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full timers

Own Less, Live More. It's amazing how difficult these four words prove for so many. There are powerful forces conspiring against us when trying to live this message. A culture of consumption and competition rears us to chase stuff in an endless pursuit of "keeping up" but I've made an intentional choice to try and leave that noise behind.

It's definitely a difficult prerogative to adopt in modern times. We're blessed to live in a country where it's easy to maintain a comfortable and predictable, albeit disconnected existence. For me and my partner, that path was not working. After years of chasing the "we should" we've finally embraced the"we could." The choice to adopt a nomadic existence while consciously examining the impact and necessity of it all has brought us closer together and the very act of living is now a sacred journey.

plan ahead and prepare

In 2014, I fled the world of executive leadership, eschewing further opportunities to move up the food chain and and make more money in my respective field. For almost six years I was the guy with the big job, a big salary, big power and a big mouth. The off-ramp from this experience left me spun and dealing with a type of professional PTSD that had me questioning my worth, doubting my identity and failing to see my purpose in it all. I was incredibly sad and very unhappy with the "normalcy" our family unit had settled into. I was depressed that we had abandoned the visionary path we had sought as starry eyed youths. Without warning and unchecked by our own self-awareness, two travelers adept at living out of our backpacks for months at a time, had slipped into their own bourgeois lane in the rat race. It was difficult to recognize the absurdity of this choice as we pacified ourselves with the trappings of a nice house, cars, gear, vacations, meals out and the fiscal power to purchase and pursue anything we wanted, whenever we wanted it. We had become addicted to self medicating with the privilege of western culture.

Ethics are what you do when no one is looking and we had become blind to the disconnect between our choices and ideals. Waking up to the idea that we had drifted help us chart a new course. Re-calibrating our voyage would be difficult and was sure to force us into some tumultuous seas while pursuing a more simple voyage. "Ships are safe in harbor....but that's not what ships are built for."

Pursuing this passion led to the purchase of a four season truck camper. The irony of downsizing into a simpler existence while sheltered in a space-age, fancy mobile home, nicer than many peoples' permanent residences, is not lost on us. But if we were going to try and inhabit a micro footprint, we needed to set ourselves up for success. We also concluded we'd have to scaffold our transition so we'd have time to learn, practice and prepare ourselves for our full time mobile existence.

a solid team developing solid systems

Undoubtedly, the foundation of this new way forward is the partnership I share with my spouse of fifteen years. It's truly a blessing to fall more and more in love with this woman each and every day. Having a partner who unconditionally supports you, allowed me to express how distant I felt we'd drifted from our dreams and how disappointed I was that we had settled for the mainstream map. We agreed it was time to start living for ourselves and recommitted to sculpting and manifesting an existence that was aligned with our habits of heart and mind.

Undoubtedly, my partner's interest in the tiny house movement propelled us first to address the glut and overages found in our current domicile. First, we moved from our large home with the yard, porch, deck and backyard into a sub-400 sqft ADU in downtown Durango.

This transition forced us to de-clutter and purge an incredible amount of crap we've been hauling around, sans purpose for many years. And once we got going, the momentum was addictive. Soon, our tiny home felt large again and we continued to question the need for many things that we had chosen to hold on to.

The hardest items to give up were items wrapped in experience. There's a great Radiolab that unpacks this natural human attachment to things and it's a must listen! Realize. it's not "the thing" itself, but the memories and experiences "the thing" represents and embodies that is what's difficult to give up. But we're blessed to live in a digital age and having the ability to save a file or take a picture of the ratty t-shirt from my first grateful dead concert worked to fill the void. I can look at those images and items and still relive those good times. So with our experiences and memories saved to the cloud, it was time to downsize even more!

​a blessed existence

Freeing ourselves, we finally hit the road and what a trip it has been! We are incredibly blessed and this journey is something I'll be forever grateful for. I'm often in awe of the radical shift we've been able to make. I often wake up and think it's all a dream. I pinch myself and mutter out loud, "We did it....We fucking did it!"

enjoying what we love

When you free yourself from cultural norms and the pre-set expectations that society has for adults in the "real world" it's amazing how rich life becomes. The very act of living has become an improtant and valuable process for us to reflect upon. Focusing on what really matters and cutting extraneous bullshit out of our lives leaves plenty of time to enjoy the journey and engage in pursuits of passion. Riding bikes, reading and writing, spending each day outside surrounded by the wonders of the natural world has filled us up. We're overflowing with love for each other and the world in which we are traveling through. Together, we've seen and experienced things that most people will never be exposed to. You can choose to fill your life vault with money or you can choose to fill your life's vault with experiences. How rich do you want your life to be?

overcoming difficulties and preparing for challenges

Our decision to adopt this new way of living has not been easy. Each and every day presents us with a new set of questions to answer and challenges to overcome. Where should we move our home? How will we pay our bills? How nasty is the weather? How will the next season impact us? How is our family adapting and adjusting to constantly shifting conditions? An endless array of "what ifs" provide no shortage of queries to consider.

survive and thrive

That's the goal. To live each day to the fullest and find happiness on this chosen path of ours. Who knows how long we'll be at it but if the past eight months are any indication as to our ability to navigate this bold new heading, then I beleive our bearings are solid. our route is sound and our ultimate destination can only be determined by the growth, experience and wisdom we've been exposed to on this journey.


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