I should have seen it coming.

For months now, I’ve experienced a pain in the bottom of my left foot in some of the most epic cities in the world. Prague, Budapest, Paris, Rome…was it “epic city syndrome”? No, its something called plantar fasciitis – basically tiny tears in the fascia (connective tissue) on the bottom of my foot – and the pain coincided with my visits to epic cities simply because it was there where I walked for long distances.

I was seeing and doing some amazing things, but I was paying the price for it.

Now, I’ve finished up an international work contract and have started a three month trip around Europe. Italy, Greece, Turkey, England, Scotland, Ireland, Amsterdam, Switzerland, and the list goes on and on. Yet I may be sitting in our Airbnb rental icing my foot as my wife, family, and friends enjoy the sights without me.

I’m a stupid idiot and should have listened to what my body was telling me.

You see, it all started a long time ago. I can’t pin down the exact date because it didn’t “register” with me that something was wrong. At a minimum, it was 4 months ago. I can remember walking towards the opera house in Prague and saying to my wife: “My foot is about to pull” meaning that I could feel an “event” coming on where the bottom of my foot, having started aching for the past 30-45 minutes, would finally reach the breaking point. Something would happen and I would feel like I had just pulled a muscle on the arch of my foot. It would leave me limping and taking half-steps, just to ease the pain.

Now, after months of this, I’m finally realizing that unless I fix this now, I’m going to miss this whole summer. So I went to the doctor, I stayed off of it for several weeks, I used crutches for two weeks after that, and I purchased a pair of Superfeet inserts to give my feet better support. I’m icing, taping, resting, and gently stretching and strengthening my foot. But it might be too little, too late. I’ve read that the injury I have can take months…even a year or more…to heal.

I’m worried I won’t be able to fix it in time, and I’ll be sitting back wishing I had done something earlier.

If you looked hard enough, I bet you could recognize signals in your own life much like the pain in my foot. Things that if you continue to deny and/or ignore, they will eventually jump up and bite you…hard.

You’ve felt exhausted every day for the last three weeks.

You feel sick every time you eat too much junk foot.

You feel distanced from your spouse or child.

You hate your job.

These types of things don’t just go away, people. You need to make changes. More than that, you must make changes. Otherwise you may end up missing the most epic trip/event/opportunity/chance/experience of your life.