Live the Life You Want to Live!

If you're dreaming about what you wish your life looked like, maybe it's time to make it happen instead.

I’m reading Chris Guillebeau's The Art of Non-Conformity, and he asks: Are you living the life you want to live?

This doesn’t mean living a fairy-tale life or a life that’s unrealistic. After all, we do have to make a living, we have commitments to keep, and things to do that maybe aren’t our favorite things...but are still necessary.

But if you could plan the perfect day for yourself, what would it look like? This is one thing that James and I want in our adventure.

We are seeking to begin living the life we want to live. We want to create those perfect days.

If we keep going through the motions and living the same life we’ve been living for decades, we might go crazy. Ha! It’s not that life has been bad, not at all, because it’s been great. But we’ve had a dream to be on the road for ages.

We dream of days when we move from city to city (and even country to country) and explore new areas. We want to see national parks, historic landmarks, beautiful landscapes, and so much more. We desire to sit and watch a sunrise or sunset in a lovely spot. We hope to meet new people, experience different cultures, and learn new things.

What are your dreams?

So what are your dreams? Maybe travel isn’t your thing, but perhaps you have something you’ve thought about for a long time. What’s keeping you from living that life? Are the things that seem realistic keeping you from living it, or are they excuses?

For many dreams, you have to wait for the right time, make preparations and plans, and figure out how to make them happen. But sometimes the only thing holding us back from those dreams is our excuses. Things we tell ourselves to keep us from living our best life.

Some of the things we’ve told ourselves over the years

• Money - we don’t have the money.

• Not practical - we have kids at home.

• We have to work.

• Family is all here - can’t leave them.

• People will say we’re crazy.

Can you relate? Do you have excuses like this, too? But if you really want to make your dream a reality, you can figure out a way to overcome your hurdles.

Working through the excuses.

We don’t have enough money.

We’ve questioned whether we can afford this, but once we sat down and worked out how much it would cost to live the way we want, we found it’s not much more than what we pay to live in our house now. There are bills we won’t have to pay anymore once we take off, which will help offset some of the costs that will arise.

We have kids back home.

Sometimes I live with the regret that we didn’t travel more while our kids were at home. How great would that have been for them! What a learning experience it could have been.

Yet the past is the past, and we’re looking for the future now. And we’ve tried to include them in trips that we’ve gone on since they’ve become adults, and we’ve had so much fun with that. We plan to continue including them in our travels by inviting them to places where we stop for a bit so they can see the beauty out there, too.

We have to work.

Work is a big one. We all have to make a living after all. This is why it’s so great to work for yourself and be in control of what you do.

James and I are so blessed to be self-employed and be in control of our schedules and our time. We can work from anywhere as long as we have internet, so that’s our plan! As we travel, we plan to work for however many hours are needed. We want to get enough work done to keep the bills paid and have some fun money. But then we can spend the rest of the day exploring, hiking, sightseeing, etc.

We have family here.

I admit that moving away from family can be tough. James and I have had many conversations about this.

We both have moms who live near us, and we want to help them with things and visit them. Our two adult children also live here, and our daughter has just moved back from overseas. Ooops! We love spending time with them, and the thought of being far from them is sometimes tough. However, we survived our daughter being far away, so we know we can do it.

We also have other family and friends we know we will miss. But the great thing is, we can always come through here to visit them all. I know none of them wants us to give up on our dream of living near them.

People will say we’re crazy.

And last on my list - people will say we are crazy. There was a time in my life when I really worried about what people thought of me. But that time is not now. Lol! I don’t care if anyone thinks we are crazy.

Your dreams and big ideas belong to no one but you, and you never need to apologize for or justify them to anyone. - Chris Guillebeau

Are you living the life you want to live?

This is the life James and I have dreamed of for years and we are determined to make it happen. We are determined to live the life we want and to create perfect days as often as we can.

Now it’s your turn to make it happen for yourself. Let us know if we can help.