Stop Waiting For The Right Time, It’s Not Coming
“I’m just waiting for the right time.”
“Maybe in the next couple months.”
“I wish I could do that, but..”
I hear these excuses almost every week from people wanting to quit their job, start their own business, or just become a digital nomad. It angers me to hear them because I know they’re not true.
I’m guilty of putting things off also sometimes. It’s mostly driven by fear.
What if no one responds to my survey? What if no one buys my ebook? What if no one downloads my magazine?
It’s fear, people. The fear of failure tells me to put it off until later. Then I slide right back into my comfort zone, making grand plans only to leave them right there to rot.
“You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.”
-Morpheus, The Matrix
Like Morpheus alludes to, many people are happy where they’re at. There’s comfort in it for them.
I recently sat down with Digital Nomad Kate Smith (featured on Huffington Post, CNN, and Fast Company) to talk about making the jump into the unknown.
Kate’s Story
Kate is The Remote Nomad. A couple years ago she quit her job in Advertising, bought a one-way ticket to Prague, and traveled the world for twelve months on a program called “Remote Year.”
Now she runs a Digital Nomad program in Bali called WiFly Nomads.
“I was living downtown in the city, and working as a Project Manager at an Ad Agency. That’s when things changed for me. It was everything I wanted but I remember being in the condo that I was renting and thinking: This is everything I’ve ever wanted, why don’t I feel happier?
It was at that point that I realized, I was working to live, to work to live. It was a never ending cycle, and one that wouldn’t allow me the opportunity to travel.”
Kate wasn’t alone with these feelings. According to a 2014 study, more than 50% of the American workforce is unhappy at their jobs.
While she wasn’t alone in terms of feeling frustrated at work, she certainly found herself in small company when making the decision to quit.
As we talked, she spoke on a couple key lessons to keep in mind for anyone pondering a similar jump.
It’s Your Responsibility To Make It Happen
“It’s your responsibility. You can whine and complain about all this stuff, and everybody has something, but the time is never right. You have to make it the right time.”
When it gets down to it, nobody is going to make the decision for you. Life isn’t going to hand you the perfect time. It’s your responsibility.
“For me, I push my boundaries and limits in so many ways. When I started my Nomad journey, it was probably not a financially comfortable situation for me to be in, but I did it anyway. Most people would’ve said ‘I’m gonna save up for six months or a year.’”
Kate’s says you need to take responsiblity by the horns. Figure out ways to make it happen because if you don’t, nobody will.
Avoid Information Overload. Decide.
I have a friend of mine who reads mountains of business books. He’s as smart as a whip, but he just doesn’t do anything with all that newfound knowledge.
Reading makes us feel like we’re making progress — and we are — but it really accounts for just a fraction of the progress we’d make if we acted on our dreams. Kate feels the same way:
“You can overwhelm yourself with information online, but you just need to do it. Don’t think you need to read these 50 books and take these 14 courses and then ‘I’m qualified!’ There is no qualification, it just happens.
The way to make it happen is to take action every single day because you can read about it all you want, but action gets you from A to B.”
Don’t Play The Victim Game
Student debt IS difficult — I have more than $80,000 of it — but I see too many people who let that shackle them. They are the “victim” of their financial obligations and slip this excuse into the conversation any time they talk about their dreams.
“Two big things are that so many people play the victim game,” Kate says.
“It can be so frustrating to see because I grew up in this small-town middle-class family. There’s nothing special about me. I went to University because I wanted to be the first in my family to become a graduate, and then I had all that student debt!
“The only difference between us living this lifestyle and everybody else is because we took action.”
If Kate’s not that special and got to go on this epic adventure across the world, chances are you can, too. Don’t play the victim game.
What’s Stopping You?
Before you go, let me ask you something: What’s stopping you?
Be honest.
On March 5th last year I thought about road-tripping across the country. “I’ll just work at the same time from my laptop!” I said. It was an exciting thought. The more I thought about it, the more I realized nothing was stopping me.
Even with student loans, even with Crohn’s disease, and even with a small amount of money in my bank account, I figured it could be possible. It was.
Want to hear more of Kate’s story? Get my free 66-page magazine! She has a five-page spread inside where she talks a little bit more about working and traveling the world.