Turning Pain Points Into Starting Points

I've always been frustrated over the fact that I've been so many places worth telling about but never had the foresight at the time to journal through the experience. I have plenty of "artifacts" from those trips... photos, ticket stubs, souvenirs, fragmented memories... all having a little less significance as the years pass.

After a while, revisiting these items has had a degree of regret to go with the nostalgia. I want to revisit and experience these places in my mind and feel the fullness of what it was like to be there again, but so much of that original experience has been lost.

But... what if I can turn the "pain points" of what I can't remember or what I didn't bother to write down all those years ago and use what is still left as a starting point for re-exploring those places and experiences in a new way? If I can gather the motivation, vision and "pluck" to do what I didn't do back then, I think I can turn the frustration and regret of what I didn't do into an opportunity for exploring those spaces all over again, do it guilt free, and finally put it down on paper!

Do you have any places or events you wish you could revisit? Any artifacts from experiences you wish you could live all over again? Do you wish you could share those stories and give them new life? Turn your pain points into starting points! Use whatever you have left, grab a pen and some paper and step into those spaces again. It's the only way to find out where the story will go for you from this day forward. You won't regret the investment, and neither will I.

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Image: A small reproduction of the "Sleeping Lion," one of the Canova Lions from St. Peters in Rome. Large, magnificent reproductions of the lions can be found on the grounds of Harlaxton Manor in Grantham, England. After visiting Harlaxton I toured St. Pauls cathedral in London and was so preoccupied with carrying all of my luggage through the cathedral that I didn't take a single picture and subsequently remember very little about the place, but I found this little lion in the gift shop. This small reproduction of the Harlaxton lions I saw is the only touch point I have of my St. Pauls visit... for now.