Decision Paralysis

Decision Paralysis

This is not intended to come off as a humble-brag - I clearly recognize our financial privilege renders this almost a non-issue. However, I am finding my anxieties more and more of an issue as I age, and they recently rendered me sleepless for two nights in a row as a result of struggling with which decision to make for our big 2027 international trip.

If it seems a bit crazy to be already working on 2027, I think its notable that we were not first out the gate on the trip we were trying to put together. We did not have our pick of rooms on the lengthy cruise we were interested in - already, even 18 months ahead of departure, the Cabin pickings were getting slim.

There were so many things I was wrestling with, mentally - Could we get a direct flight? Could we easily get from the airport to our hotel? Could we easily navigate trains for day trips from the hotel? Could we easily get from the hotel to the cruise ship on embarkation day?

None of these in and of themselves would I have considered remotely challenging 10, even 5 years ago. But the stress of aging is real, and what used to be fairly simple issues are now increasingly stress-inducing.

I don't like that this is occurring, but am trying to accept it as my new reality. So, increasingly, I find we are paying more to reduce stress. As an example, we select nonstop flights, we pay for easy airport to hotel transportation via a taxi, we select centrally located hotels, we prefer larger cruise cabin accommodations.

The tradeoffs we are making are we are traveling less than in years past, but more comfortably when we do. And I'm really fine with that, because I genuinely love where we are now living. We've gotten much more heavily involved in our community since moving to our new home two years ago, and I find that I miss my community groups and activities when we are away too frequently, or for to long.

What a change from when we first retired some 15 years ago, and went-went-went every single chance we had. I am so very thankful we were able to retire as young as we did (late 40's for me and mid 50's for my spouse), and would encourage anyone else wrestling with a similar situation to do same. The change in energy as we age is real, quite shockingly real.

I did finalize our 2027 big trip this morning, a relief, and I can now put any more thinking on it to bed until early next year.

So, after all that, here is where we are going - We are doing a 35 Day Cruise into the fjords of Norway, the coastline of Denmark, a few islands in N Scotland, a circumnavigation of Iceland, some stops in Greenland, and then stops along some of Canada's eastern Maritime provinces before reaching our disembarkation in Boston, where we'll have an easy flight home.

Lots and lots of research in my future, which I do very much enjoy.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you likewise have found that manageable stress levels or other are changing for you as you age, feel free to chime in here. I think we all benefit by sharing our aging journey.