Global Goose – Digital Nomad Travel Resource Travel and Work Anywhere In the World
“What are your future plans?”
“Where do you see yourself in five years?”
“Do you ever want to settle down and start a family?”
“Where do you think you and Lee will live?”
“Are you going to eventually stop traveling and settle down?”
If we had a dollar for every time we were asked one of these questions, we would be able to afford to stay in quite a few more five star hotels while traveling around the world than we currently do!
Whenever people ask me about my future, I struggle to come up with an answer that satisfies them. Right now, the only thing I know for sure is that we have booked flights to Bangkok, Thailand at the end of June. Once we hit the ground in Southeast Asia we will decide where we want to go from there during our adventure traveling around the world. We might be traveling around Southeast Asia for two or three months, or we might love it there and decide to stay for longer. After that, our future is a blank slate which will likely be determined by whatever cheap flights come up on Skyscanner.
So you can see why it is hard to describe where I will be in five years when I don’t even know where I will be in five months. Sure, we might end up settling down at some point, but at the moment we are traveling around the world and that day is so far away that it isn’t even worth thinking about.
I didn’t used to be like this. Back in 2009 when I went backpacking in New Zealand by myself I was a naive, wide-eyed child trapped in an adult body. I was utterly terrified at the prospect of growing up and was overwhelmed by the seemingly insurmountable task of doing what I dreamed of in life. I used to panic that I wouldn’t be able to accomplish all that I set out to do and that my life would slip away before I was able to grab it with both hands.
Thankfully, I ended up working as a tour guide at a creepy old haunted prison by the sea on the North Island and met a confident, irreverent, hilarious and completely fearless English guy who also dreamed of traveling around the world. He took me by the hand and told me one of the most important lessons of my life:
“Life is easy, just trust your future self.”
At first I protested, spewing out all of the twisted angst in my head and asking how life could possibly be so easy when it was so damn confusing and overwhelming and complicated. But Lee just shook his head, told me I was ridiculous, and repeated his mantra: “Life is easy.”
The more we were together, the more the the knot of fear in my chest about the future began to slowly unravel. I began to realize that I didn’t need to make so many plans for the future because it was useless. Why would Present Time Kelly make decisions for Future Kelly, when Future Kelly is obviously more wise, experienced and knowledgeable about her situation? Present Time Kelly needs to worry about her own problems and leave the stuff that is happening years from now to Future Kelly. Lee gave me a huge gift, the confidence to trust myself to make the right decision when the time comes for that decision to be made.
Once I learned that lesson, I have been happier about my life than I have ever been before. It also makes traveling around the world into an exciting adventure because you never really know what is around the next corner. When we backpacked across Canada we focused on getting from one city to the next, letting the journey unfold as we went. It left us open for surprises, coincidences and fortuitous situations in a way that would never have happened if we had planned everything in advance.
Besides, when Sept 2009 Kelly met Lee in Napier she had absolutely no idea that March 2010 Kelly would be on a flight back to the UK with him, or that June 2011 Kelly would be taking him back to Canada to meet her family and friends. There was no way that we could have predicted or planned for a travel romance that truly went the distance and if I had stuck to rigid plans for where my life was going, I would have missed out on traveling around the world with the man that I love.
So if you are lying awake at night staring at the ceiling wondering about the future of your career, your love life, your travel plans, and what comes next in your life, STOP. Just Stop.
“Life is easy, just trust your future self.”
©Global Goose
Carpe diem, I say!
This post reminds me of these lyrics from Josh Groban’s song “Let Me Fall”.
“Let me fall. Let me climb. There’s a moment when fear and dreams must collide.Someone I am is waiting for courage. The one I want. The one I will become will catch me…just let me fall”
I’ve not heard that song before, but those are beautiful lyrics and they totally sum up what I was trying to say!
Ah this reminds me so much of our story – we (me British, him Canadian) met in New Zealand also in 2009…he came to the UK to live with me in March 2010. Now we’re on Vancouver Island
We also get asked those questions all the time, and people get a bit surprised with my answer, or lack thereof! Trust your instincts and just go with it!
I forgot to add that we met in September 2009- the similarities are kinda crazy if you ask me!
That is amazing! I can’t believe how similar our stories are! We were probably sitting next to each other on the same flight at one point or something! haha…
Where in New Zealand did you meet? Where did you live in the UK?
It is quite something I think! We met on the Coromandel Peninsula – I lived and worked there for the most part of my Working Holiday in 2007/08. I went back to NZ in 2009 for a month to visit (mainly because I got super cheap flights from the UK for 500 pounds return) and when I went back to my friend’s house on the Coromandel I met my (now) boyfriend working just the job I did the year before. We knew each other for five days before I had to go back to the UK to my 2nd year of my degree. He came out six months later, and lived with me in Brighton, until I finished university in June last year. I’m in the process of starting a travel blog based on Working Holiday advice – between us we’ve done NZ, Australia, UK and Canada…not bad! We, like you guys, also plan to live and work abroad for the foreseeable future – my boyfriend has actually been doing it for quite a while already. We must stay in touch, no doubt our paths will cross somewhere someday!
It’s so cool to meet a couple of kindred souls whom we have so much in common with! We should definitely stay in touch and if we meet up somewhere in the world we will buy you a beer.
Amen! being an only child all the pressure is on me and what I do. I have a very relaxed approach to life and believe that pressuring your children or anyone else about their future is a waste of breath and time. People do what they need to do when they want to do it. Life really is easy. If people would just take a step back and look at the big picture theyd see that things really do come to those who wait.
What an inspiring post. As I read the article I really related to the thoughts swirling around in present time Kelly’s head. I’m in my final year of university but am already stressed by the things I haven’t yet accomplished that I thought I would by this age. You’re right this stressful way of thinking isn’t doing me any favours.
I need to trust in my future self. Lots of my friends are focused on a career or buying their first homes but I’m passionate about travelling and at this stage in my life want to prioritize it. There’s nothing wrong with either choice. It’s also ok not to be able to predict every moment of my life.
I’ve already found out the last few years that sometimes life has better plans for us than we ever could have contemplated.
Thanks, I’m glad this post helped you in some way! Trust in your future self and don’t worry about what your friends are prioritizing. There is nothing wrong with either choice, but if you live your life by what they want you will not be happy, live your life by what you want instead.
Good luck with everything!
Wow, thank you so much for this post. I actually feel tears prick my eyes a bit, and I don’t consider myself an emotional person at all. It’s just that there is always so much pressure with our generation to have a “five year plan.” It can be your family pressuring you out of what they consider love, or even silly (but strong) social pressure of a high school reunion coming up. Your post inspires me to STOP and LIVE in each day. This doesn’t mean I have to become lethargic. But it does mean that I should make the most of now, and stop worrying about tomorrow so much. Thanks for this post.
A brilliant post! I tend to think too much about the future but as time goes by and as more things start to happen, I think, EFF THAT! I should focus on the ‘here and now’. I need to bookmark this post because if ever I think about the future again, this post can help me get back on track! Thanks, Kelly!