Stepping Out of the Comfort Zone - Live Life to the Fullest

Some complaints I hear quite often:
" Life is so routine."
"My job is so boring."
"I wish I'm like you but...."


Some excuses I often hear:
" I can't do this.  I have a car, a house and a job here.  I'm not like you."
"I need to advance in my career.  I don't have a few months to spare to do this."


Common comments I hear from people who stepped out of their 4x4 comfort zone and tried something new:
"I never know I can do that."
"I didn't even know what it is until.....Man, that's awesome!" 
"That amazing time when...."
"I don't think I can live the way I did."


A good friend of mine recently got very sick from a rare form of disease.  His life got flipped upside down.  No warning.  No symptom. It just happened.  So fast and so unexpectedly.


Since this has happened, a goal of mine to live life to the fullest has make more sense than ever.  Life is seriously too short.  There are so many things that can happen to change the state that you are in right now.  You may not have the luxury to wait it off later to do what you always have in your mind to do.  Who knows when life throw a curve ball at you?  It is the beauty of life to have surprises but they don't necessary are nice ones (like my friend's).  


People always give themselves so many excuses not to step out of their comfort zone to do things.  Most of the time it is just in your head how hard something you want to do is.  What's so hard to just try it?  If it doesn't work out, no one will die (well....i guess depends what you have in mind to do.  I mean most of the time).  At least you find out it doesn't work, right?


Stop wasting time.  If you want to do it, you can make things work.  Try it!!  You can make your life more colorful.  Seriously, not that hard.

Why backpacking?

Time to think and meet a vast mix of people you will never meet at home.  Backpacking usually is longer in duration.  Depending on what time of backpacker you are, usually you will have more time to stay in a city, to interact with people, and to explore the city yourself.

After every trip, I learned something different.  During your normal day-to-day life at home, there's just no time and space for me to think about important but not urgent matters.  Being in a totally unfamiliar environment, having the luxry of time, and hearing thoughts and stories from other backpackers with different background and history breed the perfect environment to think.  The feeling is like someone open up the box that I was in.  All of a sudden, I have a lot more space and options.  

Stereotypically, my first trip was in 2005 when I was in my third year going to Europe.  It was a threesome girlfriends trip.  The trip opened my eyes up that there's so much more out there than I realized.  I learned there're different ways people can live their lives and that I have choice to choose what suit me most.

My second trip was in 2006.  It was a girlfriend-boyfriend trip to Thailand and China.  I realized and finally admit what works for me in a relationship was not what I was getting.  I learned to let go when you tried and things didn't work out.

Solo to Eastern Australia in 2007 was my third trip. I met so many solo backpackers from all over the world.  Solo backpacking is one of the most amazing thing I discovered.  You don't have anyone to social with so you are forced to meet and talk to people.  From this trip, I learned that everyone has a story behind them.  All of us are trying hard to live our lives to the fullest.  There's always a reaons behind people's action that make perfect sense to them.  Be open and listen.  There's more than one way of living and thinking.  Yours might not necessary be the best way.

My recent trip to South America was by far the best ever.  Life just keep getting better and more adventurous.  It was a threesome co-ed trip with 2 other a friend of a friend of a friend friends.  Random, exciting and totally AWESOME.  Backpacking gives me a strong feeling of "I'm alive".  This trip helped me put my life into perspective.  I learned to live in the moment - not the past or the future.  Life is to be enjoyed and should be filled with passion.  There's always a trade off - what will you get and what are you willing to give up.  My priority became a lot clearer after this amazing trip.

That's why I love backpacking....

Planning is not just for work

Coming out of school and have been working for 2 years now.  I no longer have cirriculum to follow.  It is no longer the case that if you do X, you get an A.  In life, I can't seperate my career/working goal with my personal life as easily as when I was in school.  

All of a sudden, I realize it is all about what I want.  The first step to be successful can be as easy as deciding that you want to be successful.  Then, make a feasible plan with lots of help.  Coincidentally as I am thinking about this, a good friend at work send me info on developing personal life time goal - http://www.personal-development.com/

I do agree with Ben Franklin (1706 - 1790): "By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail."