Friday, April 8, 2011

What Boundaries?

If you feel trapped by a job you don't enjoy anymore - simply because it supports your life style…it’s time to change lifestyles
Lisa Chavis and Cheryl MacDonald, authors of What Boundaries, Live Your Dream!

Let’s sell it all and travel the world!  If I had a dime for every time I uttered these words, I would not only be able to travel the globe incessantly, but I could probably purchase the entire planet…twice. And, as I’ve come to discover…I am not alone. In fact I'm beginning to think there's a tricky little pixie - a muse of adventure - traveling the world from dream to dream...and fanning our collective curiosity for the unknown.

And yet, we sleep.

But… what may come…when we are “awake"? And rather than disappear like the thief of imagination, this thrill-seeking pixie parks its caboose…and settles in?

On my, now extraordinary, journey to find the people who make me (us) happy, my attention was grabbed by a photo of two women, joyously confronting the ocean wind - face first. Their expression was one that I can only describe as “surprised exhilaration.” It was the kind of look you might have at the split of the “a-ha”second; the hairs of your arm, suddenly saluting the sun – and you know that you have just stumbled on something quite…very… extremely….important.

And…as a matter of fact, they had. A boundary – or moreso, rather, the lack thereof.

I dug a little deeper. It seems Cheryl MacDonald and Lisa Chavis, unlike so many of us who say “let’s sell it all” after proverbial “let’s sell it all,” and then go get our car washed instead …these ladies, actually did it. Sold it…all.

And now, after a three year journey (originally slated for one) across 4 continents, 30 countries, and 200 cities, they have not merely traveled the world via hostels, back-packing and voluntourism, but they are enthusiastically reminding others to tend to their dreams – and that it is, in fact, never too late.

Their travel book is named, aptly, “What Boundaries? Live Your Dream!” In a “between-trips” moment, I was lucky enough to cross their boundary-breaking path, for an up-close view of their adventure:

Was there a defining moment, when you decided..."OK let's do it." If so, what might that be?
There was a third friend at the start when we first talked about doing this. There might have also been a bottle of wine! One night we were just asking ourselves, "What would we do if we had no boundaries? No job, mortgages, financial obligations -What would we do and where would we go?". We actually made a list - you know how people fantasize when they think about what they will do when they win the lottery? Well, that was us. While it did sort of started out as a fantasy trip, we soon realized that we were all at a point in our lives where we could try to make this happen! We knew that it wold be scary (quite possibly the scariest thing we have ever don) but we could do it.

[We knew it would be scary (quite possible the
scariest thing we have ever done) but we could do it. ]

What type of jobs did you leave behind?
Lisa is a pharmacist and was a previously published author in the pharmacy field. Writing has always been her passion, so this trip was a no-brainer when it came to the possibility of writing about it! Cheryl was a Senior Director at a Fortune 500 company where she worked for 16 years. Working her way up the corporate ladder was the goal, but when she got there she realized it was not really what she wanted. Most people thought we were a little crazy to give up successful careers, especially in a time when the economy was not the best.



[Most people thought we were a little crazy to give up successful careers,
especially in a time when the economy
was not the best.]

Blyde River Canyon South Africa



What did your friends and family think when you told them? What do they think now?
I was actually a little afraid to tell my family. My mother has always been supportive of anything I did, but she instilled a very deep work ethic in me and my brother. When I told her finally she said "What took you so long?" She meant deciding that work was taking too much of my life away from me and it was time to live my life for ME. We had many friends who often said that they would love to do what we did, but once they heard our plans (hostels, backpacks, volunteering in some off the wall places) they decided it was not for them. Now all of our friends and family just ask us where and when we will go next!


Can you give some highlights regarding some of the places/organizations you volunteered?
When we started to plan this trip we knew that we would never really be happy doing a long term touristy type of trip. We wanted to really get to know the area we would be visiting and get immersed into the true community and culture of where we would were at the time. We wanted to learn new things, stretch our comfort zone and learn more about ourselves too.

[We wanted to learn new things, stretch our comfort zone and learn more about ourselves too.]
In Hawaii, we volunteered on a Dragon Fruit farm, an organic lettuce farm, and a Kona coffee farm. It is hard work sometimes, but you learn a lot and you get to take advantage of the spoils of your hard work! I never enjoyed Kona coffee as much as when I picked my own beans!

[I never enjoyed Kona coffee as much as when I picked my own beans!]

We also volunteered for ten weeks of diving in the Mexican jungle to protect the coral reef and three months in Africa photographing and studying up-close the Big 5 on game reserves.(see links below for all of Lisa and Cheryl's short term volunteering suggestions.)

 
What has been the most surprising discovery about the world, so far?
(Lisa) How closely we are connected with each other. From teaching children to read in Mexico and Thailand to playing soccer with barefoot school kids in South Africa, we are all a part of this world and it makes me want to take good care of it.


[From teaching children to read in Mexico and Thailand to playing soccer
with barefoot school kids in South Africa, we are all a part of this world
and it makes me want to take good care of it.]
 
 What has been the most surprising or profound discovery about yourselves?
(Lisa) How incredible freeing it feels to get rid of stuff. Having no monetary obligations took a huge weight of responsibility off of my shoulders.
(Cheryl) That I actually had and still have, the courage to do what we did. Most anyone who knew me in my past life, would have never expected me to ever do something as crazy, scary, unsure, as this was. I was actually quite nervous as the departure date got closer. It took a little while, not too long though, to feel comfortable putting myself out there like that.

I think a lot of people will be wondering...are they millionaires?
We certainly are not millionaires! But it did take some sacrifice before taking a journey like this. We sold basically everything that wasn't highly sentimental or would not fit in a backpack to start our travel fund. Based on how much we had, we determined the best way to travel (hostels, volunteer programs etc). We sold cars, a house, motorcycles, all those things that 'were' important to us before we started traveling. It really is amazing how bogged down we let ourselves get by buying so many "things” that we think make us happy. For many people, that is okay. It was okay for us for a while. But when you start to feel trapped by a job that you don't enjoy anymore because it supports your life style… well, it’s time to change lifestyles.

I've heard you LOVE hostels - why so?
(Cheryl) I was a consummate organizer... okay, a type A+ personality.. I had at least the first month completely planned for us. Where would go, stay, bus routes, trains etc. We first landed in Ireland and by our SECOND night everything was changing because of people we met at the hostels. Yeah, it took me a while to get use to that! You meet the most interesting people in hostels. Even if I were taking a week vacation somewhere - I would most likely stay in a hostel. Most Americans see hostels through the eyes of the entertainment industry - movies like "Hostel" or "The Beach" don't really paint a true picture. We met traveling families in Europe who stayed in hostels. Some are actually quite nice!

If you could give only one piece of advice to someone who may be considering a similar journey, what would it be?
Don't over think your decision. As we said before, there were a million reasons we shouldn't take this journey, but Helen Keller's words "life is either a daring adventure or nothing" gave us the one reason we needed to do it.

[Helen Keller's words "life is either a daring adventure or nothing" gave us the one reason we needed to do it.]

For highly practical travel tips and more information on the bold adventures of Lisa and Cheryl, log onto www.whatboundariestravel.com.

• Global Vision International - http://www.gviusa.com/
• Habitat for Humanity - http://www.habitat.org/
• Pacific Whale Foundation - http://www.pacificwhale.org/
• World Wide Opportunities for Organic Farming- http://www.wwoof.org/ and http://www.wwoofusa.org/

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And once again, on the heels of connecting with those who dare to be themselves…I conclude:  Be yourself. The world is waiting for you.

Cheers,

Mo