadn’t thought to make happen was in the area of travel. Do you have places you’d like to see? What barriers are keeping you from getting there? 

I had always wanted to go to Israel but had heard it would be expensive so I never looked into it. Some friends suggested we start planning the trip and we set a date for a year into the future. We started planning. We asked questions, divided the map, looked up airbnb and enlisted a friend who had previously traveled there for safety and as our own personal guide.

The trip ended up being so much cheaper than it would normally cost if we had gone with a tour company and stayed in hotels. We were able to go at our own pace and see so much that particularly interested us. We did our own research and asked people who worked in areas about other places they thought we should visit. It was such an adventure. It still seems like a shock that we did that and I’m thankful that we were very safe. From all those lessons I’ve learned over the last two years I’ve decided that if something is worth saying “One day” to, then it’s worth the planning and effort to make it happen. I can start by picking realistic dates and work toward my dreams. I want to know that I did my best to live at my potential today.

How can you start removing “One day” out of your language and life? Let me know in the comments!