18 May Creating Life’s Adventure- Lessons from the Road
My 24 year old nephew and his wife decided to live on the road for the past seven months. They wanted to see the country and live life deeply. I recently asked him how things were going and what were the biggest things he’s learned out on the road, and this is what he shared with me (sharing with his permission):
“We started out on Sep 1st of last year, so 7 months now? We plan on doing this for about a year, but we’ll see.
Living like this definitely has it’s pros/cons, and ups/downs, but we are happy being together so much, seeing cool stuff, and sharing this adventure with people. The ups can really be ups! I love editing and making movies so we are recording as much interesting stuff we see along the way and put it on our channel. We are out and about pretty much all day, but at night we sleep in our minivan that we’ve outfitted for traveling. We stay anywhere we can get that’s safe and legal. This is mostly walmarts, rest stops, ward members and friends. To us, and right now, it’s worth it for the upsides, probably not for everyone though.
To help with finances, we have stopped here in Florida for the last 3 months working at part time jobs. (Really loving Florida so far!) On the side, we also do website beta testing, mystery shopping for different companies, and Jerika has an emotional therapy business that she does over the phone/internet with a few clients. It’s been tricky, but we decided to not let that stop us from traveling and experiencing more out of life. Didn’t want to just have the “Utah” experience all our lives…
We have been reading/listening a lot about manifesting great things, living a more abundant, enriched life etc. Some material includes – The Secret, Career Success without a “Real” Job, Outwitting the Devil, Think and Grow Rich, Rich Dad Poor Dad, The Emotion Code, Dressing your Truth (website) and various other traveling full-time websites and blogs. Hence the reason your blog and upcoming book really interested us and is right up our alley with what we’re trying to do and be.
Top lessons we’ve learned (or learning!!)? I’d say: Stop worrying. Never helps anything and brings more stress, problems. It’s okay to be conscious of things, and be prepared… but worrying is so pointless. Trying to control my thoughts and feelings in a positive way has been a great way to just feel better day to day.
2. I’m finding that I love the lifestyle so much of working from home (not completely doing that yet, but in a way) and that I don’t think I personally could go through at least my whole life with an 8 to 5 job. Maybe sometimes and hopefully it’s a passion, but not my whole life.
3. Treating people as humans/friends. I grew up learning and being raised that it was sort of okay to be short with salesman on the phone or strangers at the door, or really anyone who for some reason might be “bothering” me. We’ve both made a conscious effort to be friendly and giving, and also genuine. I found it overspilling into all relationships in a positive way. And it has come back to us, not that we’re expecting it to, it just happens! We’ve met wonderful people that have had us over for dinner, or let us do laundry at their place, invited us to family gatherings, to the beach etc. It’s meant so much more to us than just the physical aspects.
4. My perspective has changed on money. I used to kinda “hoard” as much as I could to be ready for a rainy day and was kinda stingy with it I guess. Now I still save, but allow money to be what it’s intended for. I guess I’m allowing it to flow in/out more easily now. It’s hard to describe. Less greedy (a form of worrying), letting the “power” of money go that used to grab me.
5. I’ve had 3 friends pass away while we’ve been out here, and the sting hurts so much. Not sure exactly what that means yet. I guess treating them as if it could be the last time I see them. I know we learn that we’ll see them again in the afterlife, but I seem to not heal like others with that information. Just something that’s been on my mind a lot on this trip.
I think those are most of the bigger things. Sorry for rambling. It’s felt good to spend some time thinking and fleshing out thoughts I’ve been having on this trip. So thank you!”
To follow Caden and Jerika on their adventure, follow them on Youtube and Facebook here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCljD0coNrwdoKuMws0FMzXA