When Sonja and me met in 1997, we were young and had millions of plans and dreams. We wanted to get successfull. Everything we've done, we did with love, passion and lots of motivation. Both of us just loved our life and our job and everything got its perfect finishing touch... everything came as we expected.
"RUHR CASTLE" - 500 Years Old And Our Office In 2004
Sonja and me loved everything so much, that we very often slept in the office. Not for getting our job done, because we were too slow. No, but because of the fact, that we were addicted to being creative.
We slept under our computer-tables, because we couldn't await to wake up for being further creative.
For us, our work has been the center of our life. Even if we didn't get rich by money, but we got rich by experience, knowledge, power and admission.
In these days we never thought about for only one minute, that outside our comfort-zone might wait something special for us. Something really great, which needed to be explored.
... working...sleeping...working...sleeping...
Lots of buddies called us crazy nerds, our family shook their heads and our clients loved to work with us, because they knew: "If somebody is able to achieve the results we want, than it'll be Sonja and Thorsten."
And yes... we were and are still successfull... and we had a few minutes of honor here, a few of them there. The feeling to be - at least - a tiny bit "famous", just felt good.
World Premiere Of "Our" And Germanies 1st Digital Animated Cinema Feature Film, Back In 2004
"nihil est in intellectu quod non antea fuerit in sensu"
This is, what Aristotle said one time and it's just true. It's saying, that everything what we're doing and thinking, has its origin in the right side of our brain... the emotional side. "At first in the senses and then in our intellect"
This epistemological phrase is out of the theory of cognition and pretty philosophical.
"Epistemology"... hmmm... we're not so much theorists and philosophists, so better lets say, that we come to a conclusion, because over the last 20 years our perception changed.
We Traveled Through Europe For Working. Lots Of Fun, Lots Of Work, Lots Of Stress
It's The NOW, Which Is Important!
We don't know, if it has been better in the old days. We didn't live in the old days, so what's important is the "NOW".
And the "NOW" shows, that millions of people are living for working and aren't working for living.
This phrase sounds so trite, because everyone knows, but nobody reacts. It's just a nice sounding saying, but nevertheless an empty phrase.
Usually a human needs to work for ca. 50 years until he/she can go in his/her retirement.
My math is bad, but if I calculate, we didn't work for 50 years yet, we even aren't already 50 years old 😉
But what I can say and that's for sure, that we already worked as for 3 humans in total... and we think, this is already more than enough!
"OK, if the calculation is true, that sounds legitime", one might say -> So just let the hammer fall, stop your work and live!
Isn't so easy, right? It isn't, indeed... really not!
We Are Paying For Being Allowed To Work!
Our time - and the time of every human - is restricted.
We do not have enough time, but everyone of us is selling it every minute... for what?
For money, which often isn't even enough to survive.
We`re selling our souls and last but not least, we're paying for being allowed to work!
Äh... moment... "paying for being allowed to work?... what are you talking about?", you might ask.
We Are Selling Our Time Under Value... And We're Paying, For Being Allowed To Work... It Is Just That!
There's a guy, whose name is Dan Grec. He's still young, younger than us and he's an adventure kind of guy, traveler and blogger. He came to the same conclusion as we did and he changed his life completely, because he just didn't want to permanently sell his time. He wrote a book - it's just a tiny e-book and its title is "Work Less To Live Your Dreams", but this piece opened our eyes again within seconds.
We don't know where he is right now, he's anywhere in Africa probably, but in his book he calculated, how much time we are selling to others, how much time we lose and how much we are paying for being allowed to work for others.
Bäm...THIS cannot be the case of a human being... and it's not our case... for sure!
Is there something out there, which is waiting for me? What is my destiny?
Just Quitting And Leaving Everything Behind?
If I remember right, it was Antoine de Saint Exupery who said anything like this: "If you want a sailor to show, how to build a boat, don't teach him all about the boat building things, rather than showing him the vast and endless beauty of the sea"
Since I was a young boy, I always have been curious about all the things in life.
And a wise man said once: "Inventions are made of curiousity!"
Ok, I never became an inventor, rather than a designer, but both of them are pretty much creative... so am I.
In the past, I asked myself millions of times, if it would be possible to travel the whole world, until I more and more read about people, who quit their jobs, grabbed their savings, bought a car and just followed their dreams.
There are dozens of guys and gals out there, who are on the road since 10 or 20 years and I asked myself: "how the hell can they afford such an endeavor?"..."and how brave they are to leave everything behind them"
Would I be so brave one day? Would I like to travel the world, leaving everything behind? What would be necessary for being on the road, maybe for the rest of my life? So what must happen with me, that I'll get the awareness to follow my dreams?
Sonja & Me in South Africa, 2006
Why Can They Do It, But Not Me?
In the last 6 years several things happened to me, which changed my life.
On a wedding-party I met a friend of mine, after round about 20 years. Her name is Maria. She's young, pretty and self-confident. She had a good job in the banking-industry, but she decided to travel the world for one year.
So she quit her good job, grabbed her savings and flew around the world... just for the heck of it. She Did It! Alone!
In this moment I wished, the ground would open and swallow me up.
I got to know a german couple and their "Pistenkuh", and read that they're on the road since 12 years and again I wished the ground would open. The more I read about those brave people, the more holes I needed... just for jumping in, because of my cowardice.
Getting Sick From Work - Wasn't My Plan For Life
Then I got sick from work. As a freelancer, who worked in dozens of agencies, I practically destroyed my back and my neck. I just didn't dare to ask my customers to setup an ergnonimic workspace for me. After a couple of years, I wasn't even able to hold a mouse in my hands anymore and I decided to work from home from now on.
Dozens of times I thought about quitting everything, grabbing my girl for traveling the world. A few moments later, reality catched up with me... no money... good job... no time... what about my relatives?... what about my children?... what about all my millions of belongings, my cars, my insurances, my running contracts?
So I forgot about it... again... and I hated me!
"A smooth sea never made a skillful sailor"
We don't know, what the time will bring and we don't know, what comes in our mind, but we are still restless and wild.
Millions of ideas are in our minds and millions of plans should be performed.
Unfortunately, we simply cannot stop working from one day to the other. How shall that work, if we don't wanna starve?
We need to wait until we're 67, before we can get our retirement money.
But what we can do is to try, to live as much as possible!
We still love our jobs, but we decided to work for life and not vica versa and that is, why we're traveling for at least 3 months a year... even if it involves some losings!
It's not so hard. It's just a matter of a bit negotiation with life and your weaker self and the awareness of the fact, that we're permanently selling our precious time under value!
Live NOW & Live Your Dreams 🙂
cheers,
Thorsten
