A New Challenge

You know when you read in magazines about the lifestyles of others and you wish, not necessarily with envy but you think to yourself what it would be like?  Well, it’s happening, and at a rate of speed I’m not quite used to.

When my husband sets his mind to something, it’s fair to say I think he gets a bit obssessed, fanatical perhaps, I’m, not sure, but a discussion that often came as part of a joke after a drink or so on a weekend of doing something that was perhaps not as rewarding, or perhaps ho-hum or even had to work when the desire wasn’t there, has led to a series of ideas that have started to become the reality.

And the thought process is pretty amazing. I have some of my own issues I’m dealing with, personal, business, emotional, and the lack of wanting to stand still.  While it might be easy to just brush off as ‘the next shiny bright thing’, I feel like I’m being pulled into this new journey and phase in my life where I can put it to good use in other ways.

I call it a LIFE PIVOT – not without some thought on the context of the word, but more because of the changes in lifestyle that will be hitting me like the proverbial brick will be the reality I’m going to have to deal with for the next year, or maybe two.

So it goes like this – I’m not really fond of sitting in traffic.  In my town, the infrastructure is pretty poor – by comparison to many countries.  But I’m blessed with not having to do it often, so time the appointments to be later in the morning, or leave earlier in the afternoon and never too late on a Friday and hopefully when it’s an RDO for the building industry on a Monday, when I don’t have to pay 40.00 for parking somewhere… yada yada yada – I’m sure you’ve all been there.

With my awesome headphones, listening to meaningful podcasts and audio books, or sometimes a bit of silence to gather my thoughts, I experience the freeway driving with many who have no idea on what indicators are, how to merge or the fact that 100k really is 100k and no, please don’t drive at 87k in the centre lane.

So while there is humour here, I rarely have to do this, one day, I was held up, left late on a Friday, long weekend starting, and it was gridlocked and thought to myself, this is what my husband does every day, sometimes 2 – 3 hours a day travelling in the car.  Is that what our lives have become?  Either waiting in traffic or working and so tired when you get home that really, after a meal, browsing online, off to bed to get ready for the grind.

5.15 starts, 6 pm home unless you sacrifice some hours of work to get home a little early.

And while I thought it was frustrating, it really hit home when I had to be in the city before 8.30 am, to get the cheap parking, and to be ready to sign into an event which started at 9.  I go there alright, but I left at 7.15 to drive 30k, and when I drove down the road and saw the ‘on ramp’ lights on, and the stand still traffic, and that was just in the morning, I knew that it was time to ask that question to my husband… What are we doing here?  Why are we doing this?

I mean we’re educated people, educated by turning off the TV and thinking for ourselves a couple of years ago and I think I could count on two hands, how much free to air tv shows I’ve watched over the last 3 years.  

It was a Thursday, not a special, stand out day for any reason, just a day when my darling man had spent another day working on his own, plenty of time to think, and a shabby drive home, and in between those hours of leaving and coming home, something must have triggered the thought of.. There must be something more than this..

And the journey started.   We decided that we’d take the chance, not just put our toes in the water to ‘see’ if we liked it.. we’re jumping in, into life, the scary bits, the unpredictable things we’re going to encounter and we’re moving to the country.

Our plan of a small acreage with two properties, one we could rent out, a home here would could positively gear and then pay off and be comfortable.. well that went to shit when what we looked at in the ‘dreamer’ phase just kept getting sold, and what was left on the market were those listings of homes that are there for years, overpriced to levels that not even a city slicker will pay, and we had to make a decision.  It is scary, fast moving and yet somehow things falling into place in ways I never thought possible.

The pivot is – looking at what is in front of you, but being prepared to turn around and look what there is around you that you may never have noticed, and then taking it with both arms open, and running with it.  Here’s to the life pivot and what it will bring in the next 12 months.

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