Carpe the Fucking Diem
Verbier, Switzerland
Too often, I meet people who seem to be waiting for someone to give them permission to live. They're looking for assurance that now is the time to take action, that now they can start living life in the way that they truly want to live it. They need someone to tell them that now, now they can go and do.
I'm not even saying that their conception of a life well-lived has to look exactly like mine, but whatever their ideal life might be or could be... they appear to be waiting. Even in the last seven or so months of van life, I've heard so many similar retorts from people I've bumped into along the way:
"Oh man, I would love to do that, but work is so busy right now... maybe next year we'll finally launch that new product and things will slow down enough that I will be able to take a step back."
"It must be nice to have no responsibilities, no mortgage, no kids... maybe one day when my kids are out of the house I can sell it and quit my job."
"I can't travel on my own—it would be so lonely. I need to find a woman who'll travel with me."
"If only I could save a little more money, I'll have enough security that I can finally take the leap and try something new."
"COVID is making everything too risky right now... now's not the time to go out on a limb without a safety net."
The truth is that we aren't guaranteed tomorrow. Even if we don't necessarily die before then (although it's possible), we could lose our health, our wealth, the political stability of our nation—we could lose everything. We aren't guaranteed a fucking thing in this life. There's no such thing as a "safety net." There's no one standing there to catch us when we fall.
So instead of falling, you have to leap.
You have to leap NOW and seize the day. You only live once, and that means you had better start living right fucking now. If you don't, if you choose to wait forever, you'll only have yourself to blame when your life runs out and your options evaporate.
Consider this short article me trying my absolute hardest to raise a red flag, to shake you out of your complacency. If you reach the end of your years on this planet wishing you had tried something else, wishing you had done something different, well... don't say I didn't warn you.
The dangers of wasting your life are real and imminent. If you sit around and wait forever, you will end up with nothing to show for it. But if you act now, you have the chance to try something new, to create a different life. If you haven’t accomplished Outside 365 yet, today’s as good of a day as any to start.
Carpe Diem motherfucker.
And Happy New Year!
