In life, we all have choices to make. In my own life, the biggest decision I ever made was breaking out of the pack, and choosing an alternative lifestyle. Living by my own set of rules was scary (at first). But, once I Hit The Road, I met loads of others like me.
“I see a common gene among immigrants and entrepreneurs who strike out from the pack to pursue their dreams. I admire people who are willing to bet everything on a belief. Some of these risk takers, whether immigrants or entrepreneurs, have a profound impact on what happens in the world. They place bets on the future, often against fantastic odds. I see heroism in that.”
–Randy Komisar, The Monk and the Riddle
There comes a time in everyone’s life that one begins to contemplate,
“Is this working for me?”
When you realize that the answer is consistently ‘No,’ you have a choice to make. You can continue to live the same life knowing that what you are doing is no longer satisfying your needs, or you can evolve. Change is the only constant, and having lived a life of rapid and constant change, it is the only place I bet my chips.
Breaking Out of The Pack
This past year has been one of serious contemplation and new revelations. I had many personal changes in my life that forced me to consider what I was doing, and more importantly, for whom. When it came down to it, I realized that the position where I was in my life made complete sense as a lineal point on a graph. X happened which led to Y and so on, leaving me at the end of a successive group of points. What I struggled with, however, was were the points plotted in the direction toward where I really want to be in my LIFE and was I really content with my current reality?
Ground Zero Analysis
There is a theory that I learned in my business studies called “ground zero analysis” and it goes something like this: if you were to know everything you know now and wipe everything clean—what would you do? What would you keep doing, what would you scrap, and what’s next? This is the place I found myself in my personal life, as well as my business life—and it was time to look at reevaluating what I wanted and how to best move forward.
In short, I recently was in a long-term relationship, owned a home, and had a ten-year plan in my head my business, Growing Places Consulting. After my relationship ended, I moved into a temporary rental situation with two wonderful friends in Lincoln, California. I immediately regained my sense of self by doing what I love best: travel. But every time I came back, the looming question was there on the landing strip:
Why do I live in Lincoln, California?
My work is focused on helping others design the lifestyle of their dreams and ultimately live and work on their own terms anywhere in the world—was I doing this for myself?
On Halloween, I found myself in one of my favorite coffee shops in the Mission district of San Francisco, Ralphz Coffee. I was waiting for my friends to get into town to coordinate the evening of dressing up and going to parties. To kill the time, I was finishing the book Eat, Pray, Love for the second time. If you haven’t read it, you should, but it explains the true life tale of Elizabeth Gilbert and her journey around the world to self discovery.
What if I leave?
I turned past the epilogue to a blank page at the end of the book and wrote at the top: ‘What if I just left in December?”
The question half shocked me but I proceeded to make a short list of items that would need to be taken care of if I were to head out on a journey of my own. Surprisingly, the list was not that long at all. I called a friend to proclaim that it was finally time for me to
Get the Fuck Out Of Dodge.
Historically, I have never fit into society’s mold—or working the typical 9-to-5. Starting a business was more of a means of survival than anything else and I was realizing that I had followed my plan and worked it enough to take my own advice and start living my ideal lifestyle.
If I had the freedom to work from anywhere in the world, why on God’s earth would I choose a small retirement community tucked in the suburbs of Sacramento? I knew it in my heart that it was time to break free of the pack and live the life I’d always imagined.
Bliss & Terror
I instantly experienced the duality of bliss and terror. I knew if I were to pull it off that I was going to need to dramatically change my lifestyle. I was going to need to do my “ground zero analysis” and only keep what was working—and look at putting a plan in place for the rest. Breaking out of the pack comes with a laundry list of conflicting emotions and I was repeatedly forced to ask myself a myriad of questions related to my own sanity. Namely, when everyone else is playing the game and doing just fine, why can’t I just fit in and do the same?
“I didn’t seem to fit anybody’s profile. It was troublesome to me that I couldn’t find a match; I had expected to settle into a career like everyone else.”
–Randy Komisar, The Monk and the Riddle
So why couldn’t I just fit in and settle like everyone else?
When it comes down to it the truth is: I’m not like everyone else. I am a rule breaker and a system buster. I assimilate mass amounts of information only to find the most direct route and get back to living. I based my business on this model of passive income and lifestyle exit strategy and now I was at the point of facing my own circumstance and making a radical decision.
At the same time, an idea had been brewing in my head.
I was starting to attract more appropriate clients in my business. I was identifying common threads and toying with this idea of a niche market:
Business Owners that Love Adventure and Travel
These people are already motivated to make change, take risks, and bust their butts for freedom’s sake. I had pitched a couple of questions to people I know that meet the profile and the market for BusinessBackpacker.com was beginning to take shape.
I am a huge advocate for people following their personal dream and funding start-ups or branches of their original business that are more reflective of who they are and taking those ideas to a global market. The more I talked about the idea, the more it seemed to become a reality.
One Month Later
One short month after asking myself ‘What if I just left in December?’ I’m sitting here in a studio apartment in Bangkok, Thailand, writing this. I left the States on December 30th and arrived just in time to celebrate the New Year with a BANG!
The purpose of writing this post is to inspire you to go for your goals—no matter how outrageous they seem—and to trust your gut. The right people, resources, and finances will figure themselves out if you just take the first steps. It takes courage to break out of the pack and downsize your life to a backpack. But it all comes down to one simple question:
How far are you willing to go to get your life back??
