Escaping The Rut

You’re in a rut. You’re tired. Life doesn’t have the zing it did before, and in the back of your mind, you think it never will again. But you’re wrong. You know how you get out of a rut? You realize you’re in one, and make a concerted effort to change. You may think you’ve seen everything. That’s just depression prompting you into complacency.

 

Proof positive: have you ever been to Australia? Yes? How about Antarctica? Alaska? Russia? Hawaii? The Redwoods of the west coast? Niagara Falls? Have you seen the Wailing Wall, or the great pyramids? When was the last time you zip-lined down an Aztec temple in some Indiana Jones-style tourist shenanigans?

 

Of course, these are some more expensive travel suggestions. But you don’t have to go globetrotting just to get out of your rut. You may be able to do some traveling around your own backyard that reinvigorates your joie de vivre—your joy of life. For example, have you been hiking lately?

 

Hitting The Trail

What if you took a discount flight to the Rockies for a weekend and hiked a “fourteen-er”, as the locals call 14,000-foot peaks? Of course, you’ll want to be careful to keep your body in shape prior the hike. Sleep right the night before!

 

There’s more to having a pillow than just comfort; according to HikersOnRun.com, “…your body must be in [a] proper state for you to be able to make the best out of the hike.” If you’re trekking up the mountain with a crick in your neck, you’re going to get worn out more quickly, and you’re less likely to enjoy the hike.

 

Additionally, if you find yourself in a rut and in need of travel, your best bet is going to be avoiding areas which are over-ridden with fellow travelers. Traveling during the holidays isn’t advisable, but here are some tips to help you if you can’t avoid it.

 

Nomad Dreams

Another way to reinvigorate your life through travel is to go the nomad route. Have you ever lived on the road? Have you ever slept out under the stars for weeks on end? Certainly this is easier said than done. There’s a reason “snow birds” are usually older couples in big-ticket RVs: they can afford the finer things as they pertain to nomadic travel.

 

But you don’t have to be rich to switch out apartment living for mobile living. Have you heard of the “van-dwelling” movement? Here’s the thing: larger RVs are going for super cheap right now because you can’t park them anywhere. You’ve got to be very strategic, they’re hard to drive, they’re expensive to fix, and something always breaks on them.

 

This may sound crazy, but you can get a full-sized RV with less than 50,000 miles on it from the mid-nineties for around $5k, depending on where you go. Check out this craigslist page just to get an idea how true this is. You can find RVs in the $2k range, you can find them in the $10k range.

 

If you live full-time in an RV for nine months to a year, and purchasing it, licensing it, repairing it, and selling it puts you out a total of $10k over the course of that time, you’ve paid less than your monthly rent to travel wherever you want to and have your home with you.

 

Workspace Virtualization: Increasingly Attractive

Now: if you’re going to be mobile, you’ll need to have a way of making money remotely. This isn’t feasible for everyone, but technology is in your court on this one. Did you know that virtualized offices are quickly coming to phase out traditional office solutions? It’s true, and you’ll see why in a moment.

 

A desktop computer is $1k, minimum—if it’s to be relied on. An office downtown with 100 employees likely isn’t going to cost less than $10k a month in rental. That’s $110k, altogether, which can be saved through virtualization. Cut 90% of the office through BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), and now office space is $12k a year rather than $120k.

 

If employees bring their own computers, that’s an additional $90k in savings. This over time can save hundreds of thousands of dollars. Many offices have crunched the numbers and decided that vying for traditional modes of employment just isn’t as cost-effective as the virtualized solution.

 

If you are in a situation where your workplace may be considering such a switch, why don’t you volunteer? Do a good enough job and you may be able to retain a mobile work solution. This could allow you to follow through on all your nomad designs!

 

 

Finding The Travel Solutions You Most Enjoy

But certainly, not everyone wants to live on the road perennially, even if it is cost-effectively possible today—and in a way that’s less expensive than traditional rental is. Most prefer to put down roots and vacation every now and again. This makes a lot of sense, and it doesn’t have to break the bank.

 

The simplest trips can be the most rewarding. You may find your perfect vacation is just a day’s drive away. But one thing is worth thinking about, and that’s broadening your horizons. The truth is, today we feel as though we’ve seen and done everything there is to see and to do because so much data is immediately available at our fingertips via technology.

 

But in reality, until you do the things you watch, you haven’t truly experienced them; you’ve only had a sort of waking dream as to what they’re like. You can’t feel the wind in your hair, or see the waves beneath you, or hear the water crashing into shore, or smell the somehow-pleasant salty effluvia that is the ocean, if you’re just watching a documentary on parasailing.

 

But if you actually get a kite and a surfboard for yourself, you can have an experience that may just change your life. A change of scenery, a change of pace—this can be just what you need to reinvigorate your existence. Today’s travel options make the world your oyster; so open it up!

 

Ready for  your next adventure?  Call Savvy Nana Travel!  We’ll help you plan your dream trip!  If you can dream it, we can plan it!