Repetition.

For a long time now I have had to live with the realisation life is too short.  Indeed it is too short for just about anything.  This first entered my consciousness in regard books.  There are far more books I wish to read than I have time left to read them.  This goes hand in hand with the fact there are books I will have wanted to read but never even heard off.

What is worse?

Failing to read a book you know existed or, failing to read a book you never knew existed?
Clearly you cannot be held accountable for not acting on something you had no knowledge of, but there is a sadness all of its own that you never even knew it was there.

This runs through everything though, there are more films than I am going to have time to see.  Basically more experiences and knowledge than ever I can hope to cram into my head.
"Live everyday as if it was your last" is something said often, but its ludicrous, live your life like it is your last that's more important.  Each day is precious and it should have got you closer to some goal you cherish.

However there is a flipside to this.
 
Some activities are just so good, despite the fact you know there are alternatives yet explored you go back to the same paths trodden.

A perfect example was the meeting I had the other day with another walker.  Usual greetings exchanged and then "Going far?" "Not far, just got 4 hours between things to do a bit of walking, the only 4 hours I will get this week"  Knowing nods are exchanged.  Then he says, "I love hill walking though, this place is a bit flat for me...The Dales, thats for me".

I say "Dartmoor, that's my place to be".
"I've not been to Dartmoor" he says, its a place I want to visit.
"I've not been to the Dales, its a place I want to visit"
 
We both agree Scotland is a place we both wish to visit, but the two day drive there and 2 days back means the actual foot time in Scotland is not going to be enough.

And then the truth of it is out, we both go to the places we know we like because time is too short to go to a place we don't know if we are going to like.  There is only so much foot time you get a year (or only so much you give yourself with all the other stuff you claim needs to be done, but when you look back on it, looks like a total waste of time and effort).

But to return to a place you know because you like it means you just don't give yourself a chance to like something better.  The worst that can really happen is you experience something you like a bit less.

Unless you set yourself the task of walking over broken glass in bare feet, walking is essentially walking.

If this chap likes the Dales more than anything else why on earth shouldn't I.  There is clearly something to appreciate here.

The lure of what you know is so strong it can over-ride almost everything else however mundane or quantum the leap in experience is going to be.  There is something within our makeup that constrains us.

Just think how many people go to the same holiday destination year in and year out.  I know plenty of people that go to the same holiday destination their parents went too for gawd sake.
I am going to break out of that pattern as frequently as possible.  Sure the lure of comfort/pleasure known will outweigh the unknown plenty of times but the desire to explore and sense something knew should be encouraged within yourself before your on your deathbed looking back on a series of years which are at best interchangeable with one another.