If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there. Lewis Carroll. His real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson but the writer called himself Lewis Carroll.  It didn’t really matter.  When he took his vision for his Alice of Wonderland-fame, through the looking glass, he had to start somewhere. But you know from the elaborate details of his story, there was a lot of day-dreaming and planning before the pen hit paper.  The point is, he started!

When people ask me how we were able to take the family world trip, immediately they see $$ signs and teams of people preparing the way for us.  But the team that planned, the team that saved, the team that studied health and safety issues, food safety and charted their way safely across the world,  was Team Hirn, who ran in conjunction with the US State Department/Travel.   Planning was intense – but so was the reward.

I know – sounds exhausting and you’d rather just take your family back to that tired old condo on the beach.  But unless you start to make a bigger plan, you and your family will never see the other side of the shore.

Don’t let fear stand in your way.  Yes, travel warnings have increased, but there are so many countries which welcome Americans, why would you choose to visit one that didn’t?  North Korea?  Angola?  Somalia? Iran?  Seriously?  There are so many wonderful places on earth, why on earth would you choose these?

Be like Lewis Carroll, whose story about Alice began in his imagination. See yourself in China, Japan, SE Asia and beyond. Then start making a plan – and commit to stick to it.  That’s is the first step to any success.

As Dolly Parton once said, “If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving  another one.”

Dawn