I read this quote one time. I don’t remember where or who said it but it really resonated with me. Create a life you don’t need a vacation from. Yes! That’s it. That really is the goal isn’t it? I believe I have done a good job of this. The picture above is taken in my back yard. Yes, my backyard is a lagoon off the Barnegat Bay! I wake up to see the light reflecting off the water every morning. It’s a great way to start the day. I just sit and watch the subtle waves of the water. It brings me peace. I have always loved being around water. Hence, my love of boats. There isn’t much better to me than being completely surrounded by water. I figured out early on that I was a shore girl. Rivers and Lakes didn’t do it for me. It had to be the ocean and later I learned, I prefer the bay.
To me, loving where you live is so important in the make up of your everyday happiness. If you have that, you can usually endure so many other things because you start and end everyday in a place you love. Where is your favorite place in the world? If you can’t pick up and move there is there a place you can get to that mimics what you love? If you love Hawaii, can you find a place that closely resembles that? I know it’s hard to find something close to Hawaii but will living near the ocean help? One of the best parts of me living so close to the ocean is I can get there in five minutes by car. I can run up to watch a sunrise come up over the ocean. I can run back to see the sunset over the bay. I can take my dog for long walks on the beach all year (except in summer because they aren’t allowed then). And again, that view of the water outside my window.
My cousin often jokes that it must be hard to be a Hopefulist living where I do. Here is the thing, my husband and I took the steps it took to get us here. And you can too. We have made our sacrifices to live here. My husband drives a 3-hour round trip for work everyday. I have had to adjust with the jobs I have taken over the years. I left my career in radio so I could live here. I have had to work jobs I hated in order to afford the life I have here. Because it is more expensive to live here as I’m sure you can imagine. Living here became my top priority. I was and am willing to do what it takes to keep this my home. We also have flooding several times a year. We really worry about Hurricanes. But it’s worth it to us.
The first step is deciding what you want and putting it out in the universe. I have wanted to live at the shore full-time for many years. When my husband and I started getting serious while dating I told him this was my goal. I asked him if he was on board and he said he was. I didn’t have a specific plan in place but life unfolded in a way that brought us here full time while renting a place. We decided we wanted to purchase a house. Property values were still lower than usual due to the damage wrought by Superstorm Sandy. That storm destroyed our neighborhood. It caused property values to nosedive. But as the neighborhood started to rebuild, property values were on the rise. I knew if we wanted to get something we could afford we had to move quickly.
It was right about this time that I picked up my copy of “You are a badass” by Jen Sincero. She talked about putting things out to the universe. She said to visualize what you wanted with as many details as possible. Write it down and read it over often. I wrote a list of what I was looking for in a house. The house we ended up buying had everything on my list except a fenced in yard and the price was higher than I had hoped. But we made it work. We had a fence installed within the first six months. Now it was perfect. I believe asking the universe for what you want is so powerful. I believe it has had so much to do with where I am now geographically and in life. I also wrote down what I was looking for in a full-time job and how much money I wanted to make. I didn’t overshoot. I was realistic. Then a job opened up in radio. Morning radio…my specialty. And it paid what I was looking for. Coincidence? Maybe, or it could be that my putting it out in the universe created the energy to bring it to me. You can choose to believe that or not. I choose to believe it in the energy and so far it has worked out well for me.
Let’s talk about what I’m doing now. I’ve told the story. I was driving to work one day when I heard the song “A million dreams” by Pink on the radio. It touched me. It inspired me. It made me realize I was so much more than what I was doing. And I was pretty proud of my morning radio show. But listening to the words made me realize I could do so much more; be so much more. That is when I came up with the idea of starting a blog. I know blogs are so 1995 but it wasn’t about making money for me. It was about putting the wisdom I have learned out in the world. Two weeks after that I found out the radio station had decided to let me go. As the news sank in that I was out of a job again, I thought maybe I can do something on my own and avoid all this unpleasantness. A friend of mine had been doing podcasts for some time and I went to him for help and advice. He set me up and within a month I was doing this daily podcast to coincide with my daily blog. Hence, The Hopefulist was born. I believe the springboard to all of this was the idea that I wanted to do more. One thought led to another thought and now I have this business that continues to evolve and help people (I hope). If you would have asked me a year ago if I would be doing something like this, I would have thought you were crazy. But this is the power of putting your ideas and desires out in the universe. The big bonus? I’ve never been happier.
So, what is it you really want? What could you do everyday that would make you feel happy and satisfied? Where could you live that it wouldn’t matter to you if you can’t get away for a vacation because you already love where you live? How can you set up your life that you feel like everyday is like a vacation? Don’t think it’s possible? Neither did I. But look at me now. I’m working harder now though than I ever have. I am doing all kinds of things that take me out of my comfort zone. But it’s the most rewarding work I’ve ever done and I never regret it. Any of it. This is what I want for you.
It is Monday. My favorite day after Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Put some thought into what it is you really want. And put it out in the universe. If you come up with an actual plan, just think how much faster you will get there than I did. All things are possible…it’s true. Now, go make today, your best day yet!
A discussion of today’s blog post is on my daily podcast posted every weekday by 7 am. Find it at Hopefulist.com or through Apple, Spotify, TuneIn or YouTube. Just search for “The Hopefulist”!
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