Achieve your dream and do it now. That world trip? Go and stop with your general excuses.

Picture, thanks to, Adam Pleasance

No unique story Frans (or still)? Yes, of course, you often hear these kinds of stories. It is nice and easy to say. In theory easy but in practice difficult to do, I am nearly sure you will think. Aha, the first general excuse is already there!

I am a member of a group of photographers in Chiang Mai. Some weeks ago one of our members, at our two weekly group meeting, told and showed the story of the trip around the world he, his wife and their two sons made on specially made bicycle tandems. No free rides for the kids. Also the children needed to paddle and for that some special arrangements needed to be made on the tandems.

He started his story that their children were still young, 8 and 10 years old, and they both had a good job as teachers at a school in Great-Britain. He was headmaster of the school. They had a beautiful house, a nice car on the lane, a big television, actually everything you could imagine as a very successful young couple full flourishing in their career.

Many times they talked and contemplated together about what life was all about and what the future would bring. An even bigger television, a nicer house, higher positions, an even more expensive car? And did they really want that? Was that, for them, the meaning of life?

Picture, thanks to, Adam Pleasance

The idea came up, as a family, to make a journey around the world. Because they were both cyclists, they developed special tandems for it. They struggled with a lot of opposition and (preliminary) judgments and decided to follow their own feelings. To trust themselves, take that step and just to do it. They sold their house, their car and that television as well, and they left. An almost 3½ year bicycle trip with two tents, stuff you really need (not so much needed to survive) on two tandems. Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, America, Canada, we got to hear and see it all that evening.

The most beautiful memories as family they all still have are not so much all those places that they have seen, not the flat tires they sometimes got, but especially the warm and open contacts, help and friendships that they received and still have. People who offered a place to sleep, helped in case of a flood, offered their apartment for free for a few nights, etcetera.

They had to go back because, although living a basic and cheap life and also receiving some funding’s during the trip, after 3½ years they ran out of money. They only still had 40 British pounds left after they were back in the UK. And there you are... Nearly nothing left, great experiences but… at the beginning again. Apply for a job? Very hard. It did not work in the normal way. Many letters to apply for a situation but no jobs. The key was in India. During their trip they had visited an international school. This school was willing to offer them a job so the family moved to India. The start of a further career at international schools in several countries. And now… because of that same cycling experience... retirement in their beloved Thailand.

Opposition, in your own head, through systems and people around you that discourage these kinds of steps. For example: "You cannot keep your children from school". Who says? And who is in charge of those children? Of course you are responsible for offering education and don’t you offer this with these kinds of trips? My photographer friend and his wife took study books and yes, they were both teachers. But still, especially in this time, studying online is no longer a problem. Be creative. Discover and think in possibilities. That is just switching the basics of your thoughts and to have the guts to let go of systems and (so-called) certainties and to trust yourself. The harvest? No regrets about things you wanted to do in your life but did not do. Just give it a try and do it.

And as far as those certainties are concerned, if you think deeply, isn't it so that the only certainty you have in this life is that you die at some point? And if you do not trust yourself, who or what can you actually trust?

Their children have become world citizens out of experience and practice, friendships around the world. Not from Facebook or anything else but by talking face-to-face and just playing on the street during the trip not even understanding most of their friends foreign languages. They have learned how to survive (yes even without 'social' media and I-Phone), to come with creative solutions and to accept the help of other people who solve things in their own way.

In The Netherlands we have the Dutch television program “Ik vertrek” (I leave). Dutch people who leave the country to start a living abroad. On the farewell party, part of every program, nearly always friends, neighbors and acquaintances say: “That they leave…It's nothing for me, but if I am really honest… I'm a bit jealous".

Follow your dream and do it now. You run out of time. Your life can not go wrong if you stimulate the hidden treasure in you by living an adventure.

Gangey Gruma (Frans Captijn)

Captijn Insight. Catalyst in developing tranquility & in-sight to get in a sustainable way real connection, purpose, pleasure and flow in life, love, family, business, career and work again.

captijninsight@gmail.com