Here is the truth. The absolute truth. I was sitting around a table with 8 new friends in Estonia, after a day of conference sessions. As we went around the table introducing ourselves, I felt the pit of my stomach deepen as I listened to everyone explain their digitally nomadic lives as marketers, traveling artists, and festival organizers. As it came around to me, I cheerfully spoke about the last 4 years in Corporate America working in Cyber Security in Atlanta. But deep down, I didn’t feel cheerful inside. I KNEW that I wasn’t doing what I really longed to be doing. I had worked so hard to get to that spot. How could I feel that way? I flashed back to a few months prior, as I was journaling about what I wanted to life to look like. What I desired deep in my soul. I wrote down that I wanted to be a coach traveling the world one day. I was going to wait until I was in my 30s, when life was more certain and steady. But as I sat around the dinner table that night, something shifted. This was my chance staring at my in the face. I honestly did not like my corporate job. I HATED working from my kitchen table. I hated that I never saw actual people, never even met my manager in person. Hated the clock in clock out mentality among passionless robots (although there were a few diamonds in the rough.)
So I made the decision to change it. Circumstances were weaving in life such that the decisions were a bit easier to make. My roommates bought cats while I was out of the country and the landlord terminated our lease. My project at work was on hold and my absence wasn't irreplaceable. I put my belonging into storage, booked a few flights, and started coaching. I decided to start my journey at Burning Man with a girl I met in Estonia, continue onto Barcelona with my business mastermind and flow from there.
This lifestyle is not normal by any means. I am living out of a suitcase with 5 outfits. It's completely unconventional, but if life were an experiment and you could do anything possible with it, why not try it? I am not convinced that the 310 Million Americans living the normal 9-5 lifestyle ever question the norm. There is no second guessing "how" life should be lived. If you have one shot on this planet and you are a one in one millionth of an occurrence to be born here, why not dream up the craziest life and go for it? It all starts with the belief that it can be done and the desire to do so. Maybe the dream wouldn't be to pack up and travel, but maybe it doesn't have to be so traditional either. I am nowhere close to where I want to be professionally. But this isn’t about getting to one big destination at the end of a rainbow. This is about the journey of life. I feel successful for stepping into my purpose and not waiting anymore. I feel successful for the personal development and maturity I'm gaining during this journey. And I am enjoying the process of building my dream from scratch. It is both exciting and frightening at the same time.
I am by no means trying to convince you to do any one particular thing with your life. I am however asking you to question your current beliefs. You were programmed at birth to think the way you think based on the people that came before you. If scientists took years to discover that the Earth wasn't flat, what makes you think that your parents and teachers have it figured out? What is it that you really want to do with this one beautiful life? What if anything were possible? What would you create? Let's say you could create your own way of getting resources. What are you so passionately excited about learning that you would want to be "paid" to do it, assuming money is the currency? Think and feel into the unlimited possibility.