Hey guy,s i got some really great news to share with you. I got a job as a writer on a popular site in The Netherlands. It's called hoemannendenken.nl and is about a man's thoughts explained to women. It's really fun!
So i'll be a bit more busy than usual so don't get all upset if i'm not posting as much as i used to. :) This is part of a secret dream i had for a long time... i hope good things come out of this.
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Because I spend at least 3 hours each working day in my car I found some podcasts i enjoy listening to. For example, there is this guy who tells about Myths and Legends. One of those stories got my attention and beholds a inspirational message. It's the story of The Stonecutters Wish. You should definitely read it! It teaches a valuable lesson you might need to fulfill your dream or desire. Once upon a time there lived a stone cutter, who went every day to a great rock in the side of a big mountain and cut out slabs for gravestones or for houses. He understood very well the kinds of stones wanted for the different purposes, and as he was a careful workman he had plenty of customers. For a long time he was quite happy and contented, and asked for nothing better than what he had.
Now in the mountain dwelt a spirit which now and then appeared to men, and helped them in many ways to become rich and prosperous. The stone cutter, however, had never seen this spirit, and only shook his head, with an unbelieving air, when anyone spoke of it. But a time was coming when he learned to change his opinion. One day the stone cutter carried a gravestone to the house of a rich man, and saw there all sorts of beautiful things, of which he had never even dreamed. Suddenly his daily work seemed to grow harder and heavier, and he said to himself: "Oh, if only I were a rich man, and could sleep in a bed with silken curtains and golden tassels, how happy I should be!" And a voice answered him: "Your wish is heard; a rich man you shall be!" At the sound of the voice the stone cutter looked around, but could see nobody. He thought it was all his fancy, and picked up his tools and went home, for he did not feel inclined to do any more work that day. But when he reached the little house where he lived, he stood still with amazement, for instead of his wooden hut was a stately palace filled with splendid furniture, and most splendid of all was the bed, in every respect like the one he had envied. He was nearly beside himself with joy, and in his new life the old one was soon forgotten. It was now the beginning of summer, and each day the sun blazed more fiercely. One morning the heat was so great that the stonecutter could scarcely breathe, and he determined he would stop at home till the evening. He was rather dull, for he had never learned how to amuse himself, and was peeping through the closed blinds to see what was going on in the street, when a little carriage passed by, drawn by servants dressed in blue and silver. In the carriage sat a prince, and over his head a golden umbrella was held, to protect him from the sun's rays. "Oh, if I were only a prince!" said the stonecutter to himself, as the carriage vanished around the corner. "Oh, if I were only a prince, and could go in such a carriage and have a golden umbrella held over me, how happy I should be!" And a prince he was. Before his carriage rode one company of men and another behind it; servants dressed in scarlet and gold bore him along, the coveted umbrella was held over his head, everything his heart could desire was his. But yet it was not enough. He looked around still for something to wish for, and when he saw that in spite of the water he poured on the grass the rays of the sun scorched it, and that in spite of the umbrella held over his head each day his face grew browner and browner, he cried in his anger: "The sun is mightier than I; oh, if I were only the sun!" And the mountain spirit answered: "Your wish is heard; the sun you shall be." And the sun he was, and felt himself proud in his power. He shot his beams above and below, on earth and in heaven; he burnt up the grass in the fields and scorched the faces of princes as well as of poorer folk. but in a short time he began to grow tired of his might, for there seemed nothing left for him to do. Discontent once more filled his soul, and when a cloud covered his face, and hid the earth from him, he cried in his anger: "Does the cloud hold captive my rays, and is it mightier than I? Oh, that I were a cloud, and mightier than any!" And the mountain spirit answered: "Your wish is heard; a cloud you shall be!" And a cloud he was, and lay between the sun and the earth. He caught the sun's beams and held them, and to his joy the earth grew green again and flowers blossomed. But that was not enough for him, and for days and week he poured forth rain till the rivers overflowed their banks, and the crops of rice stood in water. Towns and villages were destroyed by the power of the rain, only the great rock on the mountainside remained unmoved. The cloud was amazed at the sight, and cried in wonder: "Is the rock, then, mightier than I? Oh, if I were only the rock!" And the mountain spirit answered; "Your wish is heard; the rock you shall be!" And the rock he was, and gloried in his power. Proudly he stood, and neither the heat of the sun nor the force of the rain could move him. "This is better than all!" he said to himself. But one day he heard a strange noise at his feet, and when he looked down to see what it could be, he saw a stonecutter driving tools into his surface. Even while he looked a trembling feeling ran all through him, and a great block broke off and fell upon the ground. Then he cried in his wrath: "Is a mere child of earth mightier than a rock? Oh, if I were only a man!" And the mountain spirit answered: "Your wish is heard. A man once more you shall be!" And a man he was, and in the sweat of his brow he toiled again at his trade of stone cutting. His bed was hard and his food scanty, but he had learned to be satisfied with it, and did not long to be something or somebody else. And as he never asked for things he did not have, or desired to be greater and mightier than other people, he was happy at last, and never again heard the voice of the mountain spirit. People tend to ask me what i am trying to accomplish with my Blog. It's a very versatile question if you ask me, well maybe the question isn't versatile but the answer sure is. On one hand i'm trying to inspire people, on the other i really don't have any big plans with this blog and i'm just writing down whatever comes to my mind or on my way of fulfilling my own dreams.
Maybe it's only a hobby and am i not actually trying to accomplish anything but fulfilling my own needs with it, or create order or maybe i'm just killing time. Well, i can say i'm trying to inspire, i'm trying to create order, i'm sometimes just killing time, i'm writing because it's my hobby and yes i'm fulfilling my own need to explore things by searching stuff to write about for my blog. All this thinking about the answer brought me to another question, what if i accomplish what i want to accomplish. Will i be happy, or will it make me happy? Should i think about it? Or is it something i will have to find out... this is where a little self knowledge is important. You can ask yourself a few questions before you can judge if you will be happy when you accomplish your dream or goal. I will take myself as an example. As you all know my goal is traveling all year round. So now the question is, will i be happy if i accomplish that. A few questions to myself to be able to give the answer to that question. - will i be able to live in a RV without the luxury a house provides? - will i be able to live with a small amount of money to spend each month? - will i be able to be without my family members for a longer period of time? - will i be able to live with a small amount of space? If all of those questions are answered with a firm yes, you have nothing to worry about. If it raises more questions because you are not sure if it's a yes or no, go and discover the quesiton. For example, will i be able to live in a RV without the luxury a house provides. Go and rent one, find out if it's your cup of tea and maybe even try to live the way you will if your goals is achieved. shower once every three days, live out of a suitcase or backpack for a few weeks. About the other questions, give yourself a small budget to live, try to spend your entire free time in one room with the same luxury you have when living in an RV, contact family only once a week, etc. many many possibilities. It's about finding out if you are able to answer the questions you have about you being happy when your dream is achieved. Well, obviously you can't explore the precise circumstances because your dream isn't achieved just yet but you can sure come close. If your dream is to be a helicopter pilot, go take a lesson! If your dream is sailing around the world, go live in your bathtub for a week. (just kidding.) You get where i'm going with this. So what happens when i find out i can't live with a small amount of space for example? Then it's time to ask more questions! Will i need the ability to live in a small space when my dream is to live a travelling life? Or can i change something about these circumstances, like a bigger RV or travelling from cabin to cabin? You don't need to adjust your dream right away, try to teach yourself to live in a small space. For example, delete one room of your house every week/month and you will see you will get use to it eventually. Enough said, go and explore your questions! It's fun and you will have a better knowledge not only if you will be able to be happy when you achieve your dream but you will sure get a better understanding of yourself. And don't wait, do it now. The thing i'm trying to do with my Blog is not only amuse U, but i'm really doing my best to give you a handhold so you will find some motivation to chase your own dreams. I'm not much of a talker in real-life but i sure have something to say to people that are willing to listen.
"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony" This saying by Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1949) got me thinking. So to be happy, you have to get three things in line: thinking, saying and doing. This is exactly what i am trying to say. Make your dreams real by thinking about it, talking about it and finally by doing the things you need to do to make it happen! Nothing comes out of doing nothing. There is another inspirational quote that follows up the saying by mr Gandhi, it's by Francis of Assisi who lives around 800 years ago and was declared a saint by the pope a few years after he died in 1226. He says "Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible." So after you think about your dreams and bringing it to the world by talking with people about it your next steps is doing. At first you need to look at the things you need for your dream. Like sufficient funds, time off from work, etc. Then do the things that are possible right away. Make a plan! You can't sell your car right away if you need it for your job and you can't sell your house if you have nowhere to stay... If you have this plan, make sure you follow the steps. Needless to say things change, and so can your plan. Change wherever this is necessary, but do not loose your destination. Keep up your good work! And please let me know what your dream is and how you are making it real! Travelling isn't always about running away from things, sometimes it's just about running into what you truly want. It's a sentence i came across whilst reading a travel website once. It's definitely true. People often tend to think that people who desire to travel or are travelling a lot are actually running away from things they fear or are not ready for yet. Sure, you want to get away from many things when you go on a trip. But it's not running away. Are you shutting your eyes for normal things? i don't think so. You just desire a other kind of life in which you are free.
In my case, maybe it is some sort of running away from things. Things like financial struggles, a fulltime job, etc. But is this actually running away, or is it just trying to find a way to a better way of living? Because that is exactly what i truly want, a life without financial struggles and a job that doesn't really fit me. I need freedom and peace of mind. Just because this is my blog I'll throw in another... ;) if you change nothing, nothing will change. This is what we all should start believing. Nothing good comes out of doing nothing. It's true. If you don't have the guts to change the things you most desire to change, it will not happen! Don't wait for things to change, get up, and do something. Start small, it doesn't matter if you don't throw away everything all at once, it's not necessary. Follow my steps to make a plan! And in the progress of doing so, don't be influenced by people that try to bring you to other thoughts just because of their own selfish needs or because they don't have the guts to follow their dreams. People often tend to tell you that your problems wont go away by travelling... This is sort of true, but not if you follow the basic steps to make your dream reality. For example, if you lend money to travel because you want to get away from financial struggles... then obviously this is the wrong kind of following your dream. Sort it out, make a plan. Because... and i'll quote dear mr Paulo Coelho for this... "One day you will wake up and there wont be any more time to do the things you've always wanted. Do it now." Don't start tomorrow, start today. However big or small, just move or you will stay living a life you don't wish to live. Fellow dreamers! It's a busy week! Posted a lot of new blogs! I really enjoy writing them, so try to keep up!
I'll soon write about the third step in our progress of chasing the dream. And since yesterday i have Twitter, so please follow me! @H2CAD (how to chase a dream) or contact me [email protected] So, now that our goal is determined and divided into smaller steps, the next step is to work on your first small step. In my case, finances.
First of all, and i'll say this at least a hundred times more as we go along our journey, take some time to make this work. Remember, the journey should be fun as well so no stress!!! Maybe needless to say, but as you are trying to achieve a smaller step it's possible to divide this smaller step into even smaller steps to achieve the smaller step. You should really make an Excel-sheet with all the things that come in and go out. Putting it into a overview literally makes you feel more determined to make your financial situation more stable. If you want some help with this, the internet is full of examples. I made one specific for the situation i am in and in a overview that works for me. It's actually really easy. Take a month, see what comes in and see what goes out. In the end you see what is left to invest in your dream. Don't be shocked, everything is fixable. But that's not the issue right now. After you have put everything into an overview, you will have to determine what you need for your dream. So your dream needs to be a bit more specified for this. How do you want to travel and what is your interpretation of freedom? Is it backpacking and going from hostel to hostel or is it travelling in a RV trough Europe? And is freedom to you that you can go wherever you want twice a year for three weeks or is it all year round? Backpacking from hostel to hostel is nice, but almost impossible with a small child and a dog like me. My type of freedom is travelling trough Europe in an RV all year round. So this is where this story goes. I calculated that i need around 1250 euro's every month. 250 euro for insurances, 350 euro for food/drinks/cosmetics, 250 euro for fuel and 400 euro for accommodation to put our RV. Fuel and accommodation can change depending on how long you stay in one place or the country/season you are in. For example, you can park your RV everywhere you want in Scandinavia (well... maybe not everywhere... check Google for this) but in Italy you will have to go to a campsite. In high season it's not always possible to get a cheap place, but you can resolve this by going to Sweden in High Season (free camping) and going to Italy or wherever in the Low Season. Check these things out before you go somewhere. So now that we know how much you need every month, you will have to determine how long you want to keep this way of living. Do you want the freedom to travel all year round the rest of your life or for the next three years? In my case i want 2017, 2018 and 2019 to be my travelling years. My son becomes 4 in February 2020 and he will have to go to school. So this is the end date of my all year round travel freedom. So needless to say, i'm in a hurry. But no stress! ;) So which part of these three years will actually be travelling months. I made a small planning in Excel and decided that the months of travelling will be February, March, April and June for the first half, spend one month of summer in my home country and then August, September, October and November travelling and then spend Christmas and part of the winter in my home country with family. So this is my kind of year round travelling. 8 months per year. This can off course vary per year. But never December, this is the time to spend with family! This means 21 months of spending 1250 euro every month on my travelling and 11 months of spending 1000 euro every month on being at home. €37.250,- Impossible? Maybe, maybe not. This depends on your financial status right now. I have two cars and a house i can sell. These can make it happen. However, i will need to invest some time, effort and money into making the house ready for sale. Oh, and making my wife feel okay to sell it. But... is this everything you need? That also depends on your wishes when you come back. Do you want to start allover again? Or do you want some money to start-up with? Will you be able to find a job easily? These things will have effect on your goal and finances. In my case, i want 7500 euro to be there when i come back. This raises my 37250 to around 45000 euro. And did i mention i don't actually own a RV yet? So this also sets me back 10.000 euro... So the amount i need for these years of travel is 55.000 euro. Am i going to make this happen without doing anything from now on? No. The maximum amount i can spend is 49.500 euro on everything (depending on selling the house for a profit). This is not enough. So now i can do two things. Leave it this way and make different plans or make sure that they are sufficient by saving money where i can. I mean, it's just for 1 year! This means selling my car and buy a cheaper version with lower insurance en better efficiency, lower my extra's like the hairdresser every 3 weeks, giving up internet at home, etc. Here is where your Excel overview comes in handy. By changing amounts and skipping things you don't actually need you can directly see what your amount will be after a year of saving! Needless to say you can off course work extra to make more money or sell some stuff you don't need. Do you really need those expensive seats in your dining? Do you really need those 3 bikes? Go around your house and see what there is to sell. You are going away for 3 years... remember this ;) (the big screen you have is now worth money, but not in 3 years. The same will cost a fraction of what it's worth now! Same goes for your laptop, but the last one you need for blogging right?) So now that the finances are covered... my next step is work. Fellow dreamers, you most-likely have no idea how extremely exciting this is for me. Never thought that Blogging would really be my thing, but writing here gives me my landmarks to hold on to. I hope to inspire my readers to follow their dreams, like we are trying to fulfill ours. It's not only about the dream you chase, and not about how many miles you will have to run to chase it, but how to enjoy the journey as you chase it!!!
First things first. Set a goal. However big or small, make it real. Try to write it down in a few words. Like: "I want the freedom to travel all year round" However this may look simple, it's not. Think it through a few times, maybe even write down a few goals or dreams on a piece of paper en read it a few times. Maybe you can put some of those dreamers together into one big dream or you can prioritize your dreams. Determine what your number 1 dream is. And maybe your other dreams can be part of the journey. Take some time, it's important so don't stress out on this. People often spend years and years to figure this out. It took me ages to find my goal in life. But you have to know where you are going. Unless your dream is to not know where you are going with your life... But hey, that's your dream. And if that's your dream, you can make it happen by making that your goal. Now you have your dream. Making it happen isn't always easy, so the next step is dividing it into smaller goals. How can you achieve your dream to have the freedom to travel? What are the things you will have to do to achieve that goal. Make more money? Work more overtime to save free time from work? Search for another job? Sell your car/house? Say goodbye to your busy social life? Stop buying stuff? Save money by living cheaper? Well... ehm... it's up to you. What are you willing to sacrifice for your dream. What is this dream worth to you? Is it worth giving up everything you achieved this far, socially and financially? Having the freedom to travel all year round sure isn't the most simple dream you can have. Certainly when you have a family to look after, financial responsibilities and people you love and can't go without for to long. Like me. So, this is how i am going to do it. First step, set a goal. Second step, finance! |