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October 24, 2014

“One day you’ll wake up and realize you were always free.”
~Gary Arndt

“Just do it.”

With the Acropollis behind him, drink in hand on a rainy night in Athens, Greece, award-winning travel photographer, Gary Arndt gave me these three words of advice. Perhaps he was merely quoting the tag line of Nike. But it was the best piece of advice I got that week.

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Decisions had to be made that week, since my lease was up in two weeks after I returned from Greece wrapping up our firm’s marketing efforts for a client running the largest travel blogging conference in the world: TBEX.

Do I give up my downtown apartment in San Diego, and travel full time, working from different offices and apartments every month? Or do I move to a small place by the beach to keep as my home base somewhere on the West Coast while I continue to travel part time, coming back to change out clothes, shoes and download pictures on my harddrive?

Keeping an apartment as my home base seemed like such a wasted expense since I was away from my apartment at least 2-3 weeks out of every month.

Traveling wasn’t new to me. I had been traveling since I was a sophomore in college when I decided to study abroad for a semester. Moving was even more familiar, as I moved to a new state every other year since moving back to the mainland after living in Hawaii for 7 years.

But travel… FULL Time?! Living out of ONE suitcase? Could I even do it? Was it really possible?

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Not that I was questioning the physical possibility of doing this. Rather the emotional aspect of it. After all, I had grown used to so many modern day luxuries, that my fear was that I’d be discontent and miss my home in California and friends I loved hanging out with. Friends who energized me, colleagues who inspired me, and media outlets that booked me regularly on their TV Shows.

How could I leave all this certainty to live a life on the road with so much uncertainty?

As I blabbered on about the various choices to weigh against each other, I must have annoyed Gary Arndt, who had been traveling since 2007, living out of his one rolling dufflebag. His advice to “Just Do It” was probably to shut me up and interrupt my silly pattern of weighing all my choices, and just make a decision to go for it and just make it happen – starting with my first choice.

We are taught to weigh the pros and cons to every single decision we make in life and business. But sometimes… you just have to go for it. With 100% gusto.

That night… was my moment of decision.

I chose to heed Gary’s advice, and proclaimed on Facebook (where all important life decisions must be shared to keep you to your crazy decisions) that I was taking a gap year to travel. Now “technically” a “gap year” in Europe is when students put off going to school or get a full time job and travel for a year to find themselves and discover the world around them.

Since I wasn’t a student in my 20’s any longer, I wouldn’t be taking a year off from my business. I’d simply be running my business from the road.IMG_0118

Not very different than what I’d be doing since I moved to Hawaii in 2001. Running a virtual training and coaching company doing webinars before they were “the cool thing to do” was something I’d been doing for more than a decade. Now, technology has finally caught up to the vision I had for my PR consulting company.

Now it would be easier than ever to make this happen and stay in touch with clients. In fact, I’d be able to get up close and personal with more clients this way, since I’d be traveling all over the world. Clients in Europe would finally be able to meet face to face, instead of meeting via Google Hangout every month. The more I thought about this… the more I got excited about “just doing it!” Realizing this was more than a possibility – it was going to be a reality.

With an excited high-five to Gary, I agreed! YES! Okay! I’m going to Just Do It!

IMG_0202My new travel friend and flat-mate, Megan Greentree was my biggest cheerleader when I finally committed to it. We were sitting in a cute little Inn, “Alice in Athens” under the Acropolis. She was there when I got stuck in Athens, and encouraged me as I sent the letter to cease my lease coming up in a few weeks.

When I actually took the steps to move all the rest of my books and belongings I couldn’t dare part with or sell, and posted my Instagram picture, she admitted jumping up out of her chair in the café she saw my update and clapped her hands together in sheer excitement for my new journey.

Yup. This travel blogger tribe was a group I was going to love being a part of! Filled with adventurous people who said goodbye to a life of certainty, and hello to a world of possibilities to explore.

Travel Blogging

Got Plans?

Now, here I go on an uncertain adventure.

And when people ask me,

“Where do you live?”
“Where are you going to live?”
Or “What are your plans?”

I simply respond: My plans are to be happy each day and “say YES” to new adventures. Explore new worlds. Meet new people. Learn new languages, cultures, and ways of living different from the American Life.

I often don’t know what my plans are going to be an hour from now. And that’s exactly how I like it.

Carpe Diem!
Let’s Seize the Day together.
@CoachDeb

PS: Want to know where I am now? Or where I’ll be next month? Subscribe below to get updates as they become official, typically with a purchased airfare, when I publish to my blog during the times I have Wifi access. Join me now as we go on this journey together.

 

Comments

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About The Author

Author, Speaker, New Media Marketing Consultant, Entrepreneur, Race Car Driver, Traveller, Thrill Seeker, Nomad Lifestyle, Travel Blogger, Photography Addict, and overall extrovert who loves meeting new people around the world. Tweet me @CoachDeb if you liked this post.

9 Responses

  1. aatravelbloginfo@gmail.com'
    Adrian Ann

    Cannot wait to follow your journey here and in person. Congrats on taking the leap and getting this blog started. It looks AMAZING! Proud of you! 😀

    Reply
    • @Coach Deb

      Thanks Adrian! It was fun traveling with you all over Athens, Greece!
      Here’s to more costume parties in Costa Brava in May for the next #TBEX event! 😀 #Unofficial jejeje

      Reply
  2. ddtreadway@yahoo.com'
    Doug

    As someone who took his first trip to Europe last year, I have to say Good for you, Deb! It sounds like an amazing adventure! I did my trip with only a hotel for the first three nights of the trip booked. After that, I was winging it and it was incredible!

    Reply
    • @Coach Deb

      Winging it has been incredibly “serendipitous” and waaaaay better than any “plans” i ever could’ve made ahead of time.

      Reply
    • @Coach Deb

      Gracias Nathaniel!
      It’s Exciting! And Scary. But mostly an amazing shift of lifestyle to not “return” to the same destination after each leg of the journey. See you along the way! 🙂

      Reply
  3. megsy@fivedollartraveller.com'
    Megsy

    yaaaay! We are so happy to have you as part of the society of digital nomads. Your smoking jacket is in the mail. No other clothing is required as one of the benefits of working online (as you know) is that pants off Friday is a thing of the past. Every day is now pants off Friday! It’s awesome!

    Reply
    • @Coach Deb

      Here’s to pants off fridays! #POF
      Thanks 4 the smoking jacket to #SODN’s
      I shall not take this membership lightly 😛
      except… maybe on Friday’s

      Reply

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