“I came on this cruise to clear some things up and take a good, hard look at what my goals should be going forward,” I said. “This feels like as good a place as any to do some reflecting.”
“Wanna talk it through?” he asked.
“It’s not much. I enjoy what I do, writing and publishing and keeping up my own blog. It rejuvenates me to piece my thoughts together with words.”
“That’s a good thing, to know what you want to do with your life,” he said.
“But I can’t help but feel like there’s something still missing, things I still haven’t achieved. It’s just hard to identify them.”
“Well, start from the beginning. What do you want that you can identify?”
“For one, a savings account,” I said. “I make enough to pay my student loans, my car payment, and the rest of the bills that come with life, but at the end of every month, I don’t have anything to put into a savings account.”
“Okay, so what’s stopping you from making that happen?” he asked.
“I guess I need to take on more work, but it feels like my schedule can’t handle that sometimes.”
“So, you don’t really want a savings account. You want the ability to manage your time better.”
I looked up at Rhett as his eyes gazed out over the ocean. Ana and Tommy were moving farther and farther out to sea, their laughter fading into the background. Rhett’s eyes were focused. Tuned. Lost in thought like I was.
Only he was listening intently and with great purpose.
“I guess so,” I said.
“So, how do you time manage now?” he asked.
“I don’t really. I have a list of things I need to accomplish, and I make sure to get them done before I go to bed.”
“That’s one way of doing it, but it leaves a lot of holes that you can fill with things that aren’t really
important. Have you ever thought about getting an electronic calendar?” he asked.
“Hmmm, I never thought of it that way. And no, I haven’t.”
“You should get one. How long does it take you to write an article?” he asked.
“To write one?” I asked. “Um, an hour, maybe. Giving myself creative freedom and all that.”
“Get an electronic calendar to put on your laptop, then start divvying up your days by hours. Take all the articles you need to write in one day and plug them in. Start with a regular nine to five schedule with an hour for lunch and see where that leaves you. Usually, people will find they can take on more than they think throughout the day if they set a routine and stick with it.”
I felt my jaw drop as he spoke. Why had that not ever occurred to me? It seemed so simple, and yet I hadn’t thought of it.
“Wanna try another one?” Rhett asked.
“I’m not sure. That was helpful, and I’ll definitely try it. But it kind of made me feel stupid,” I said.
“Don’t feel that way. That wasn’t the point. The point was to identify the goal you wanted to achieve. If you know your goals, you can backtrack the issue in achieving it, and then you can set forth a plan to neutralize the issue.”
“Neutralize it, huh?” I asked. “Sounds pretty intense.”
“It is. This is your life. That’s a pretty intense subject,” he said.
The silence that settled between us was comfortable. I leaned into his body, and he wrapped his arms around me. His hands settled on my stomach as my head fell back against his chest. It felt like it had all those years ago when Rhett would hold me in the school staircase after a grueling exam. He would hold me just like this, with his chest supporting me as I leaned into him.
I closed my eyes and let myself get swept away in his strength.
“I’ve always wanted to take a cruise,” Rhett said. “But I never could bring myself to vacation on the water after so many years on destroyers and aircraft carriers. It kind of lost its appeal, especially since our destinations were never as nice as this.”