day 37

Day 37

Be your own doppleganger

Monday April 4 2011

According to wikepedia, a doppelgänger “is a tangible double of a living person in fiction, folklore, and popular culture that typically represents evil.”  But throughout the past decade many tv shows and films dopplegangers are not always referred to our evil twin, but sometimes simply a completely characterolically opposite external version of you.

Yesterday I met up with a friend, for our weekly goal chats.  Since September, we try to meet on a weekly basis to see where we are at in attaining our goals.  When are goals written, achieved, need to be written, or modified if it no longer is essentially a goal.  We each share about 10-11 individual goals, some of ours align.  It’s a good way to know you have someone to be accountable to for something you actually want to achieve. 

She is aware of this project I am doing, and I showed her my new tattoo.  She mentioned how brave and adventurous I was, and also how much I have been improving the past several weeks.  I had to admit this better part of me is returning.  I cannot say what one thing it is that is bringing the changes…time, going to therapy, friendships, gym, meditation, or living my life as a tourist.   Probably is a combination of all of the above. 

I had been in this funk, where the shadow side of me was emerging.  Why hope? Why dream? Why am I here? And now the excitement is returning, that sense of adventure.  I have noticed that myself, but to have someone external make that connection is validating. 

As a tourist, you can’t help but note what a different person you become.  No work responsibilities.  Time is your choice on what to do with it.   You can linger in the hotel bed or beach, or rush to see all tourist hot spots in a day.  But it is your choice.  There is this appreciation and gratitude of seeing new land, hearing new accents or languages, touching different currencies of money, smelling new aromas, or tasting exotic cuisine.  This adventure has been in the planning stages for potentially months, and now it is ripe for you to taste.

A trip can be whatever you want it to be.   And it’s important to remember that so can our lives.  We have the choice to be this doppelganger at any point in our journey, whether in our destination or at home.