I am a visual person so when I contemplate about my life i often call it gray… a balanced medium, not too rich, not to colorful, a shade of nothing special. I changed that by traveling full time. Traveling isn’t a ‘better’ life, it is one that forces me to get out of my gray zone, the comfort zone. Majority of my old friends are stuck in their comfort zones. Some are ok with it, others not so much, for them it became a prison. If you want to get our of your comfort prison, here is how to do it.
Set a date
You have a dream, maybe many. You had it for years but never found the time or opportunity to act on it. Let me break it to you, there will never be good time for it. What you have to do is set a date. If its a big change, set a longer date. I gave myself a year to travel. You can read about it more here. Setting a date does something magical. You wake up thinking about your dream and the steps you need to take that day to get closer to it. A big step is to regain control of your life.
Minimize
Somewhere along your growing up, doing what others told you and what you seen them do, you lost the freedom you had. You became a slave to the responsibilities and things you got are now they are driving your life and your decisions. They are the walls of your prison. You cant remove them but need to minimize them. I broke them down to 3 groups:
- Things: These are the easiest to minimize. We are trained from our childhood to ‘want’ things for one reason or another. The thing is, we don’t ‘need’ many of those things. Get rid off of as many of the ‘want’ things that you can. You will not be able to get rid of all of them and will need to store some of them anyway, prep for that.
- People: You are surrounded by coworkers, friends, family that want to keep you in your comfort zone because they like you. One way or another they will make it hard to move on. They may give you raise, try to spend more time with you, show more love. This part will be hard. If your dream is bigger, you will need to make small steps, start spending time elsewhere with others that share your goal.
- Money: This is the toughest part. Somehow you need to find a way to make money while you live your dream. Some people say that they love what they do and they can make money while living their dream… NO! If you are getting paid, you need to keep others interests in mind which prevents or distracts you from your dream. Find something else that make money in so that you don’t muddy your dream. Start on it first. Read up what it will take to live your dream, make sure you can make that amount. Pick work that gives you the most freedom for the money you need.
Learn
For illustration purposes only; If you are on a sidewalk, the chances of getting hit by a car are minimal. If you walk into the street, you dramatically increase those chances. The same goes for your dream. Whatever it is, you need to go and do what others that live that dream go/do. I drove 50 miles every weekend to a sail club in Marina Del Rey so that I can hang out with people that love sailing. Later I moved on a boat with another sailor. Its a good way to try to live your dream without fully committing to it.
Inspire
You will get into a comfort zone again. It may be a sign to change things up again or go deeper. It took me six months to get into a comfort zone. Now that i am in, I want to do more. I try to inspire others to live their dream. I suspect this is natural and you too will reach that conclusion when you are happy. You will find that a lot of people don’t want to take the steps to change. Please don’t put your wants before their needs. If you are working harder than they are, stop. Most people are not ready. Instead, support the few that are.
If you are ready and would want to chat, feel free to reach out.
Fantastic advise!