Time is free...yet priceless!!

I have just got home from a three week trip in Europe {and yes it was amazing thank you}!! One of these weeks was spent following the Tour de France in a camper van {motorhome} with 6 of my family members. 

Did I fear whether we’d all still speak to each other after this rather cozy adventure? Well of course I did. But that was when I thought we were in for 7 days in the sun. Which was not the case. No instead we had rain. A lot of it. Everyday. But thank God {quite literally  that I have the family that I do – with minds set on adventure, we took the rain in our stride, bought raincoats, umbrellas and poncho’s and waddled our way through an epic week.

Now bare with me, as while this isn’t the focus on my Blog post, it is the source from where’s I gained my inspiration for this post. You see, life is fairly simple when it’s just YOU, doing what YOU love doing, spinning on your little hamster wheel. When life gets interesting is when you put a number of hamster wheels into a confined space {did I hear you say hello family} – you got it!!

This was our first family holiday in a few of years…and definitely our first long family holiday as grown adults.

Now as kids, you pretty much do what your parenst tell you to do. But as adult children, we tend to have developed our own ways of doing things – basically, our ‘go to’s’.

One of the beautiful things I learnt on this trip – was the gift of time. And how perfectly ok it is, that each of us see time so differently. Personally, I tend to wake with the birds – to embrace the day and to never let a minute pass by without having done something constructive with it. Now while this has served me in many ways, it is also quite exhausting. I always blamed my “I can’t sit still lifestyle” on my upbringing, but then there I found myself this past week, sitting working on my mac or reading my kindle that was glued to the table under my throbbing thumbs {a camper is quite a vehicle to maneuver and lets just say things didn’t stay where you put them}, while the remainder of my family did things that they considered ‘maximizing their time”.  

There is little that’s more exhausting, than trying to live your life pleasing others. And let’s face it – they’re not usually pleased anyway.

Knowing how best to structure your day {your time} is awfully freeing – as it not only gives you permission to be YOU…but it always gives me {or others} permission to be me {them}!!! Win win!!!

Time is indeed free, but priceless too and that means it deserves your best!!!

If this all sounds great but unfortunately you’re in a rut right now that screams anything but “I’m making the most of my day”, then let’s connect & see what we can do to shift things up a bit. 

THIS IS YOUR LIFE. ONE LIFE TO LIVE. MAKE IT COUNT!

How do you spell Adventure??

We’ve only been ‘home’ for three weeks and already I can see the effects of the so-called ‘normal life’ taking over. You know that feeling when you get home from an amazing holiday and after two days of normal life you’ve forgotten you ever left…well don’t be fooled, being away for 14 months didn’t change that reality for us. {But we're not settling for that}

It’s so easy to get sucked into a life that’s normal. A life that is orderly, fits your cultural norms and gives you the freedom to utter a “sjo, I’m tired today” almost every other day. The thing is…is this the life you envisioned for yourself??

Now, I know you may not have the time or the freedom right now to just give up your job and go travelling for 4 months, but what if you dared to shake things up a bit in your everyday normal life. Shaking things up will mean stepping out of your comfort zone and having to do things with greater intention – but what I personally LOVE about putting these ideas together, “Comfort zones” and “Intention” is that together they ultimately spell ACTION WITH MEANING!! And that is what life is all about!!

So rather than me babble on here…I want to give you a little challenge for the week…

What one thing will you (and your husband/boyfriend) do this week that will require you to step out of your comfort zone and will certainly add a bit of “ADVENTURE” into your every day life??

Here are some ideas to get those creative minds of yours working…

-          Eat dinner outside/ on the floor

-          Turn off the TV for the week and see what other ideas you come up with every evening

-          Invite friends over for a dress-up dinner party

-          Have a girls night out

-          Do something this weekend that you haven’t done in ages but LOVE doing

By limiting your definition of adventure…you limit it’s existence in your everyday life. Redefine it!! 

You’ll never know unless you try ;)

Defining your dreams

On a few occasions now, when mentioning to people that H and I are off on a nearly-2 month-adventure through South East Asia this week, they reply with a “Wow, you really are living the dream.” To which I smile, nod, and then frown?!

So firstly, am I really about head off on a 2 month adventure? Why yes I am. But following this dream meant rethinking other dreams…and that's what I want to share with you today.

Dreams are very real, deep longings that live in the well-hidden spaces within us, only showing face when it’s safe to come out. Dreams are beautiful things, that need to be protected, pursued {actively}, and also re-thought-through once in a while.

You see with dreams comes sacrifice. No dream that really holds value to you, will ever require you to stay within your comfort zone. No; dreams mean risk, adventure, joy. They mean action and sometimes they mean giving up lesser dreams, in order to pursue what really makes your heart sing.

It’s easy to throw out a “Wow, you’re really living the dream” {I have many a time}, but is that really your dream? 

My year in Korea, away from my comfort zone, gave me space to get real with ME!! And one truth I found {that I feel may apply to many people out there too} is that my dreams were as undefined as you get.

It's been easy, for years, to throw out the words, "My dream is..." but truth be told, this was just the easy way out. The vaguer my dreams were, the less pressure there was to pursue them and with that, less chance of failure. Vagueness allowed me to be safe, but it also meant years of working towards an undefined dream, basically a blurred vision.

Let me give you a peak into my world…

My life-long dream (one of the many) was to be a missionary in Mozambique, the country north-east of South Africa. I dreamt of living in the dirt, loving the poor, loving God, feeling fulfilled and alive and at peace. Well...this was my dream until I actively started pursuing it, and by pursuing I mean going out there, in the dirt, loving the poor and learning. It was easy to throw around the ‘dream’ word when I had no idea what I was talking about, but once out there, alone in a world I knew so little about, it took some deep soul-searching {and prayer} to get real with myself and others. Yes, I love working with the poor, yes my heart sings in the presence of black kids and yes yes yes I love the people of Mozambique, but never did I realize the sacrifice that would come with pursuing such a dream. I admittedly ate my fair share of humble pie as I reassessed my dream, all with ‘sacrifice’ {what pursuing this dream would take}, in mind. I’m not saying I gave up on this dream, I will always have a heart for and work with the poor, but by realistically reassessing this dream, I was able to free myself up by not setting myself up for failure of not achieving a dream. I was able to create a more realistic {still pretty far-fetched} but more thought-through life vision, dream J

It's OK to have 20 dreams, and for them to involve everything from family, to career, to the randomness of what makes your heart sing; but my challenge is for you to find a quiet space and to write them down. In writing them down, they suddenly become real...and yes, sometimes tears spring up as we realize how unrealistic some of these are {some in a good and some not so good way}. We get real with ourselves.

It's easy to head in a general direction of your dreams...but being 'general' and not 'specific' will mean that one day, down the line, we will never really get that, 'Oh my gracious, I am living MY dream" feeling. The feeling and definition of where you're at, or what you've achieved will instead be vague. Vague is OK, but it's not your best!!! 

You were created for more than just vague!!! 

{Click to tweet}

Join me in a month today {19th March} for a follow up post {and FREE printable} geared at helping you start your journey in making these dreams a reality!!

Adventure begins at "I do"!!!

As I begin to process the reality that I only have three weeks in Korea, the nostalgia kicks in and naturally I reflect on this crazy adventure that I call life..so here goes. If I could sum up the past year in a few words they would be, “It’s always better when we’re together…”

Wait; let’s back track a little...

It all began when I got married the week before my 23rd Birthday. Yes, at the ripe age of 22. Now my guess is that you will fall into one of two categories: either your thoughts just lingered on “Good for you” or “OMG, you poor thing settling down so young”. I can’t fault either of these opinions, I mean I had “If that’s what you feel is right for you then go for it” to “But Caity, you’re so young. You still need to travel and meet people”, and that was just within my immediate family.

I felt in so many ways as if the world portrayed marriage as a simple “settling down” and that meant one thing and one thing only, BOREDOM!! And so, apparently, in an attempt to escape fate and avoid boredom, you need to {no rather YOU MUST} travel, get all the adventure out of your system before you say your “I do’s”.

If, however, you’re going to get married young then the least you can do is to act mature, and buy a home, have kids and agree to utter “Oh, If only I was your age…”, whenever something exciting presents itself. When I walked down the aisle two years ago, tears streaming down my cheeks as I stared into the eyes of the man I would spend the rest of my life with, the last thing I imagined was boredom. No, instead I imagined adventuring together, laughing, having kids and buying home and embracing every dream we ever dreamt, together! Yes, we’d settle down, but settling down would never mean “settling”, instead it would mean adventure!!

If there’s one thing that calls for every man and his dog’s opinion, greater than marriage at 22, it’s announcing that you’re going to leave your stable jobs, Hendrik (aged 30) and me (24), and move abroad to travel, and grow and adventure together.

I completely get why parents advise their kids to travel while they’re young. I understand that once you’re married, bought a home, had kids and formed community that it’s hard to just up and leave, and yes yes yes, it makes all the sense in the world to travel and embrace your more wild/adventurous self before you reach that season of life. But in saying that, it’s also 100% possible to break the mould, and to go with what feels right for you. I’m not saying get married at 22, nor am I saying that you have to wait until you’re 41 – this is your journey and no one has a right to dictate what season you need to be in and when.

There is a freedom that comes when you choose to take life by the horns and say “This is my life, I will live it to the full”. It’s more than just liberating; it gives you wings to fly. There is so much to say for travelling the world alone, and I’m all for it, but looking back over our journey now, I genuinely could not have dreamed of a better adventure, together. Seeing the world, meeting amazing people from different lands, races and cultural groups, experiencing all the emotions that come with being away from home and going through the motions of experiences that challenge your world-view, are all things that I got to experience this past year; but greater than all that is knowing that the man I will wake up next to for the next 60 years was there walking this journey alongside me. For me, memories shared are memories treasured.

We are all on our own journey and whatever that looks like for you; it is beautiful to the one who created you, who birthed those dreams in your heart and who finds such joy in watching them come to being. Follow your heart. And choose wisely those who will have a say in your future; if I had listened to the many voices along this journey, I would never have found myself here, in Korea, about to adventure off on 2 month trip around South East Asia, a month before my 25th birthday, married and more at peace than ever before.

For me, “It’s always better when we’re together”. For you, it may look different….but whatever it does look like, always {always} be true to you!