Boom! Yes Corona – you might have changed things and made life a whole lot harder but we are fighting and you ain’t gonna get us!
At times like this when self reflection is high and we have gone from sharp focus on the next deadline to having an opportunity to re assess our priorities, hopefully you can begin a journey as we did.
We all have those daydreams after a bad day in the office. We all joke about there must be more to life with good friends around a bottle of wine (or a few shots of Tequila). For us though, this desire for drastic change to our lives just wouldn’t leave. Thanks in part to a serious stress related health issue, I woke to the realisation that the time was now. I was following a career while feeling emotionally stifled. So in 2020 we traded close contact with amazing family and friends for adventure; our material possessions for a yacht; and our careers for freedom and health.
“The change however was (is) not easy.I share my story not because I expect you to follow, but because I truly believe in today’s scary world that if you can adopt just a small part into your own life you will gain so much more than you give up.”
I had to visually picture the end goal over and over; which was essential to not losing site of what felt totally unreal. If you had to say to me you are going to give it all up to go and live on a boat with no fixed address I would never have believed you and more than that felt great fear. But life will continue and it is so easy to give up your dreams in the face of life's challenges and daily routines in false security and perception of success. The amount of times I would need to pause, close my eyes and see myself barefoot at the helm, sailing off into the sunset without a care in the world. Then I would open my eyes and know that to get there required a total shift in mind-set to not only walk away from acquiring more, but to actively start disposing of the clutter.
I cannot begin to describe the freedom when that switch goes off in your brain from needing to fulfil your life with empty possessions that I needed, to make it all seem worthwhile. How short sighted, if only someone had taken me aside and said don’t do it – the money you will save you can retire earlier and begin living the life you were always meant to.
“I chased a career and recognition – now I ask why? ”
The great unknown
How did I get to the light switch moment? In 2018, I was working a stressful job that I hated and I resigned for my relationship and my sanity. Once I resigned my body collapsed and I discovered the health issues related to the stress. This was the start of the realisation that no matter how much you pay me, nothing is worth sacrificing my health.
Fortunately I had the support of Kevin and after much deliberation we decided to set in motion the journey to a better life. One which carried different rewards. The answer just became simple – the more we thought about it the less alternative there actually was.
This ultimately became our dream to buy the yacht and to go sailing. We were allured by the dream but needed to become ruthless in our decisions going forward.
So we began the downsizing - our new home, all 39 feet of her, was barely going to hold the necessities, let alone my much prized wardrobe.
The next steps?
Stop spending! Do we need this in our new life. Remove debt! House on sale, car sold. Personal possessions – our photos, our art? Go digital. Let’s not even start on my fetish for leather shoes. What do you mean I can’t wear heals on the boat??? We continued the process of releasing the emotional attachment to things that no longer mattered. Well except my coffee machine of course.
“Ultimately we got rid of things that were replaceable. And here's a secret for you... with the exception of people, time and health almost everything is replaceable”
I am not saying don’t make money, don’t have a career it’s more about don’t waste, less is more – be minimalist in what you need – everyone needs to survive but in reality we can all get by with much less. Don’t sacrifice health for a salary!
And if I could do this – most can.
So please - in a the current environment where you will have more than enough time to think and one’s perspective changes so quickly, use it wisely to create goals and not shopping lists and think of where you want to be in the future and how you can make it happen. Set those goals in place and action them now, even if it’s a just a decision to walk away from that new possession or not to buy that new pair of shoes.
List the obstacles of where you are now and where you want to be and start making plans to remove them. Don’t be afraid to adapt your goals as time goes on and life changes, just set them.
This is a journey, it does not happen overnight. If anything this crisis has taught us is that we are not in control and we need to prioritise the life we live.
If you collect experiences instead of possessions you will never run out of storage space.
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