Select Page
Can you overcome fear?

Can you overcome fear?

by | Sep 5, 2018 | Intentional Living, RV-life

Can you overcome fear?

When we first started dreaming about living on the road fulltime, many fears and doubts came to the surface.

What will happen if I leave my job? How will we pay for health insurance? What if we run out of money while on the road? What’s going to happen if we can’t find work? What if we FAIL?

Can you overcome fear?

To be honest, I’m not really sure. Many of these fears still reside within us but what I do know that we can choose to let fear paralyze us or use fear to our advantage. How so?

Whenever fear crept in, we tried our best to use it to motivate us.

For example, “What happens if we run out of money”. Instead of letting this fear hold us back, we did a lot of research, looked at our budget and built up our savings so that we could avoid running out of money on the road.

This helped us feel more confident and reassured us that this lifestyle is possible and worthwhile. More importantly, it helped us make progress.

If you overwhelm your fears with action your fear has less power and precedence and you can start to gain momentum. Could we still run out of money? Sure!  Especially if Jay doesn’t tone down his photo/video gear purchases. 😛 In all seriousness, we can’t predict what unexpected expenses life will throw at us but we’ve done all we can to keep this fear on the sidelines.

We’ve learned that we can overwhelm fear but what happens when we don’t take action?

My business coach, Ariana Blossom, taught me that when we stay paralyzed by our fears, judgment starts to build on top of the fear. Which sounded a little like this for us…

Who are you to want this lifestyle? Shouldn’t you just be happy with what you have? You have a good job that pays well, why give that up? You won’t succeed at this lifestyle.

Judgment keeps us paralyzed in our fears. Actionless and unmotivated.

Do you have a dream that’s been tugging at you deep down but you feel stuck because of fear and judgment?

Your dream might seem far off and impossible right now. 5 years ago we dreamt about living on the road with no idea of how we’d actually be able to get to this point. That’s why we started small. We knew we wanted a camper. So we researched travel trailers and decided we loved the functionality and design of Airstreams. We had an upcoming trip to Seattle and found an Airstream on Airbnb so we booked a few nights so we could see if we liked staying in one. These were small steps that helped us get closer to our dream.

We have 3 questions for you…

We’d really appreciate any answers you’re willing to share with us. We’ve created an online survey version or feel free to respond to these questions by using the comments section below!

1. What do you dream of doing? (Seriously, ANYTHING) Ex. I would start my own shark circus.

2. What are some of the fears and doubts you have about pursuing this dream? Ex. Not getting eaten by the sharks.

3. What’s one simple thing you could do today to take action towards this dream? Ex. Research what kinds of sharks are best to train and are least likely to eat me.

Letting go of the stuff that’s holding you back

Letting go of the stuff that’s holding you back

by | Jun 7, 2018 | Intentional Living, Minimalism, RV-life

Letting go of the stuff that's holding you back

Letting go is hard.

A dear friend told me the other day how she tried ziplining with her kids for the first time. Not being very keen on heights, she let her kids go first, and when it came time for her turn, she paused. She was frozen. Fear had set in. After a few minutes (and asking the zip line worker how she’d get down if she didn’t want to go through with it) she decided to let go.

As she told me the story, I could see how glad and proud she was to have let go. For her, the literal “letting go” felt metaphorical. She had gone through a rough divorce in recent years and is now a single mom with three kids. Her choice to let go allowed her to experience something new instead of keeping herself trapped in the past.

Letting go can be extraordinarily difficult for all of us.

For Jay and I, moving from a 1,100 sq foot house to a 180 sq foot trailer means we have a lot of physical stuff we have to let go of. Even things we thought we’d never get rid of!

Take for instance this now broken Djembe. I brought it back from West Africa 10 years ago and it took an entire sleeping bag, a lot of duct tape and some light arguing with the border agent to get it into the US.

If I kept the drum, it would need to be fixed and I knew I wouldn’t really play it enough to make it worth it. I was holding onto it for sentimental reasons. After I re-evaluated the weight and space it had in my life, I realized that it was the experience and the joy I had when I played it that mattered. It’s time for me to let go, and let someone else find joy in it.

Letting go physical things can be pretty challenging, but truthfully, it’s the emotional things that have been the hardest to let go.

For Jay and I, it’s the fear and sadness we feel when thinking about leaving our family and friends here in the Northeast. We know these feelings are natural, and we mustn’t dwell on them or let them consume us because:

1. Our friends and family are only a phone call away and it’s up to us to make an effort
2. Social media can help us share/receive updates
3. We can return to the Northeast anytime and literally park ourselves in our family/friend’s driveways and bother them for an entire month (or as long as they can tolerate us!)
4. Like my friend I mentioned earlier, letting go will allow us to experience something new. We want to pursue this lifestyle for reasons explained here. And if we hold ourselves back, we’ll never know what could have been.

What are you struggling to let go of?

We’re all human. We all struggle to let go. So what’s holding you back? Is it fear, anger or resentment? Is it physical stuff?  Whatever it is, ask yourself why it’s hard to let go and try to imagine what would happen if you did. If you’re willing to share, tell us in the comments below!

Why we’re Selling Our Home and Moving into an RV full-time

Why we’re Selling Our Home and Moving into an RV full-time

by | Apr 2, 2018 | RV-life

When doubt began to rear its ugly head…

Questions started rolling in. Are we sure moving into an RV full-time is for us? What if we end up hating this lifestyle? How crazy does our family think we are?  How will we ever find neighbors as good as the ones we have now? Will we lose our sense of community? Should we just rent the house our instead of selling it? Will we want to strangle each other living in such a small space?

I could go on and on, but you probably get the point.

We decided it was beneficial for us to compile a list of why we want to live in an RV full-time in the event our doubts would resurface.

Why we want to move into an RV full-time

  1. Be outside more
  2. Experience new places in a way that’s more than a vacation
  3. Meet new people who share the same lifestyle
  4. Ride our bikes year-round and explore new trail systems
  5. Avoid feeling like we’re working towards the weekend or retirement and live in the moment
  6. Save more money and have less expenses associated with owning a home
  7. Find more time for adventure by having fewer tasks associated with owning a house (cleaning, mowing, yard work)
  8. Minimize the amount of stuff we own and appreciate the things we do have
  9. Enjoy the remoteness of BLM land and the beauty of our country – waking up to new views out of our window
  10. Immerse ourselves in cool towns and hang with the locals

 

For us, success in this lifestyle simply means we’re living how we want to.

Would moving into an RV full-time be the only way we could ever achieve all of this? Heck no! However, we don’t want to spend our lives wondering what if we never tried? 

I am writing this post as we travel to Asheville, NC, for a mountain bike trip with our friends, Rob + Anna (otherwise known as Raw Banana). Anna kindly proofread this post (I believe her Engrish is better than mine). I’ll leave you with her favorite poem, The Summer Day, which she shared with me.

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

Written by Mary Oliver from New and Selected Poems, 1992
Beacon Press, Boston, MA

Day 10 – Banff + Laundry Day

Day 10 – Banff + Laundry Day

by | Jul 28, 2017 | RV-life, Wedding Adventure

Today we’ll be saying goodbye to Canmore and headed through Banff National Park and over to Golden where we’ll be boondocking outside our friend Amy’s brother’s house.
Up until now, I haven’t mentioned a whole lot about the town of Canmore.
Compared to Banff, it’s a less touristy (but still touristy) town. Canmore sits right before Banff National Park and is only about an hour or so out of Calgary. So it’s a doable weekend trip for Calgarians (<—— I may have just made up this word).
Canmore is a really cute little town, expensive, but cute. There’s plenty to do and to see. Just the simple fact that they have a Sotheby’s is telling.
On our way to Golden, we stopped in Banff to do laundry and run some errands… or maybe just to pose with their cool sign…
 
Doing laundry in a busy town might not sound like a great idea and in fact, it wasn’t. But we made it work. We had to park our RV about a 15-minute walk from the downtown and carry roughly 3 loads worth of stinky laundry through Banff’s busy streets while walking Cooper in the heat of the afternoon.
 
The good news is, we managed to finish all 3 loads of laundry, do a quick grocery run, see the town a bit and get back on the road in just a couple of hours. Next stop – GOLDEN!
Day 5 – Helllloooooo Canada!

Day 5 – Helllloooooo Canada!

by | Jul 23, 2017 | Adventure, RV-life, Wedding Adventure

We made it folks!

We drove a total of 37 hours and made it to the campground in Bow Valley Provincial Park. We’ll be using this campground as a base camp for the next week as we travel around to Banff National Park.

After a celebratory beer, we tried deploying the Zip Dee awning with a little too much force and ended up bending one of the awning arms… Oopsie. The things we do for shade!

Luckily our friends, Danielle and Bill, had just arrived witness the mayhem.

We knew we either had to bend it back (unlikely) OR saw a piece of the arm off so that we could at the very least put it away.

After about 30 minutes of problem-solving and frustration, we ventured into Canmore to grab dinner at the Grizzly Paw Brewery. We were put on the waitlist and decided to kill time at this fun little bar next door called Where the Buffalo Roam – a Hunter S. Thompson themed bar. Great drinks and hilarious server – I guess it’s what you’d expect from a Hunter S. Thompson themed bar. As if things couldn’t get any better, Jay spotted a double rainbow from where we were seated. After which the entire street turned into “Double Rainbow mania” (as Jay put it). People running out into the street snapping photos on their iPhones. People yelling out of car windows, “It’s a DOUBLE RAINBOW”.

I was able to snap a shot myself before one of the rainbows completely faded away.

We like to think it was a good sign – seeing as tomorrow we’ll be scoping out locations for our emotional vow exhange.

Until tomorrow!

Day 2 – The Midwest Push

Day 2 – The Midwest Push

by | Jul 20, 2017 | Adventure, RV-life, Wedding Adventure

After powering through Ohio and most of Indiana yesterday we finally rolled into a Walmart parking lot in Michigan City, Indiana.
We tried two rest stops along the way but they were completely filled with tractor trailers.
We awoke today to some pretty heavy rain –  complete with thunder and lightning. Knowing that we were likely going to hit the outskirts of Chicago during morning rush hour in a rainstorm… why not?
One of the better decisions we “thought” we made was going into the express lane and bypassing some heavy traffic, although because of the heavy rains, as tractor trailers passed in the lanes aside of us – huge walls of water would crash into us – some pretty terrifying moments of not being able to see anything.
Once we got out of the Chicago area the roads cleared up, the sun came out and we exhaled!
With using the All Stays app we found a Camping World near Madison, Wisconsin, and decided to check it out for the first time.  Jay couldn’t contain his excitement.
While parked we also thought (given the sunshine) it would be advantageous to charge up our batteries with our Zamp solar system.  Super cool!
Now it was my turn to take the wheel! I was a little apprehensive at first, but I drove the Airstream through the majority of Minnesota. The truck handled very well and I didn’t have to make any technical turns or back up – PHEW.
THUMBS UP for not hitting anything and parking “OK”.