Feature Pic by Ms.K on a bright, sunny day at Playa del Carmen, Mexico.
Unbelievable.
We’ve had such a great run! The world, however, seems to have taken a completely unexpected turn and it’s hard to believe how different the reality of today is to when we first started the trip. The amount of devastation across the world is tough to imagine yet so real for many people in different ways. All I do want to say in this regard is that it is a horrible time to be in, so practice good hygiene and be sensible and most importantly, be kind.
How has it impacted us? Well, we’ll talk about that soon.
Right now though, we haven’t had much updates to our travel map since end of January. We left Singapore on September 4, 2019. 23 cities. 9 countries. Over 46,600 km traveled in just about over 5 months (we didn’t clock anything impressive in month 6 with most of our time spent on the Kickstarter Venture).
When we started this journey, we were really heading off into the unknown. We didn’t know how long the trip would actually go on for and how would we all like being on the road for such a long time. Looking back now, I think I can safely say that we adapted really well and are absolutely loving it. We’ve not reached 2 months yet here at Playa del Carmen but we’re itching to get on the move again!
It is a 6 month mark though and I think some reflections at this point in time would be timely!
On the Work Front
Work Has Taken a New Look & Feel
See, we’re always had an entrepreneurial streak. We’ve set up and made money from 3 ventures before. While not vast amounts; given that 20% of small businesses fail in their first year, a 100% success rate in profits from Year 1 does make us quite happy.
We did always think that time in retirement would allow us to dive into areas that we saw potential and were interested in. When we came about our amazing idea that we have since decided to put on hold, that came with some long hours, animated discussions, meetings across different continents and managing freelancers. This was hard work!
But we loved it! Work is infinitely better when you’re not in it for the money! The ability to spend an entire month just thrown into a business idea we were passionate and interested in and to work with each other was quite priceless (though it did come at a price of the leases and schooling here in Mexico). There is an unexpected benefit that came out of it though, but that’s a discussion for another day!
Working on Our Passion(s)
Turns out there were other forms of work as well, the type that is typically hard to find time for when you have a day job. Mr.C knew he would enjoy spending his time reading and investing. That’s work he enjoyed and he’s almost definitely had much more time to do.
As you would know that even during the travels, we worked on the blog. I worked on my writing and some of the last few posts I wrote were truly a voice that I was proud of. It wasn’t necessarily the most viewed posts but it was my favourite posts because it was deeper topics that I wanted to explore and I had the time and luxury to do so during my best hours. The blog, in the end, is a personal blog. I worked on it for myself.
Related:
This Crazy Lil Thing Called Fear
Taking Risks with Kids
Along the journey of discovering myself, I started to enjoy creating videos. The first video I did was of Coco#1 at Qorikancha. Now the kids love taking videos and it’s a way for them to be interested in the topic and learn more about it whilst being silly. Not every video makes it to the big screen, some are just for us! It’s a fun family activity that takes a lot of time to put together but I think we’ll love watching it years and years down the road!
So I think we’ve really been working hard, but on our lives and our passions. It’s a crazy thing to even consider, but it’s true. We’ve been busy, so very busy, and it’s been immensely fulfilling. It’s a luxury, no doubt, but a luxury that I wish more people can take.
OK, I’ll Answer the Big Question. Do We Miss It, y’know, Conventional Work?
Well we don’t think about it. Does that say it all? Not adequately I think. Perhaps it’s merely living in the NOW and good compartmentalization?
Being retired and on a mini-retirement is quite different, obviously. A mini-retirement does mean that it will end and we will go back to work. Thinking about that is inevitable but consciously shifting away from that thought to focus on being present on our trip took hard work (for me) and turns out, it’s possible!
Simply put, we’ll think about work when it’s time to think about work.
Watch out for Part 2 of this post in a few days where we talk about our reflections on Money, Time, Kids and other aspects!
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