TRIP PLANNING - CAN'T SLEEP, BRAIN CRAZY

FEAR CREATED BY UNCERTAINTY

So here's a problem with planning long term travel with a family, in fact it's a very common problem people face when preparing to make a dramatic change in their life. The problem is FEAR created by your own mind to stop you from making the change that you are trying to make. These fears are mostly bullshit excuses but a necessary step to achieving life changing goals. Now that I'm actually in the process of achieving my goal to travel to Argentina with my family for over 1 month these fears outlined in my journal entry below seem completely ridiculous. In this particular journal entry I discuss how my fear of not having enough money attempts to sidetrack my end goal. Money is not the only fear... let me tell you some more that I remember having kept me awake:

EXCUSES CREATED OUT OF FEAR

1) would if I get sick while out of the country?
2) would if baby gets sick?
3) would if we don't know where to go, where we will sleep?
4) we won't be understood by people (Spanish speakers),
5) would if I go way over budget?
6) what will happen to my job?

OF COURSE, they're all valid fears and the solution is to find the solution to the problem so that you can move forward. There are many more complex problems in the planning process that can arise and they are fully discussed in the book: 'Six Months Off' by Dlugozima (and 2 other authors) which I recommend.

Taking time away isn't for everyone... but if you need a change in your life then a good bit of traveling might be a good transition.

Here is an unedited version of my thoughts from 3:45AM, January 9, 2010.

NOT SLEEPING

I supposed to write this entry last night but I wasn't able to because I was too tired. Instead I continued reading the book 'Emergency' by Neil Strauss. Apparently it takes less focus to read than to write. Regardless of my fatigue, this is the second night in a row that I've awakened at 3:45AM to the sound of a howling baby, unable to return to sleep. I'm experience something while laying in bed that probably isn't foreign to most people... rambling thought syndrome. I don't think that's a real syndrome but what the hell.

My strategy is to write things down so that I can feel secure in knowing that I won't forget anything, everything will be okay, etc. The only problem with this strategy is that it's now 5:15AM and I think that I just finished writing things down. The more I write down, the more overwhelmed I feel. The source of my anxiety stems from money (or lack thereof). I'm not very happy about this because my motto lately has been 'I don't care about money' so where has this problem come from?  Oh yeah, traveling to effing S. America for a few months. I suppose my brain (id, ego, whatever) had decided that it's time to come up with every reason in the book to keep doing what's comfortable (stay here, don't move, get a job, etc).  What was that brain?? Get a job?? Screw you brain, Argentina, here we come! I wonder what the exchange rate is between CD & ARD? Damn, there I go thinking about money again.