Karma2.0 - we're doing it!

Sometimes, everything changes - not with a bang, but with a decision to make change and a step forward.
Even for us - this is a big one.

Can you describe or draw or envision exactly what happiness looks like to you?
Do you spend ample time thinking about, planning, and charting a path towards that vision?

• Do you write down your goals/dreams and share them with others?
• Do you make a plan or path forward in that direction?
• Are they posted on the fridge or on a vision board beside your bed as a constant reminder/focus?
• Do you choose to spend time with others who have similar goals or who support/build you up in yours?
• If not… we highly recommend it.

I remember when we used to feel completely trapped in the rat race and couldn't see any possible way out.

We couldn't imagine the years/decades required to save enough money to free ourselves from those jobs, and couldn't imagine a job/role elsewhere that felt any better. We didn't know anyone living a different lifestyle to ask our questions to or to mimic the choices of and didn't know how or where to find them.
We just felt... STUCK.

But in some happenstance, we also found ourselves doing simple exercises to begin imagining our very best life.

It started out as a set of required "homework" for Jen's job but quickly became much more. A series of pages, scribbling down the best possible life we could imagine and then working backwards to turn it into long-term goals to get there.

Even then, it felt more like a joke or some fake attempt to simply check the boxes and move on (but the conversations/daydreams were fun nonetheless).

At the end of the day, what was the result of the page that got posted near Jen's desk? Sadly, we have no photo to share here... but roughly:

• To quit our jobs and run away.
• To drive our adorable vw bus through Mexico.
• To live on a sailboat anchored off a small island and stare at the sunsets each day after snorkeling and making art for the small gallery we opened nearby.
• To be impossibly happy and beautifully in love.

Wow. Not too bad at all given the audacity of those goals written by a couple in their early 20s and without a clue (about anything).

Looking back now, you'd think we spent every day over the next couple decades working to make every word of those dreams a reality — but in truth... we were really just focused on that last bullet point, and the rest kind of "happened" along the way.

Allow yourself the time and freedom to envision a future without limitations; to imagine a lifestyle that seems unimaginable and makes you giddy to think about it — and then move forward in that direction as though that’s already true and you're in the process of getting there. Like in the broader scheme of the universe/multiverse that you can't possibly understand — it's already yours. Like the reason you’re so giddy excited about it is that you already belong there or have been there for a while, laughing at the current you and wondering why it's taking so long.

In reality (or at least the current one), you may or may not reach that exact place — but more than likely, it will be because your definition of what you want/think is possible will also change/adapt along the way. Ask us how we know…

But regardless of where you end up, you’ll likely stumble upon happiness somewhere along the way.

Somewhere along the way, somewhere in the Alaskan bush, we met a guy around a campfire who shared how sad he was to have to be moving off his sailboat and to now be traveling by van. His words struck us like a lightning bolt, and we bought svKarma three days later to make sure we didn't miss the opportunity to experience that long-held dream that now seemed to have an expiration date.

Over the last few months, we've been imagining the next phase, and our time here on Bonaire has been a surprisingly perfect glimpse of what we imagine that lifestyle will be (whether it's here or somewhere we cannot yet envision)... but despite how perfect it has been, we also keep coming back to that expiration date.

Sailing and living aboard, as it turns out, is even harder on the body (and sometimes the mind and the spirit) than that man had shared, and after seven years of living aboard, we know for certain that it's a limited-time offer for us. That we probably will only want or choose that "adventure" for another six to nine more years before "settling down," slowing down, and choosing something a bit calmer.

But... we also keep realizing that we aren't there. Not just yet.

For now, we still choose the mayhem. The exploration.
Allowing ourselves to be led by the winds and the currents. For now, we are choosing to go back to living aboard — and we've finally decided what that will look like. We're going to go back to boatlife, but we're also starting over.

Our first deep dive into boat life was chaos. We bought the boat sight unseen and moved aboard without knowing how to sail. We refused to buddy-boat because we literally had nothing to offer, and we rarely invited others onboard because we lacked confidence and didn't want the added responsibility of others around us. We never slept off the boat or left it to travel/explore for six years... originally because we had our sweet Karma with us, but later because we simply didn't know how to make it happen.

This time — we're excited to move aboard with the baseline knowledge we should have had the first time. And to share our experience with others in every way we can.

And... while we certainly felt gratitude for each and every moment we had aboard, this phase already feels somehow more present, more aware, and more in the moment. We’ve done some crazy things over the last 13 years…
But this next chapter might just be the craziest yet.

We just booked flights to Europe to pick up our new boat.
Gulp.

We are... in fact, giddy!

Despite the fact the last few months have been a series of events that often made us think it wouldn't or couldn't happen. In the end — we won’t let it not.

Our new boat/floating home will be one of the first Excess13 catamarans to launch/sail.
Hull #6 is literally on the factory floor being built as I type, and we are absolutely stoked to have finally decided — to set sail once again.

To take the most terrifying - and exciting - leap of faith we can imagine.
To choose not for the security or known in the future but for the happiness of today. To continue choosing (as we have for the past 13 years) to make our decisions based on what we want, today. To live our very best lives right now and trust our future selves to do the same.

To know for a fact that we cannot possibly afford financially the path we're about to take — but also to know/understand that in the broader scheme of life and experiences — that we can't afford not to.

This is us, starting over — again, and we've never been more unsure.
Or more certain. As always fear is right here with us and along for the ride, but we remain ecstatic about sailing, following our dreams, inspiring others to dream and live the best life ever.

“Here goes everything.”

*side note - we just realized that its our 13th year of adventuring full time, and were buying a 13... I mean that has to mean its a good decision right? ;)