How do you change your life?

How do you change your life? A life change will mean different things to different people. Our age, gender, belief system, personalities, and cultural and personal values all impact what a change of life would mean for us.

Imagine one day waking up, deciding to quit your job that you had for 12 years that paid very well and provided your family all the stuff they wanted. Deciding to sell your 3.500 sq. ft house…all of its furnishings, and kitchen appliances, and TV’s, and everything else you owned. Packing you, your wife, and your 2 kids “lives” into 4 carry-on suitcases and flying to Latin America to begin an open-ended adventure. Would that change your life?

I suppose that is a life change. Pretty radical? Perhaps. Scary? Nah. Risky? I could argue that not making these changes was more risky.

The purpose of creating this website was twofold, 1) to provide a creative outlet to develop my thoughts and understanding of the issues that we faced and continue to face as we “radically” change our lifestyle. 2) to share this information with others for them to know that they are not alone and to assist them with developing their own questions.

I do not suppose to have the answers for others, nor do I want to. I am willing to participate in the discussion, but each of us must find their own path. I firmly believe that it is the strength of the questions we ask that determines the outcome…ask and we shall receive.

My 7 year old daughter will frequently ask me to help her with an activity that while on the surface is innocent, I believe puts her in danger. For example, we spent this past August at the beach in Southern California. It was a wonderful experience to hear the sound of the surf as we fell asleep, and wake to the fresh sea air in the morning.

Gigi, my daughter, would want me to help her go out further in the waves when we were swimming. On the surface there is little harm in holding her up in the waves and playing with her. Just as we do not learn anything if someone else gives us the answers, so too will my daughter not learn how to handle the pounding of the surf if she is assisted every time she wants to go further out. We grow and develop by finding answers ourselves with the encouragement and guidance of others. We learn little if we are given the answers. We learn and develop more by being given encouragement, guidance and helpful questions.

All of us are subject to “getting lazy” and finding comfort in our routines and habits…whether these actually benefit us or not, or whether they help us grow or not. We go through life with blinders on, comfortable yet hollow inside. We will “go down with the ship” continuing our behaviors until some crisis puts on a different course. Yet unfortunately, the new course is not likely to be of our own choosing, our own design, but rather as a result of circumstances and our desire to find “comfort” in our new routines and habits.

So I ask you again…were our decisions radical, scary, risky? Sure, there were all of these elements and more, however, for us the alternatives were not an option.

I assume that if you read this article that you are searching for your own answers. Perhaps you want to change your life. I congratulate you for your willingness to look at your life differently, and encourage you to keep asking questions. The answers will come…