Doing Life Differently

Have you gone to Ireland yet? Soloed in an airplane? Skydived? Sailed around the world? What is your “different”?

I’m not sure exactly when it happened, but I knew I had to change. I had to get out of the 9 to 5 (side rant: who really works those luxurious hours anymore?). I waited too long. I was disappointed in myself for not having the courage to pull the trigger earlier. Now, in many ways (and foolishly so) I am in a hurry — a hurry to get started, a hurry to fit it in before it is too late. If your goals are not aligned with going to work every day, then go do different now, before you have every excuse in the book for why not to do it.

You own your outcome. Life will offer reasons to wait. Ownership is choosing anyway.

I know — life gets in the way. It got in the way for us too. But you pivot. You don’t stop. Our goal has been to sail around the world. It’s been a desire for a long time. Hard chapters showed up along the way. We pivoted. We bought a small boat and began to learn to sail better — to stay motivated. We watched other YouTubers doing what we wanted. While a tinge of jealousy was there, it was more motivating and captivating. If they could do it, we could.

Looking back over the last 20 years, we haven’t been wasting them — we’ve been preparing. Small baby steps that chip away at that distant goal. Reading every sailing book we can get our hands on. Watching every sailing movie (the good and the bad). Researching. Planning. Investing. Talking. Praying. Every one of those things brought us to the moment we bought the boat, worked an exit strategy, and hit the high seas. Should we have done it sooner? We wish. Could we have done it sooner? Unlikely. It is time to accept that this moment is our perfect moment.

So back to you…

What is your different? What is gnawing at your soul, knowing that if you do not try, you fail and wallow in regret? What is stopping you? Time? Money? Family? We’ll talk about those in other posts, but for now: on your deathbed, what will your regrets be? Start planning now how you can chip away at your goals. Take that big hairy goal and make it easier by compartmentalizing it into the actions you need to take annually, monthly, weekly, daily. One day you will find yourself on the verge of a great adventure — because whether you realized it or not, you were working toward different.

Remember: do life differently. We were made for far more than 9 to 5.

— Dave & Beth