Who is Travelling With You on Your Life Journey?

This weekend I’ve watched the film Couples Retreat.  It was very light weight and got me to thinking about the characteristics of different partnerships.  Then on the way back from visiting friends yesterday my mind was wandering as Mike did the driving and I realised that it’s important to know who is travelling your life journey with you and how well (or otherwise) your partnership works.

I’d say that Mike and I act as co-drivers to each other.  Both take turns to drive and assist each other with directions, pointing out landmarks, obstacles and turnings along the way.  We also both have our own choice of journey but we make sure that we are going in the same general direction.

Then of course you have the passengers in life.  Those who sit in the car and leave you to drive, navigate and sort out all the journey details taking no responsibility at all for the journey that you are on.

The back seat driver spends all their time issuing directions and instructions.  Often without having a clue what direction YOU are heading in and they may not have passed their driving test so may not really understand the implications of what they are suggesting that you do.

Or are you maybe in a single seater?  No room for anyone to go with you, travelling at speed, fully focused on the end of the race with your goal clear in mind.

Whichever situation you are in, your journey will be different because of it and to get the best from your trip you’ll need to be clear about whether or not you have a travelling companion and how they are working with you, or otherwise.  It may be that you need to explain things to them; to tell them where you are heading or to ask them for help with navigating.  Take time to work out what situation suits you best, your preferred characteristics of fellow travellers and how to make the journey more comfortable for them as well as for you.