I’ve found our motorhome online. I saw some pictures and flew with Max from Miami to Houston to check it.
It was much bigger than I thought, I never drove something as large, and if I decided on buying it, I’d have to drive 1,500 miles in this 13,000-ton monster immediately.
I saw that the brand was called Seneca. I thought about the other Seneca, the Roman Stoic philosopher who wrote the book On The Shortness Of Life and said “…there is no reason for you to think that any man has lived long because he has gray hairs or wrinkles, he has not lived long – he has existed long.”
A good sign. So I bought it.
Max and I headed back to Florida, and after nine hours of driving, we stopped at a supermarket parking lot to spend the night. Our first night on the road. We didn’t know how to turn on the heater, some of the lights, or why some of them were blinking on the panel. But it was great.
In our second week living in the RV, we attended a class called ‘How to Live In a Motorhome.’ When we arrived at the course, I realized what we had done: first, we moved to live in an RV, and only now would we learn to do that.
First, we sold the house, bought the truck to live with the whole family inside, and we were now discovering how it works. I’m glad we did it in that order.
Usually, I wouldn’t believe I was ready to do it. My mind would say that conditions weren’t perfect yet, that I had to read more books on the topic, save more money. That I had to be better prepared before taking the leap.
Most of us want to be free to live our life on our own terms. Most of us want the freedom to work in something we are really passionate about and spend our lives getting paid for our gifts and abilities. But most of the time, we wait, like the child who waits for the hall pass to be able to leave the classroom.
“After I make more money, after the kids leave the house or after I pay all my debts,” we say.
I’m starting to learn that the truth is that conditions will never be perfect. I will never be 100% sure of anything. I’m learning that this perfectionism is just another name for the fear that lives in my head and tried to keep me inside a comfortable but boring life. Still today, every day I try to fight it, but it is reborn every morning. And it returns.
People living in fear will say that is ok to stay doing what you are doing a little longer. And inertia will say that this is the easiest path. But I know that if I want to create genuinely wow experiences in my life, it will require some courage.
Friends will say that it’s illogical to change your life immediately. It may be. But logic works in a context based on people’s current beliefs. Not on an empty. Virtually all great mistakes humanity made, from slavery to the declaration of wars, from Cherry Coke to the Matrix sequels, every wrong thing we did was based on some sort of logic in the opinion of the people who committed them. The only way is to take the leap before we are ready.
And defy logic and cautiousness.