Since I got home from the 4K, I have been meaning to blog about it. I have gotten few requests to do is sooner and questions about why I haven’t posted about it yet.

 

In short, I have been trying to figure out what to say.

 

I know what everyone who knows about it expects me to say… and I am pretty sure that my response won’t quite meet those expectations. I’m not going to tell you what you expect me to say, because it wouldn’t do justice the most important parts of the trip, the parts of the trip that matter to me now, and the parts of the trip that I will never forget. I’m also not going to turn it into a trip report, because truthfully, there is little to report on: we rode our bikes, ate a lot, and slept for the most part. There was not a ton of time left over most days for sightseeing, or exploring, or adventuring (but yes, there are exceptions). I am also not going to go into detail about my experiences, because this blog is not really the right medium for that. After bouncing all of these, and more, ideas around, I have decided to write a list of lessons I learned from the 4K. I’m not going to explain how or why, but if you’re curious feel free to email me.

 

Point Princess’ Life Lessons from the 4K for Cancer, Team San Francisco 2013

1. Time is the most limited resource you have; use it wisely. At the end of the day, time, and what you do with that time, are the only things that matter.

2. The people who need you the most are probably never going to ask, so pay attention.

3. If you’re looking hard enough, there will always be more questions than answers, and the harder you look for the answers the more you will realize how much you don’t know.

4. Don’t be afraid to go after what you want and tell people about it. You will look crazy sometimes if you do that, but you will have a better chance of finding happiness.

5. Life can change in an instant, and it usually happens when you’re not expecting it.

6. Most people have good intentions, but good intentions, alone, are nothing without action that reinforces those intentions.

 

These lessons have caused me to re-evaluate some things moving forward. Firstly, my posting frequency is probably going to decrease. I am no longer going to be writing filler posts. If you can find it somewhere else on the internet (easily), you won’t find it here. I have no intention or desire to be a news reporter, so that won’t be happening anymore either. If I do have something insightful to add, I will. I will not be forcing a posting schedule. If I have things to write about, I will write, and if I don’t I’m not going to go through great lengths to make something work (most of the time it ends up resulting in a filler post anyway). I am also going to start another blog that contains my non-points/miles/travel related musings that don’t really fit in here. That blog will take the same structure: no filler posts, no specified posting schedule. [I do not plan to associate that blog with this one, but if you are especially curious, just ask.] write a book.

 

This mainly goes back to lesson 1. I don’t want to waste your time by writing another post about some devaluation or credit card that you will, even if you don’t read it, possibly have to scroll through. You can read about that on all 753 other blogs that post about it. I doubt I have very few (any?) readers that exclusively read my blog. I know we’re not talking about hours of time saved per day, but maybe a couple seconds. If you saved 1 second per day every day of your life for 80 years, you would have an extra 8 hours. What would you do for those 8 hours? I surely wouldn’t spend them scrolling through blog posts! I also don’t want to spend my time repeating information that is already all over the points and miles blogosphere, because even my filler posts take some time. I take the time to think about what to write about, eventually decide that I really have nothing original to say or write about, more time to think up ideas for filler posts, and a few minutes to crunch the post out. That might only take me 15 minutes… but if I am writing 3 filler posts a week (which some weeks I definitely have!) then that could be 45 minutes or more a week! That adds up really fast, as I have already demonstrated with a second.

 

So, be prepared for some changes. I hope they will all turn out to be for the good. Consider what you can do in your life to add a few extra minutes to every day. What do you want to be doing with that time? Start taking the steps to make those changes before you run out of time; we all will, and it’s what you do now that counts.

 

A special thanks to George from TravelBloggerBuzz for letting me bounce ideas around because sometimes when I start writing or talking, I just can’t shut up.