Salzburg. Birthplace of Mozart. City of impossibly steep AND narrow mazelike streets.
We stumbled into the oldest restaurant in Europe, open since the year 803. Charlemagne ate there.
We managed to score reservations to eat there too.
During the dinner we listened to selections of Mozart played by a string quintet in period clothes and ate dishes from 18th century recipes.
After that experience I had the urge to become a composer and wear a frock coat.
But this feeling didn’t last long, because we were off again, the autobahn in front of us and empty coffee cups behind.
Soon we were knights, touring castles that shined like beacons in the setting sun, built on top of peaks sharp and shear.
We toured castles in Germany and Austria that were residences of ruling families, fantasy castles shaped by dreams, castles destroyed by human and nature, and castles that remained undefeated to this day.
Then, like dwarves, we descended into mines twisting and narrow to see how salt was mined and transported to nourish a hungry Europe.
At one point in our journey through the mines we were 210 meters beneath the surface and 1150 meters from the entrance of the tunnel. There we learned how Salzburg—Salt Mountain—earned its name.
I’ve got notes and pictures and memories to last me quite a while. It was a trip of a lifetime, spent with good friends touring historic sites, learning new things, and embracing new foods and cultures and experiences.
But this trip almost didn’t happen.
In fact, it wouldn’t have happened had I kept my academic or industry cubicle job.
Breaking away from the corporate job culture was one of the hardest decisions I’ve had to make, but now I can clearly see that doing so was necessary for me to pursue my life’s dreams and goals. Those first few steps were difficult—inertia is hard to overcome. However, the good news is that once you start making your own destiny, inertia then helps you maintain forward momentum.
I know from talking to people that many are unhappy with their jobs and have many dreams and goals yet unfulfilled. That so many continue to pursue jobs and career paths that are unfulfilling, and keep putting off pursuing their dreams until “things settle down” (but things never settle down, do they?)—this is sad because making proactive steps toward pursuing their dreams is something that is under everyone’s control.
So why then don’t more people do this? Perhaps they don’t know how to get started, to overcome the inertia, to climb out of the rut. I understand their frustration, and have written First Steps Toward Becoming Heroic just for them.
If you know someone who just never seems to have the time or motivation to pursue their lifelong dreams and goals, then please pass along the link to this post or to my book—they may find the exercises and messages helpful.
In any event, here’s to castles, knights, mines, dwarves, Mozart, and, of course, dreams.
Onwards and upwards.