It's All In The Planning... Or Is It?

As you know, this adventure has been on my mind for some time. I am, by nature, a
planner and it is tough for me to resist the urge spending HOURS consumed with planning, research and mapping out everything I want to do. As evidence, I present you to a trip I have coming up for my daughter's graduation. We are taking a week long cruise to the Western Caribbean and suffice it to say this is what I've gone and done:

Yeah, that's a labeled manila envelope with printed confirmations for tickets, rental cars and hotels etc... I.KNOW. It's a problem and I should very likely be taking medication for it. However, I loathe searching for things,I like to know what I'm doing and what there is to do. I can hear some of you already: "Where's the fun in THAT?!? Don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem deviating from a plan but I just don't want to get somewhere and waste time looking for what I can do when I could already have an idea and get right to doing it.

An extended trip around the world and back...? THAT'S a horse of a different color. My mind begins to swim with all of the possibilities. Blogs, travel guides and the internet, OH MY! Seriously, I will peruse the web for hours and completely believe that my head will explode at any moment. Yet, I keep reading and scheming. There is just too much! So, I have decided that I will skip the minutia and focus on where to begin. After all, things that I read now will have changed by the time I get to those countries. Except the 900 year old Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia, that will probably still be there.

I have decided to start in Fiji. Why? Uh.. why NOT!?!? Hellooo!! Actually, I have a very valid reason. Many of my must-see-before-I-kick-it places are near the water and I have always wanted to learn to dive, just never took the time or became serious enough about it. A while back, I was reading Nomadic Matt's article on learning to dive in Fiji  and I was convinced that if you are going to learn HOW to dive you should A.) Do it where is it cheaper, about half the price compared to the US and 2.) You should definitely do it in the most beautiful place you can:

I know, right?!?! So, the location has been set and the target date is October 2015 (just committing that to "paper" has made my heart skip a little beat!). Come next year I plan to be spending a good part of my time in places that look like this: 

The plan is to relax, dive, read, swim, explore and generally do whatever the hell it is that I want and at the same time  start to shrug off the vestiges of the old 9-5 life. I am so excited that I don't even wanna wait, I would leave now if I could.

Are you a planner?  Prefer to wing it?