I do not miss most of the things about business travel, but I miss some things. Mostly, I miss discovery. I delighted in new—new historical sites to stumble upon, new restaurants, new people to talk to, new stories to discover. But I’ve learned that it wasn’t about new, it was about discovery. I still travel, just not with a day chock full of meetings to muck up my time to explore wherever I found myself.

Last night I discovered a new way to make beef stew, a new sourdough boule to dip into it and a delightful new Grenache Syrah to pair with it. It turned an ordinary Monday evening meal into something more lovely. The company was quite lovely too. One doesn’t have to travel far to find something new, one simply has to be open to discovery.

Last year I opted out of drinking alcohol a few months. That was its own discovery as I learned to move through days and weeks without so much as a sip. Mostly I learned that I didn’t miss it much when I opted out, I just shifted my attention to what was there to be discovered instead of the next bottle of wine or the latest IPA from the local brewer. One thing you discover is how much less you spend on the tab when you aren’t drinking. When I eventually went back to a glass of wine, I savored it without having craved it. A good sign I suppose.

I’ve come to savor a cold glass of water for all that it offers. The body celebrates that cold glass of water far more than it does that glass of wine. The wine is for the soul, and ought to be consumed in an appropriate ratio. When ordering a drink, consider what experience am I trying to achieve with this order? We can discover a lot about ourselves in that moment.

The key to any discovery is not just to being aware, but to turning away from our routine and beliefs that we may gain a new perspective. Sometimes that’s done far from home, but sometimes it’s simply in how we make dinner on a Monday night. Wherever we are, we ought to be fully there. So what will make today altogether unique from yesterday? That is today’s new mission, should we dare to be a little different.