Minimalism, vanlife, traveling, solo female traveler, sober travel, traveling in USA, downsizing.
This week I interviewed Ashley DeLuca whose story brought up so many nuggets surrounding our opportunities for growth. She had a specific dream but her life took her elsewhere and instead of fighting it, she went with it. By turning her boat downstream, she discovered an entirely new life. One she still had to navigate but with a smaller map and compass. She found herself in a new profession, quite by accident. And through the needs of her clients she discovered her niche, email marketing. But she wasn’t instantly good at it and I think this is a VERY important reminder! We can’t all be good at everything we try, most of us aren’t. It took Ashley two years to learn and become good at email marketing. We can take this into every arena. When we try new things, we are developing new cognitive facets of our brains. And with every muscle, it will take work. This reminds me of everything I’ve ever tried. I sucked at it first but if I stuck with it, I always improved. Trapeze is my favorite example. I was terrified of heights, it hurt to even sit on the bar, let alone stand and do tricks but after several years of doing it, I started to feel like I belonged up there and now I wear it like a second skin. It was the same with acupuncture. I barely made it through the graduate program and even failed the California state board exam on my first go. I don’t excel in classroom settings or test taking. I excel in person-to-person treatments. I couldn’t grasp the concepts fully until they were real, in front of me and I could see them with my own eyes. Reading them in a book didn’t work for me. But I stuck it out. I kept studying, I retook and passed the exam on my second go around and I learned more by practicing the medicine than I ever did from reading the three dozen required books. It’s this FAILURE on our way to SUCCESS that stops a lot of people in their tracks but it shouldn’t. It’s how we get to the success. We need to find what works for us and we need to keep trying. Ashley also shows us how, turning our boat downstream, instead of fighting upstream, trying to row against the current, can bring us to a new and previously unforeseen place. A beautiful place. I wish I’d learned this particular lesson earlier in my life but it’s never too late! I have been rowing upstream for forty years. It’s what I was used to. My life has never been easy. Easier than many, many people because I almost always had a roof over my head (except for a 3 month homeless stint after I left my ex-husband and had to couch surf) and mostly (not always) had food on my plate; except when I didn’t have enough money to eat anything except top ramen every few days, during a couple of college years. But, my boat hits rapids on a regular basis. And now, for the first time in my life, at 54 years old, I’m turning my boat downstream. It’s scary as hell, I won’t lie. But it’s also super exciting. I hope Ashley’s story encourages you to do the same. Let go of the reins, let go of the paddles, let go of the anchor or whatever fears are holding you back. Open your eyes, suck in a huge breath of fresh air and see where your boat takes you! ~KA
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AuthorHi, I'm Kimberly Anne! (aka K.A.) Archives
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