Why I Decided To Live Outside My Comfort Zone

“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.” – H. Jackson Brown Jr.

I know this quote is overused, incorrectly attributed to Twain and shows up on almost every travel blog, but from the first time I saw it, it has resounded with me. However, anyone who knows me knows I haven't really lived my life that way... I'm a tax accountant. 

Sure, I've enjoyed traveling as much as I could with my allotted vacation days and my trips have led me over much of the U.S., but for the most part, I've played the game of life relatively safe. Now I'm not saying that safety has necessarily been all bad. In fact, I've set up a perfectly comfortable life for myself. I selected a career path that would always be in demand, I have climbed the hierarchical ladder of a big 4 accounting firm over the past seven years, I met a girl, fell madly in love with her and made the best decision of my life by asking her to marry me. 

By society's standards, my next milestone should be a white picket fence and 2.5 children, but I couldn't shake the idea that twenty years from now I would be disappointed with the things I didn't do: take a risk, get out of my comfort zone and truly experience the world.

As long as I can remember, I have been very interested in traveling, especially with the idea of extended travel where one could truly experience new cultures and people. I have read endless trip reports online and would often tell my wife, Christine, if we won the lottery, all I would want to do is travel the world. One day after repeating this to her again she responded, "so, why don't we?" I stared back at her somewhat dumbfounded... could it be that easy? Luckily, Christine had also been bitten by the travel bug and had already seen much of Europe. 

After sitting down and really discussing it, we decided traveling was something we both wanted to do and this was the best time to do it. And that was it, we set our minds and focused all our energy on making the dream of extended travel a reality. Ultimately, we decided to stop putting it off for some fictitious point in the future that would likely never come.

You will never have enough money, you will never have enough time and there will always be something else that requires your attention, but those are just excuses. We didn't want to wake up one day and realize we gave up this dream and our adventurous spirit in exchange for a comfortable routine.

That brings us to now, two weeks away from embarking on this amazing trip. We are going to be putting our professional careers on hold and traveling for 6 months through Oceania and Asia. Countless hours have been spent reading travel blogs, researching gear and watching travel videos. Our possessions are put away in storage and our backpacks are packed and ready to go. We have our round trip flights booked into Auckland, New Zealand and out of Tokyo, Japan. 

Although we have an idea of all the countries we want to visit, we want to let the trip develop naturally rather than being completely planned and formulated. Out with the schedules and in with living in the moment!

I couldn't be more excited about this trip and the person I am making it with. I am really grateful that Christine challenged me to stop talking about it and actually be about it. I don't know if I would have ever left the safety of my routine without her support.  

We will be updating this blog periodically throughout our trip with our explorations and adventures. We always enjoy hearing people's reactions to the trip so feel free to drop us a line in the comments. Thanks for following along with us.