I’m Freaking Out

We’ve got six weeks until our #yTravelOz Australian road trip. We hope.

There are road bumps appearing and I’ve got only one hand on the steering wheel. It is freaking me out.

Time doesn’t move like a turtle and we still have so much to do and plan.

Apart from everything that goes with planning a indefinite digital nomadic adventure, we still have to pack up our things, get Kalyra enrolled in distance education, and sort out how we are going to make money travel blogging. 

We are entering our busiest months of our year.

Savannah’s birthday is next week, followed by Kalyra’s 10 days later, and Craig’s 40th five days after that.

Plus we have Father’s Day, cousin’s birthday, the birth of my new niece/nephew, and we are speaking at the Problogger conference on the Gold Coast, and farewell shenanigans to think about.

But wait, there is more.

We are madly trying to get our first eBook finished and published before we leave.

What started out as a fun quick eBook sharing our tips to get cheap and free travel has turned into this awesome guide where we share how you can create the travel life you really love. (Sign up below so you don’t miss it).

The more we work on it the more we want to include.

We are so keen to make this full of value. It’s been a dream of ours since we first started blogging. ( Pssst. Secret time. It’s actually why I started blogging.) Yep. Three and a half years later it’s going to be real.

I’m so freaked out, my stomach is in knots, my chest is tight, and I am starting to feel the urge to rant and scold.

I called on our Facebook community for help. I knew they’d understand the meltdown and could help me to refocus and calm down.

I love having such great friends from around the world. Here’s how they helped lift me up:

• Just go and let the pieces fall in place on the road.
• You WILL LOVE IT! Make a list, check it off methodically. Anything that isn’t done by the time you leave probably didn’t need doing in the first place.
• It always seems like everything has to be done at the last minute… try and work out what’s essential and what’s not and prioritize from there. We had to just leave a bunch of things unfinished in NZ and work out how to handle it once we were off.
• Take a walk along the beach and grab a cup of tea and Zen out. After I am calm and distressed I’d start a list of priorities.
• Breathe – you don’t need all the answers now http://www.a2acoaching.com/blog/you-dont-need-all-the-answers.
• Just go… And make sure the outback & Alice Springs are on your list.
• You didn’t get where you are without taking risks.
• Looks like you just need to remember what you have done before and can do again. I always think of what we managed to do with adopting our son in China, home in Australia 11 weeks and then off to Canada for a year – the paperwork alone as you know was enough to tip me over the edge….but we got through and you will too.
• Stay CALM.
• Deep breath. Everything that happens is meant to be. And everything will always work out. My motto(s).
• The week before our short RTW trip I just flipped thinking I’d made the biggest mistake. Everything was done, flights booked, travel money sorted, but I got cold feet. Once I got on the first plane I was fine. We went to 7 countries in under 5 months, so currency, visas, cultures, food, constant change. Looking back now I don’t know how we did it. Just remember that you are on home turf, no currency, language or cultural barriers this time. The experience and the freedom is what you have to look forward to.
• Breathe!
• I feel your pain …once you’ve gone though, all will be good. Just look at what you’ve achieved so far and trust in yourself and your decisions.
• Just go, we are 4mths into a yr. long trip around Aus, everything will fall into place, oh and make sure you geocache all the way!
• Crack open the champagne and celebrate – chances are you’ve ticked it all on the list and fate will tie the rest together. It’s Friday night after all.
• Great advice… I’ll have to review these comments again at the end of October when I start my full-time RV USA Road Trip. Cheers to all of us for taking leaps of faith.
• A full tank,an open road, an open mind and an empty diary. Every thing else will happen as and when you need it. Join hands and look forward to this wonderful adventure with your loved ones.
• Stay calm, make a list, have a flexible itinerary!
• Just focus on the leaving tasks & organizing the first destination. The rest isn’t urgent yet.
• just go?
• As long as you’ve got extra water and a jerry can full of petrol you’ll be ok.
• I keep a list and cross it off. Buy your favorite candy for the road.
• These sort of things always seem to happen just before you leave don’t they?! Try not to stress too much, just get it all done. Once you’re on the road all will be forgotten!
• Don’t worry – just go.
• Just make a checklist of all the things you want in your car!
• Remind yourself of all the reasons that put you on this path and take comfort that all will work itself out.
• Think in smaller increments of time than the entire trip. Where are heading to tomorrow?
• Just go ..and have fun!

Boy did they help me out. They certainly me had me breathing in the Zen again.

(BTW: How much did their wisdom rock! You can apply that to almost any situation in your life.)

My reply:

It’s easy to get stuck in the moment of fear and overwhelm and not think about what you’re capable and where you’ve come from.

When I thought about it, I realized this is a normal part of the travel process. In 2002, we survived the extreme madness and were gone for five years. Everything worked out perfectly. You just have to follow your heart and trust in the plan.

I calmed down and returned to editing the introduction to our book. My own advice jumped out at me.

There’s a saying I want you draw upon when fear becomes so overwhelming, you think you can’t have what you want, and all you see are limitations and mistakes.

“Leap and the Universe will catch you.”

I trust the Universe will catch me in 6 weeks when we take that gigantic leap of faith.

How do you deal with overwhelming fear?

Did you just trust and leap?

Were you caught?

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