"Better to be looking at it than for it"

Me with Annemarie, the originator of the expression "Better to be looking at it than for it"

One of our fellow travelers on our latest Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) trip used this expression early is our travels.  

"Better to be looking at it than for it".  

At first I had no idea what it meant and since my learning style it to do it and talk about it, by the end of the 2+weeks together I had a clear understanding of the phrase.

Just now in a text conversation with another fellow traveler I used it and chuckled once more.  Today's situation is a discussion of whether we need a PCR test in order to enter Jordan on our upcoming trip.  The Jordanian website and our detailed materials from the travel company disagree so I called the travel company.  They also referred to the Jordanian official state website that appears we DO NOT NEED A PCR test.  However, the customer service persons at OAT said, sometimes airlines have a different requirement than a country so be safe we are going to get the PCR test.  In other words:

 "Better to be looking at it (the results from the PCR test) than looking for it (a test center in the airport to get a PCR test)"

We must have said this 100s of times in Africa on that trip but I have not really thought about it since until just now.  It is a very worthwhile phrase and has a lot of uses.