You Are Living My Dream

When people find out about my current or past travels of living on the road, a lot of the time their response is, "you're living my dream!"  I am always flattered that someone would want to choose the lifestyle of traveling like I do.  Lately, I have been responding with, "you can do it too and live your OWN dream."  Most often, that is followed by, "I would if only..."

If only.

Those, "if only's" are choices. Choices we made in our life that we want to, or need to keep.  Maybe you bought a home that you feel you can't leave, or kids, or a marriage, or your job, or your pet... Those are all great reasons to stay put and not do anything different in your life (not that there is anything wrong with that life) except be envious by posts of other people living a life that is YOUR dream.  The question is, "do you really want to live your dream?"  If you do, what is preventing you from making the choices needed to pursue that dream?

The truth is, you don't have to buy that house, you don't have to have children or get married, you don't have to have a traditional 9-5 job in an office.  American culture wants you to spend your money on things to fill up the home you bought and throw away things that you are bored with.  All the while, you hope this will make you happy in your heart and fulfilled in your life.  It might give you a momentary sense of happiness but it fades and crashes fast and then has the opposite effect.  Over time it makes you feel overwhelmed and trapped.  The more space we have, the more we want to fill it with stuff.  

I know of several families with children who live on the road.  If you don't want to travel alone, you can do it with a partner.  I can't imagine traveling without my dog Max, but that is a choice and it limits what I can do.  I am ok with that.  

I own a home and rent it out when I live in the van.  There are several online companies that will help you find someone that will pay you to live in your home with all of your furnishings in place.  I come back a few months out of the year and each time I do, I get rid of things.  I sell or donate the ten years of stuff that I have collected in my garage.  A collection of emotional items (Grandparents furniture, photographs, art) to things I thought I needed.  It's a bigger rush to me to get rid of things now, as opposed to buying something new.  I put out a stack of plastic chairs that I had for parties (which I don't have anymore) out on the curb with a free sign on it.  I was so excited when someone picked it up.  It was giving them a new home instead of a landfill.  If I decide to have a party, B.Y.O.C (bring your own chair) will now be included on the invitation. I digress. 

Here's the thing.  YOU CAN live your dream...whatever that is.  It's all a matter of choices and planning.  Do the work.  Be persistent with your goals and do something to move closer to them every day.  I will leave you with a short clip of artist, Chuck Close on what he would tell his younger self.  

What I took away from this is:

1.) You can do anything

2.) Inspiration is for amateurs.  Professionals show up and do the work.

3.) Continue to do the work, even if you don't feel like it.  Eventually it will get you somewhere.

Time to live YOUR dream.

Goal Completed: Launch A Site To Sell Photographs

Throughout the year, I will be updating the status of my "39 goals in my 39th year" by posting items that I have completed and telling you a little bit about it.

Today I completed a task! I set up a photograph site to sell my pictures on Etsy.

I have a banner on this blog that will show thumbnails of all the pictures I currently have up for sale. For now, I have one picture of tower #2 listed that I took in Long Beach, California.

I will submit a new photograph each week for a 52 week project of new photographs for sale. Please become a fan on Facebook to see all of the photos in an album as we go along. The picture I decide to put up each week for purchase will have a lot to do with your influence as well. I have many photographs up of my travels on the fan site and if you see one there you would like me to put up for sale, leave me a comment! The more comments I get on a photograph, the more likely it will be a photograph of the week!

I set this goal for myself because you have to start somewhere. I enjoy taking pictures so much and I enjoy it even more when I see a smile on someones face, excited to see it brought to life. Depending on how it's received and how well I can coordinate, I could go beyond the 52 images this year. I hope to do that.

Thank you all so much for your support! Now I am off to complete the other 38 goals on my list!

39 Goals for My 39th Year

We all took the time and recapped what we did in 2009 and thought about what worked and what didn't in our lives, right?

Well, if you strive to better yourself or just want to have some fun in the new year, you might want to consider writing a list of new activity's to accomplsh in 2010.

I came across the yes and yes blog and she did just that. She listed 31 new things she is going to do before her 31st birthday. What a great idea! I have just a stitch more activities to do since I am, ahem...a teensy bit older.

I might do more of these things, or less but it's thinking about what I want to do and the key is putting it down on paper. Some are not new but they can still be considered a goal to achieve during the course of a year. Once it's written on paper, I can't undo it. Does anyone ever use white out anymore?

Once I achieve a goal, I will blog about them and put a link on the right side of my home page to track progress. I am holding myself accountable.

39 things I will do for my 39th year in this world:
-Read 5 books from beginning to end without skipping ahead
- Win one photo contest
- Go skiing at least once this season
- Take a picture of Max in the snow
- Go to a tattoo show
- Publish a travel article
- Sleep on a strangers couch
- Skinny dip in the ocean
- Try indoor skydiving
- Get a photo published somewhere
- Paint with something other than watercolors
- Complete my house project with 5 shots together in a custom frame
- Sell or donate everything in my garage
- Take a photography editing class
- Launch a site to sell photographs
- Host a dinner party
- Take an art class
- See SIA in concert
- Wear a dress and go somewhere fancy
- Spend a weekend without a phone, without texting, watching tv, or any kind of human contact
- Watch a local play production
- Take Max out on a camping trip with "trailie"
- Visit the Salton Sea
- Go to Mexico
- Bake a cake
- Spend a week in a cabin in the woods somewhere
- Run in a 5k race
- Go to a music festival
- Rent my home and live next to the water somewhere
- Spend time on an island
- Take pictures underwater
- Win the lottery (you never know...)
- Volunteer
- View a live show taping (preferably Oprah before she leaves)
- Have my photographs displayed in a cafe'
- Write a book review
- Surf again
- Ride on a train
- Take a long road trip (I think this is becoming a habit)

What do you have planned?