My Best Excuses for Remaining in a Rut
It is time to find some adventure in your life! Are you stressed out, burned out and ready for some inspiration to jumpstart your super-charged living? Sometimes we need more than just a cup of coffee to get us going again. For me, I find that getting away from it all is an excellent way to recharge my batteries and find the spirit to start fresh.
Adventure is what the doctor prescribes.
I recently had the opportunity to spend a week in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. It was amazing how much better I felt after taking a week off from the office. Depending on your situation, you might need more time off to really make a fresh start. I recently found an article at Brave New Traveler called 12 Personal Travel Websites That Will Make You Quit Your Day Job. This article includes links to sites of regular people that have gone on some pretty incredible adventures. It also includes a brief description of every traveler’s journey. Some of the sites are a little dated now, but their stories are still inspiring and amazing to me.
My excuses for remaining in a rut.
I have all kinds of excuses for staying at home and wallowing in my boredom, but ultimately none of them usually hold water. However, I now believe what Mark Twain states below and I have committed myself to getting the most out of life by overcoming my excuses.
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
~Mark Twain
Are you with me? Let’s examine a few of the excuses that I have used for remaining in my rut and see if any of them resonate with you.
- I have young children so I can’t travel. I have become living proof that this one is false. I have two young kids and I have worked it out. Where there is a will, there is a way, you just have to find it. Cruises are an excellent way to travel and see the world with children. My wife and I took one of our kids on a cruise a couple of years ago and she had a blast (and so did we)! We have also been lucky enough to arrange to have family members stay at our house and watch our children while we traveled the last couple of years. Maybe you have people in your life that could assist you, but if not don’t let this stop you because it is possible to travel with kids if you do it right.
- I don’t have the money. I solved this one when I got on a budget and paid off my debt. I have since made travel a priority by creating a vacation envelope and saving money each month for my annual journeys. My wife and I have also used the Internet extensively to find the best deals possible which has saved us a ton. In addition, if your budget is really tight like ours was for awhile, I have also found that camping in a park in my area is a great way to accomplish the same objective without spending a ton of cash. Nature is a fabulous fix for the blues.
- I can’t leave my job for that long. I discovered that this one is a total myth based on an exaggerated opinion of my own worth to the company or business. I have found that they always get by at work while I’m gone. It wasn’t my employer or business that was holding me back. It was me. Once I took the leap and just took time off, I found that nothing terrible happened. If you struggle with this one, I highly recommend reading Tim Ferriss’ book called The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
. He totally debunks this myth.
- Traveling is so much trouble and I would rather stay home. I used to feel this way, but now that I have gone places, I have found that the hassle is worth it. Sure, it is a pain lugging all your stuff to the airport, getting through security, and standing in line at customs, but the rewards far outweigh the trouble. It is hard to explain, but when I travel to other countries, it awakens a new sense of curiosity in me. It opens my eyes to new possibilities and stirs the passion within me. I know that this is a lifelong obsession of mine and I won’t let a few inconveniences ruin that for me anymore.
Get off the computer and get going!
What are you waiting for? Going on an adventure doesn’t have to be complicated. I try to make it a part of every trip I take. Even when traveling on business, I try to take the road less traveled just for the excitement of it. This will sound silly to some, but where I live we do not have trains to get people around town, so on a trip to Atlanta instead of taking a taxi from the airport to my hotel, I took the train. It was fun doing something different than what I was used to. I find even these little adventures exhilarating. They help break the monotony of everyday living. It is all a part of living a super-charged life!
Photos by Wonderlane and cwgoodroe
I think I’ve made every one of those excuses at some point! Time to get out there and “smell the roses!”
Very inspirational post. We seem to have more excuses for failure than reasons to succeed until our backs are really up against a wall.
I heard a story once about a frog who fell into a deep wagon rut. All his buddies encouraged him to hop out but it was too high. They asked him what was going to happen and he said, “I guess I’ll just die when a wagon comes along.”
A couple of days later one of those buddies saw him on the lily pad at the pond ans asked him what happened. He said, “Well a wagon came along and I HAD to get out.”
They say a rut is just a grave with the ends open.
I’d love to hear more about your cruises that you took with your children. We want to take our two little ones with us on vacation and a cruise sounds like a great idea. It would be very easy to go back for naps.
[...] would call it a “rut.” Jeff at My Supercharged Life reminded me this week that even my best excuses for remaining in a rut are nothing but, well …. excuses. Get out there and enjoy [...]
@FrugalDad – I really have used all the excuses above, but now I am trying earnestly not to. It really opens up all kinds of possibilities.
@Ron – I love the frog story. It does seem that it often takes a dramatic event in our lives before we make a needed change.
@MyDollarPlan – Great idea! I’ll try to do a post soon about our experience with taking a kid on a cruise.
Thanks for the comments!
Jeff
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These are great excuses. Thankfully I can say I’ve gotten past them as well. Congrats to you for doing the same.