Monday, August 28, 2017

You have time

"How do you spend your days?"

That’s a question many soon-to-be nomads ask. Of course, what they really mean is, “I don’t know what I’ll do with all my time if I don’t have all the demands, time fillers and distractions of my old life.”

Sorry, I’m not going to tell anyone how to fill their time.

Some people don’t know what to do because all their life they’ve had others telling them. I’m not going to be another one of those.

Some people haven’t had a self-directed life. Maybe they didn’t think such a thing existed outside of fiction. Well, now it’s time to build one.

Deciding to be a nomad is a big self-directed step. But, whoa, then what, right? Okay, what have you always wanted to do if you only had the time? Because now you have it. What things do you want to see? What do you want to learn? Who do you want to meet? And so on. If those things can’t be done immediately, then what can be done to make progress toward them?

People engaged in something they love experience a thing called flow. They become so focused on what they’re doing, so immersed in it, that they lose track of time and their surroundings. “Oh my, where did the time go?”

What do you love? Do that.

My friend LaVonne thought she would use her nomadic freedom to write more. She had published a book and figured she should do another. But she hadn’t been making any real progress and was beating herself up about it. One day she “wasted” valuable writing time crocheting instead, and discovered that was what she really wanted to do. That’s what she loved. She crochets and she flows. And she’s happier.

Instead of asking, “What should I be doing,” ask, “What do I want to be doing?” Then do that.

Apparently, I just spent over two hours writing this. Oh my, where did the time go?

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