Holiday travel

I tend to avoid situations that are unpleasant, so as of yet, I have never flown anywhere in peak travel times.  In general, I take my vacations Wednesday to Wednesday because it's a good day to travel.  I almost never fly on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday because I know they are such high volume days.  When we flew to Dallas 2 weekends ago, we flew out on a Friday night and back on a Sunday afternoon.  The flight was one of the only direct flights from Boston to Dallas, so it was packed, as you can imagine.  There flights were sold out, and Darcy and I couldn't even sit next to each other on the way home. 

That's generally not how I roll.  I think that we can cut out a lot of the annoyances of life, just by planning to do so.  I know that we are wired to think a vacation lasts from one weekend to the next, but why not book a trip mid week to mid week?  Airfare is cheaper, and planes are less crowded.  Plus, you get 2 half weeks of work shouldering the trip, so it's kind of like a longer vacation.  ;-)

Today, we are flying to Atlanta.  It's 2 days before Christmas, and the airports are still playing catch up from the cancelled flights from the weekend.  I can't imagine how busy the airport is going to be, but I'm mentally preparing myself already.  We are already checked in, with boarding passes printed up, and we aren't checking any luggage, but we plan to arrive at the airport 2 hrs before take off. 

That should give us plenty of time to get through security, and if we have extra time, we can enjoy a relaxing meal before we depart.  Philadelphia may be a bit more dicey.  We have a layover there, and our flight has a winter advisory attached to it.  I know they were hit worse with the snow, so I'm sure it will be a zoo.  We don't have a ton of time to get from one plane to the next, but we never check any luggage, so all we need to worry about is getting ourselves to the gate on time.

I always prepare myself for the worst, while hoping for the best.  If our flights get cancelled, we'll make it there eventually, and everything will be just fine.  I do not understand worry.  Worry changes nothing, while inhibiting your ability to flex with change.  How is that useful?

In life, I try to avoid situations that could be stressful.  It's easier than you would think.  When potentially stressful situations are unavoidable, I find a plan to manage the possible variances up front.  There are always going to be things that are out of our control, and that's fine too.  Things in our control, however, can be managed in a way to reduce stress and limit worry.  Why leave things to chance that don't need to be?

Limiting stress and anxiety is within our control.  Planning and organization are key components, but also finding the ability to let go...  "Don't sweat the small stuff...and it's all small stuff"  ?? - exactly.  :)