Just say yes!

No I’m not talking about marriage!  And I’m not talking about saying yes when you really want to say no as that is about boundaries which is a topic for another day!  I’m talking about when you are presented with an opportunity to do something exciting or different and you want to say yes but fear is holding you back.

I had one such experience recently when I had the chance to go on a trip to Germany with a friend and travel around the Blackforest.  Different?  Yes.  Appealing?  Yes.  Scary?  Yes.  Why?  Although it was with a good friend, we hadn’t travelled together that much before and I didn’t really know the other 5 girls going on the trip.  I did just say yes but then was worried beforehand about whether everyone would get on, how we’d get from place to place, whether there would be any dramas and a whole lot of ridiculous doubts about things that were out of my control.

Luckily for me, the whole week was brilliant :-).  The weather was great, everyone was so easy going and thankfully there were no divas. We saw so much over the week and travelling around was really easy.  I might not have been as fortunate but I still think I would have gotten something out of the week as it gave me the opportunity to:

1.) Meet new people: the more people you meet the more it opens your mind.  You hear their stories, backgrounds and experiences.  I was very fortunate that I literally laughed all week as we all gelled really well together.  However, even if this wasn’t the case, the worst that would have happened was that I would have gotten on with some and not others.  The beauty of lifelong friends is that you know each other and get each other through having had so many mutual experiences.  The downside of this however is that you probably think similarly and react to situations in the same way.   Also with groups of friends or family, everybody assumes a role  when you spend time together.  Every so often being thrown into a situation with new people challenges your thinking and without a predetermined group dynamic keeps things interesting.

2.) See new places: Offenberg, Gengenbach, Triborg, Hornberg, Baden Baden and Munich was a lot to see in one week!  I spent the whole week in disbelief that more people I know hadn’t been to the Blackforest.  It’s really a beautiful part of the world with so much to see and do, from hiking to wine tasting to baths in Baden Baden.  And German people, culture, food and drink were all great too!

3.) Go with the flow: I’m normally the organiser when I go away so given I joined last minute, I had to just rock up to the airport and take it from there!  I do have control freak tendencies so I thought this would be difficult.  But I decided it might be nice to let someone else take the reigns and be a bit of a sheep for the week and it was great!

4.) Gain perspective: being completely out of my day-to-day routine made me realise that there is more to life and some stuff I’ve been worrying about was pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things!  Sounds pretty obvious and in my twenties I probably would have always been aware of this given I travelled quite a bit more but it was good to get a reminder.

5.) Learn about the law of attraction/vision boards!  Somehow on the trip we got on to these topics, more in a joking manner than anything really.  However it did seem like every time we came across one great place, we accidentally stumbled across another and the more we talked about it the more it happened!  In Munich we came across three different symbols of luck on our walking tour and that was our last day so I’m hoping this means that the only way is up for the future!

So if you want to jump into something new but are afraid, give me a shout and I can help give you the courage to just say yes x