Holy Crap, What Have I Done? (Pre-trip jitters): Day 14 of 30w30d

This post is part of 30 Ways in 30 days to Redesign Your Life and Travel the World. This series seeks to give you the practical, real world steps you need to take to get from wherever you are, to exactly where you want to be– traveling the world and living the lifestyle you want.

If you haven’t reached this critical milestone in your planning– don’t worry it will come.  A sudden realization of the weight of this life change will come crashing down on you like a bucket of cold water.  You may become momentarily religious, “Dear God…”

You’ll think some combination the following things:

• Am I crazy?
• Who am I to think I can do this?
• I am going to screw up my entire life.
• I am just being (pick your favorites) selfish/immature/irresponsible/unrealistic/foolish.

Then the real fun begins.  Your imagination, sensing an opportunity to shine, will step in.  Not only will you be traveling a world filled with danger, everything will go wrong and you’ll be powerless to fix any of it.  You’ll be homeless and penniless, ruing the day you ever decided to travel the world.  You are freaking out.

Don’t worry it happens to everyone.

You are not crazy. Crazy is never taking a chance on yourself, living a life based on fear.

You can do this. Once you get out there, you’ll see it’s surprisingly easy to do.  It only sounds hard.

You’re not going to screw up your life. You made your life what it is and you’ll still have those same skills and qualities that got you where you are now.  Give yourself some credit.  Your life isn’t as fragile as you think. Let go. When you release something you’re holding onto because of fear, you make room for a surprising number of positive things.

About being selfish or immature– it can be painful take something we really want.  It feels like we haven’t earned it.  We can’t claim it for ourselves because we’re waiting for someone to give it to us.  They aren’t coming.  The difference between the people who live the life they want and everyone else?  They just do it.  They make the decision, come up with a game plan and make it reality.  Just like you’re doing now.

This is the hardest part.  You’re amazing.  You’re almost there.  You can do this.

You may come back to this feeling several times during your planning.  When you sell the house.  When you sell your things.  The day you  quit your job.  I stayed up late on many occasions, trying to convince my husband to let me cancel the whole thing.

I can promise you one thing:  I swear that you will feel completely different once you leave.  You’ll be amazed at how stressed you were before and how far away and distant that feels.  You’ll wonder why you didn’t do this years ago.  Everything will change, but you won’t want to change a thing.  The hardest part is the first step.  Traveling?  That’s cake.

Homework:

1.  Breathe.

2.  Talk to someone you trust.

3.  Write down all of your fears and then read them out loud.  Did that diffuse them?

4.  For each fear, write out your worse case scenario game plan. If everything goes horribly wrong, it’s still only a problem to be fixed.  Figure out your set backs and your show stoppers. What can you release? What do you need to plan around?  Adjust and reset.  It’s all workable.

5.  Once you feel better, I want you to take those lists and put them in an envelope, tucked away somewhere safe for future reading.  In a year from now, it’ll be nice to look back.  For now, get some sleep.

pic:beastlove