Prioritize Experience Over Things

Let’s talk about bucket list items, about trips that you want to take, all the experiences you want to have. We all have these things in life that we put off all the time, there are all these trips that we want to take, there are all these experiences that we want to give our kids. There are all these things that we dreamed about since we were 12 years old, you're now 45, you're 35 years, you're 50 years old. And you haven't done any of these things, and bucket list items are great but one of the episodes back, Aaron Amuchastegui said, "But if it's not on your calendar, it doesn't mean anything."

And so, we all are trying to get to this arbitrary goal or this arbitrary thing and that's when we're going to start living our life. And isn't that the most asinine ridiculous way to look at stuff? It doesn't even make any sense to me. The name of my podcast is Construct Your Life, so you're constructing a lifestyle, not a bank account, you're constructing a lifestyle around your job, your family, what you want out of life. Who doesn't want money, I want money, everybody wants money, but money is a binary tool, to construct the lifestyle that you're looking for. I had seven investors reach out to me and say, "We sold everything we own, we're getting an RV for a year with our kids, and we're just going to travel the United States."

These are people that are 39, 42, 26, and what I'm saying is that they're choosing to live a life and they're choosing to let their job be part of the life, but not be the life. And so many people are wrapped up in the identity of their job, they don't even know who they are anymore and that is ridiculous. You're not your job, it's a part of your life, but what are you doing the rest of the time? And you have all these trips, you have all these experiences and I made a conscious decision about a month and a half ago. Obviously, you have to do things in stages, but I've knocked off six or seven bucket list items, one time it was in the same week.

And I'm just saying yes to things and it's working out and I'm getting work done on the road and the team's working great. And it truly is what the podcast name is, you're focusing on the things that make you happy and by making you happy, the business and the opportunities and the family life come to you tenfold. And so that trip that you always wanted to take, take it, the date that you wanted to have with your spouse, take it, because tomorrow's not promised.

My question to you is, who the hell is going to enjoy Italy at 65 years old? You want to walk up and down those steps? Screw that, do it at 32. I got a message from my 20-year-olds. Anybody in their twenties, do whatever the hell you want to do, disappear, go to Europe for a year, who cares, it doesn't matter. I guarantee you, if you hang around me long enough, I'm going to make your move to Europe. That's the truth, ask Sal, that's my buddy, he went on a six-month trip, I went on a two and a half month trip. I never regretted a single moment of that, it was an amazing trip, and guess what? The world kept spinning, it kept spinning and I know it's a crazy scenario, the job and your little community and your life keeps on spinning, no matter where you're at.

And so the question that you have to ask yourself is, what are you doing every day to fill up your bucket, right? Your bucket list, meaning what makes you happy. And if you're a photographer, if you want to raise goats, I don't care what you want to do, but just do it, and stop making excuses why it's not the time, because that's what we do as a society, and that's what we do. We make excuses until we don't have to deal with it anymore and guess what? You bring those excuses to me and I'm going to shove them right back in your face, it's as simple as that, I don't want to hear it, I don't care.

It doesn't matter and more importantly, it doesn't matter what anybody thinks. So if you and your family want to go milk goats on an Island somewhere in Costa Rica for six months and make cheese, then go do it. It doesn't matter guys, but we make these excuses or more importantly, this is the bigger thing. We get ourselves in a financial spot with a house that we can't afford and credit cards that we can't pay, and that doesn't allow us to travel. Go minimalist or scale down and go do all the things that you want to go do, instead of the other way around. If this virus has taught us anything it's that we don't need a lot in life. I am a man right now who is living in an Airbnb, I've been on the road for like 80 days, I've got seven boxes, two bikes, and some clothes to my name.

How are you doing with all that stuff in the attic that you haven't seen in 20 years? For your house that you don't even see your kids in? I grew up in a big house, it was a nightmare, we never saw each other, and the family disconnects. I'm not saying that you can't have a big house and be connected, but I'm telling you that is my truth, why I don't want a big house, because that, I feel like, ripped our family apart, so call it what you will, everybody went off to their separate scenarios. So, at the end of the day, take the trip, take all these things that you want to go do and I don't give a crap if it's just going to a national park an hour away.

But we want to turn on Netflix, we want to drink, or we want to do the nine million things that distract us from doing the things that we actually love. Everybody says, "Dude, when are you going to go on vacation?" I said, "What? Vacation? What is that? My life is a vacation. I'm doing exactly what I want to do with beautiful scenery. Who? Vacation?" I was down in Costa Rica. And they said, "Oh my God, dude, slow down, stop looking at real estate down there." I said, "What are you talking about? I'm probably going to buy a hotel here eventually because I love this." And so my question to you is when you're schlepping into the office, or you're schlepping in rush hour traffic, wouldn't you rather just say, "Hey boss, I'm going to take off Friday and I'm going to go take my kids."

And I promise you, when your young kids touch their toes in the water for the first time or on a beach somewhere, you're never going to regret that decision because there's no amount of money in this world that can beat that feeling. When you give those gifts to your kids or you give those gifts to yourself, more importantly. And we have a tendency to get wrapped up into, I got to do this, I got to do that, you don't have to do anything, all you have to do is strategically put yourself in a position to live the life that you choose to live. It's as simple as that, but what we get caught with bills and we get caught with mortgages and all this stuff that doesn't matter. If you just been with your wife for 20 years and y'all been talking about an Italy trip for 20 years and you haven't taken it, sad, sad. Seriously.

And I'm just using that as an example because I did that in my marriage, we always were like, "Oh, we'll do it later, we'll push it off." And guess what? We got divorced, and we didn't do any of those things. And I'm not saying that was the reason we got divorced, but what I'm saying is, it doesn't help, because these things are what are on the imprints of your mind. When I'm having a bad day or I'm meditating, I go back to these beautiful mountains that I've seen or the beach or the ocean. This is what it's about guys, get out of the house, turn off the damn TV and get out in nature, or get on a plane and go to Italy, or sit and drink your tea. It doesn't matter, but just make sure that you don't say, "We'll do it next time," anymore.