A couple of years ago I was very unhappy. I worked at a job that I disliked and I commuted a long distance in heavy traffic to get there and to get home. I did that for almost two years. However, for the 12 years before that, I worked at a job I despised, commuted a longer distance, and was so miserable that I often entertained suicide as an option. It is not an option I would have exercised but it provided some relief to think that there was a way out of my hell other than destitution. As a middle-aged divorced woman in the current economy with an upside-down (aka under water) mortgage, two animals and to take care of, a car payment, the need for health insurance, and a 401K I couldn’t see any other option but to suffer the daily grind of that horrible job at that horrible company with that horrible commute. When I finally made the switch from one company to the other in hopes that it would be better (the roundtrip commute was about 20 miles shorter than the 80 miles roundtrip I had been doing) I was in for a rude awakening. I took quite a large pay cut with that hope but it didn’t pan out. To my great disappointment, I had only traded one miserable existence for another.
Fortunately, I began to create a backup plan back in 2015 when I started a side business, and by the end of 2019 when I couldn’t take one more moment at that job I decided it was time to resign. I emailed my resignation on January 1st, 2020. However, if I hadn’t spent my holiday vacation reading a book called The Desire Map by Danielle LaPorte I most likely wouldn’t have had the courage to do so. The goal of the book is to help one figure out what they truly desire in life. Danielle calls them core desired feelings and her book provides exercises to discover what they are. At 46 years old I had a good idea what mine was however I never spent much time considering them. But for some reason after reading the book and doing the exercises and following her advice as to what to do once you know what your core desired feelings are I somehow summoned the courage to quit the dreaded job even though I would only be making a third of what the job paid me at least at first. Plus I had no health insurance and was unable to continue contributing to my 401K. My main core desired feeling is freedom and I realized that the longer I worked at that job the longer it would take me to be free.
Although I now am my boss and have my own business and as much as I love animals and enjoy taking care of them I still am not free and will never be as long as I have a mortgage, home maintenance, car payment, etc. I do not want to wait until I am old enough to collect social security to experience freedom. However, the current economic system makes freedom impossible (unless one is independently wealthy which I am not) and I have been obsessed with figuring out how to free myself from the system. I believe I have discovered the answer. Selling my home and car and the majority of my belongings and living full-time in an RV while traveling around the country workamping.
I have been thinking about this, researching and planning for quite a few years, and reading other blogs has been immensely helpful. I want to share my journey with others with the hope that my experiences will serve to inspire or help others that have similar desires. I sincerely recommend The Desire Map by Danielle LaPorte for those trying to figure out what direction they want to take in their life. Being an avid reader and on a journey of personal growth for most of my adult life I have read many books and this book is one of a handful that has had the biggest positive impact on my life.
Thank you for reading. I hope that you will find value in what I share here and would be honored if you choose to leave a comment or suggestion in the comments section below.