Do you dream big? Do you dream of setting off to explore the world? Do you imagine ourself travelling full time and seeing all the sites and places that you have only seen on the television and in books. Is it your dream to hop in an RV and drive off into the sunset? What’s holding you back?
I ask myself this quite a bit. Jason and I both work typical 9-5 jobs that have us tied down with limited time for vacation. The hustle and responsibilities of life weigh us down. We live for the long weekends where we can do a bit of travel and exploring. We long for our yearly week-long vacations. We are always looking at each other and saying, “There has to be more to life than this.”
We talked about this quite a bit on our vacation to West Virginia the other month. We want more from life. We want to explore the world while we are young enough to enjoy it. But time is passing us and we fear that we will never be able to travel to the extent that we would desire. We came home from that vacation and we were determined to change something. We talked about some plans and ideas that we had on the drive home and when we got home, the rigors of daily life overtook us. One day on a whim, I picked up a book that looked interesting. It was called The Art of Non-Conformity: Set Your Own Rules, Live the Life you Want, and Change the World. It was just the spark that I needed to push myself into action.
There has to be something Better
The book, The Art of Non-Conformity: Set Your Own Rules, Live the Life you Want, and Change the World is written by Chris Guillebeau (Amazon Link). In a nutshell, this book is an in depth look at the life of the author. He has lived an unconventional adult life. He did not follow the standard route that most people take. He has made the effort and taken the time to create a life that satisfied his innermost desires while still being a productive and active member of society.
From the very first chapter I knew that this author understood where I was at. He actually kept using the phrase, “there has to be something better”. He was using the same phrase that frequently repeat. He understood us! Even better, this author not only understood but he had personally forged a path where there was more to his life. He was able to pack his bags to travel and see the world when he felt the calling. He was living a life that most can only dream of. But how?
The Concept to Living a Life we Desire
The one concept that the author of this book quickly pointed out is that anyone can make the changes necessary to live the life that they desire. It takes a desire and commitment. It takes not just wanting to do it, but actually doing it. He wrote about people that he talked to that were full of admiration of his lifestyle and vowed to follow his footsteps. In some cases, the author had a chance to actually see the fruits of their labors and many times, a year or two later the person was still mired in a life that they did not like yet constantly dreaming of something different. Every time those dreamers would talk to the author, they would get excited and stirred up and vow that this time they were ready to make a change. But no change ever happened. But there were a different group of people that the author would talk to and they would also be all fired up to take the steps to change their lives. They would work up a plan and tell the author about their plan and when the author met them months or years later, he would find out that the person had been dead serious and that they had followed their plan and took the steps to be free to travel, financially independent or whatever their dream was. They had a dream and they were willing to take that leap. They were willing to risk the questions, comments and concerns from well meaning family and friends. They wanted something and they were going to do it! So, they did it.
The author went on to talk about some other concepts and ideas that he has used in order to make his dreams a reality. So many refer to their bucket list as some vague idea of things they want to do. If that is you, it is time to sit down with pen and paper and actually write out the list. Write out your goals. Write out your dreams. List all of those places that you want to visit. Don’t limit your dreams to short term ideas that you want to accomplish this year. Likewise, don’t limit your list to only long-term far-off goals. Make your list your Goal Bible. Write the list and then start to tackle the list. The author decided that he would separate his list into three sections. He had three different categories; one-year goals, 5-year goals and long-term goals. He is constantly checking on the progress of his one-year goals (every three months). As he accomplishes a goal off of that list, he can sometimes move a 5-year goal onto the shorter term list. Regardless, every year he reviews all lists and decides what needs to be done during the upcoming year to work toward achieving all goals. He keeps that list and uses it as his roadmap.
This book was an eye opener for me. The biggest take away for me was that I have to decide. Do I want to be a dreamer or do I want to be a doer? I can dream about the life I want for the rest of my life. I can repeat the phrase “there has to be something more to life” for the next 30 years. And if that makes me happy, then that is perfectly fine. But if I want to actually live that life that I am dreaming about, I have to take the steps to actually do it! The question is how badly do I really want it?
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