The Deal Mommy

Lucky at One Mile at A Time has a thought provoking post today about taking risks. He’s 22 and at that “should I leave my hometown” crossroads we all faced at one point. You can see my immediate reaction in the comments, but I wanted to expand his question to including making the choice to take any risk.

In the 10 months my blog has been live, I’ve met (literally and virtually) many great people, and because my content varies from travel deals to parenting stuff (with a little Village People in between) the people this blog reaches vary from 22 year olds like Lucky to Moms who just like good deals, to Grandmas who may be ready to spread their wings a bit. I’d be curious to hear your “risk taking” dilemmas, but here’s are the three I hear most often:

• “I can’t afford to travel”,
• “I’ll just go where we always go because it’s too expensive to fly anywhere”
• “I can’t decide about that now”.

I’ve addressed these and others one by one in this post, but here’s my bottom line answer:

There will never be another 22. That’s what I told Lucky, and that’s what I’m telling you. But here’s the thing…it’s not just true at 22. It’s true at every age. Waiting to (travel, move, change jobs, etc. etc. ) until (we have more money, the kids are older, etc. etc. etc.) means leaving opportunities behind. We all have limits…money when we are younger, kids (and still money) when we are parenting, then possibly health (and still money!) when we are older.

The decisions you make today shape who you will be tomorrow…and who your kids will be the day after. The Deal Kids accept a lot of idiosyncrasies about their Deal Mommy. Deal Kid actually rolled his eyes when I told him about our last minute Montreal trip and don’t get the kids started about the pallet buying phase where 1000 lbs of groceries would show up on our front stoop! But the one thing I’m most proud of is that they’ve seen their Mom take risks…and sometimes fail, then take more risks!

Rush, in their song Freewill, sing the line I have adopted as my motto: “If you choose not to decide, you still have have made a choice”. Indecision kills more dreams than any other weapon. There will never be another today. What have you done to further your progress on your dreams?

In short, I’m challenging you to stretch your limits and just consider the possibilities before rejecting a seemingly crazy idea out of hand. Who’s with me?