I want to share another 'learning' from my training for the Avon Breast Cancer Walk. As I mentioned, getting ready to walk 26 miles in one day required a lot of time on the road. I found myself taking the same path every time I trained. After a while I wasn't even aware of my surroundings. I was on automatic pilot, just trying to get the miles in that I needed for training on a given day. Not unlike I can get in my day-to-day routine as I try to manage a hectic career and personal life.

It can be hard to 'pay attention' to your surroundings while you're multi-tasking like crazy. One day I needed to add more miles and decided to retrace my steps walking in the opposite direction. Was I in for a surprise! Everything looked completely different. I saw things I had passed dozens of times, but never noticed. I found myself really looking and experiencing the walk in a completely new way. As I reflected on this experience, I realized it could be a metaphor for a way to become more aware of what was going on in my day to day life. That by 'changing direction' I might be become more aware of what I was actually doing. I started to wonder about trying to do some things in a different way - just small things to break the routine to see if I could become more aware of my surroundings, if that would impact the quality of my life.

Have you ever had a similar 'ah ha' experience? I'd love to hear about it.