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One of the blogs I read regularly is written by Scott Pape, the Barefoot Investor. In a blog titled ‘The 5 Biggest Regrets of Dying People’, he listed the top regret as ‘I wish I had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me’.

Reading this reminded me of an experience I had a number of years ago that changed me forever. It was the day I realise I couldn’t do it anymore, I couldn’t live the life others expected of me. I was sitting in a park on my lunch break. My corporate job had been going quite well that morning and I thought to myself “It’s not so bad, I can keep doing it. Why do I need to change?” After all, I earned good money and it was a safe and secure career.

Then it happened. I closed my eyes and imagined myself at 65 looking back on my working life. What I saw and felt changed me forever. A deep sense of regret and disappointment came over me because I saw myself as an older man who had never been brave enough to step out of the corporate comfort bubble to live a life true to myself. I’d played life very safe and hadn’t taken any chances. This moment of insight into the path my life was headed was a gift I am grateful for every day.

In order to avoid regret we simple need to take the time to stop and focus on what we want. I have put together a recording called the Adventure Kickstart that allows you to do that and takes you through a process to formulate 3 steps that brings you closer to your adventure. If you’d like to access it, please fill out the form to the right.

Is there something you fear regretting when you’re older? Please share your thoughts in a comment below.

Make the decision to go for it!

We’d been putting off making a decision for months. There was always something – an excuse, a reason or a hesitation that was stopping us from going. But when we finally made the decision to go, something incredible happened.

Following a year of travel we temporarily based ourself in Melbourne to earn a bit more money and out of convenience, even though we had decided we wanted life to be more straight forward. We really wanted to live by the beach in a smaller place with more of a community feel, where people knew each other by name and where the pace of live was slower than in a big city. Believe it or not we had even found the place we were attracted to 7 months earlier, on a road trip down the Eastern coast of Australia

The act of making the decision is more important than what you actually decide.”
– Nick Condon

After months in Melbourne without making a decision one day we just decided we were going to jump in the car. We set the date and arranged with friends up north to stay with them for a couple of days when we arrived. Beyond that, we had nothing organised, no jobs, nowhere to live. There was a part of me that was slightly anxious and a bigger part of me that loved the adventure involved. Literally 2 days before we left Melbourne it happened – we received an email from a friend saying her mother who lives up north was leaving the country for four weeks and was looking for house sitters. Two weeks into this house sitting job my partner was offered a job over a casual coffee meeting and a week before our house sitting stint ended we found ourselves a great little apartment two blocks from the beach. My part time job followed quickly after that….

Now I’m not here to tell you that there is something magical happening in the background. Maybe there is or maybe there’s not. My point is this, there is power in making a decision. Not just sitting on the fence or saying to yourself ‘this is what I’d like to do if I could’ but actually making the decision to go for it. Because when you make a decision, you find a way to make it happen and so begins the adventure.

Have you put off a decision before?  Leave a comment below and share what the decision and what happened after you made it.

“What’s with the Breakthrough?” a friend asked me during the week after she read the dossier for my next tour.

I had to think for a minute to work out how best to answer. I decided the best way I can describe what I’m bringing to my tours was to tell her about my own experience.

Going travelling for a year without any plans – simply jumping on a plane and going was something I’d always wanted to do. For a long time, I told myself that I would do it when I was older – to not ‘mess up’ my career. Do it when I was ‘set’. I didn’t. After working ten years with the one company, I simply put a date on it, applied for leave and went for it.

Somewhere along the line, I realised adventure was like an art form and not something you could plan or manufacture. Along with that, I became aware that making a list of the popular tourist attractions and ticking them off (which I was tempted to do) is fairly superficial. On the year away, it became more about the experiences. It was about connecting with the local people, immersing myself in the traditional culture and having a full experience of life itself.

It was in those moments of stepping into adventure, those journeys into the unknown where the breakthroughs happened – where my self awareness increased, where the things that were most important to me became clear and where I broke through old beliefs that were holding me back. All the while experiencing the true freedom that only comes with adventure.

This is what I bring to my tours and what Breakthrough means. Yes we will see some of the major sites but that’s not the focus. Experiences are the focus. Unplanned, spontaneous and potentially life changing experiences. With loads of fun along the way!

The Indian tour later this year runs from the 19th of October until the 2nd of November. It starts off in Kolkata and goes through to Delhi covering Bodhgaya, Varanasi and Agra (amongst other places). To ensure people get the most of the trip, I’ve kept the group size to 8. There are still a few spots left. Please contact me for a copy of the dossier.

Please leave a comment below and share your breakthrough travel experience.