Removing the Constraints of Society, Choosing Your Best Life, Travel is our Key to Happiness
"The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page."
Thursday morning, travel day, we will leave the mountain house at 8:00, arrive at the airport at 10:00, board the plane at 11:15, and arrive back in Indianapolis at around 5:00. It’s a full day, we must plan, but we work on the plane, the loss of two hours hurts, but we gain two when heading west, it’s all baked into the cake.
Welcome to my free internet soup café, if you need some mental nourishment, this is a nice place to stop to get some thoughts rolling around your head. You can bitch, moan, and complain about the soup, but remember, it’s free, it’s a daily labor of love.
I’m currently sitting on top of a mountain, 8232 feet above sea level. A fireplace burns to my right, a cup of warm, dark, rich coffee sits in front of the fireplace, while I sit in an oversized purple bean bag chair. My Queen is asleep, as is one of our kids that stayed with us last night. It’s just me, the snapping of the fireplace, the calmness of the morning. This is my time; I’m one of the most blessed people you will meet today.
There is a new disease spreading through China. I’m not sure if it’s deadly, but it’s bad, they just quarantined a city with 11 million people, imagine if the city of Chicago was quarantined, no one can leave, no one can get in. It’s pretty serious; it’s only a matter of time before someone infected will make their way to the U.S. Not to be a bearer of bad news, just something to keep an eye on. Sometimes the soup is bitter.
Since we fly every week, one might think we are sick a lot, but we both are very healthy, maybe getting an occasional cold, but overall neither of us has missed a day of work for years. I think that our travel in a closed tube with germs from all over the world helps our immune system. I’ll keep believing that until something changes.
Someone asked how the travel was impacting our bodies, “it’s got to wear on you traveling every week,” and I said, “not really, we have it down to a science.” It’s a built-in day always from the same point a to point b; we just build this into our schedule.
Have you ever wanted another home in a land far away from where you reside? Somewhere you could establish another home and community. Maybe live there some of the year, and other times keep a residence close to your family and friends? In the Midwest, it is common to have a home but escape the winters to Florida. In the west folks tend to have a home but travel to Arizona to escape the cold.
Our take on multistate living was a little unique. We decided that we would like to spend some time in the west, so why not split our lives between two major cities? We can enjoy both, have homes in both locations, and then weekly travel back and forth doing business and life between our communities. It’s unique but for us an amazing way of life.
Technology today allows people to stay connected to the world; we need not be anywhere at any time having people to address any issue no matter the location. With virtual technology, we can support and handle any situation. If we need to send a human, we can be ready to go in a matter of minutes; thankfully, we do not fight fires, we are insurance professionals. We can manage any claim via phone but physically arrive anywhere within eight or so hours.
I guess my thought this morning is that there are no limitations, if you can dream it, you can do it. I think many people think too small thinking about past constraints and locking themselves into a life of routine and boredom. We must own that they are typically three phases of life. Our young life is learning and growing, our adult life where we get married and raise kids and our sunset years where we can choose to live, work, and play where we choose.
I could not live the life I live today if my kids were not in college or married, my idea of multistate living is for the sunset folks, although I’m not convinced one could not do this with children, it would add a degree of difficulty. I’m asking you to analyze your life, confirm you are where you want to be, you have crafted your perfect existence and if not, make some changes.
I guess my focus is on those raising kids and the sunset people. I can help the parents raising kids to see what is possible once the kids launch and for the sunset crowd, I can be an example of what is possible.
We will return to Indiana for five days, I have meetings stacked to meet with clients, friends, family, and will return here to spend an evening before taking off to Mexico with a group of 12 people. Along with the multistate living, we have built-in a welcome discharge time, on a beach with friends, we work while in Mexico, but enjoy the sun, fun, everyone needs some Vitamin D.
This is my life; I make no apologies, I worked hard to be where I am, where I’ll be tomorrow and where I’ll be one week from today. It’s an exciting life full of new connections, new experiences, and continual personal and professional work on myself and others. I am still growing even in my sunset years. Each phase of life presents challenges and opportunities and as an optimist, I tend to focus on the unlimited possibilities of joy, love, and happiness. That is my life; I hope you tasted something that has you thinking differently than when you first put your spoon into the bowl of my daily soup. Cheers.
"The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page."