New Year's is a great time to reflect and dream and plan on making our lives better, and how we can improve on what we’ve already got.
Our move to the country started with a dream that popped into our heads while sitting around a campfire. Maybe you are used to sitting in an office cubicle and because of the pandemic you're now working from home. You've realized that you could actually be anywhere doing your work online. If you are staring out a window thinking that there must be more to life, I hear you. There is.
When we first started dreaming about moving away from the city, I was intimidated. I'd never lived outside of a city before. I'd always camped and I worked on a horse farm a couple of years but that was about the extent of my outdoor living experience. Whenever one of us got cold feet, we'd just remind each other that we were just kicking the tires, exploring options - dreaming. After all, if you don't start with a dream, how will you ever know what you actually want for your life? It's not like you're writing anything in stone.
Is now the time for you to start dreaming?
Sometimes it's hard to know where to start. Personally, I like a paper and pen. I don't know why, but my best day-dreams happen when I'm curled up in a corner of our couch and the house is calm.
In the centre of the page, write the goal. For me, it was move to the country. By the way, I don't worry about sentence structure or grammar. I just write enough for me to be able to remember my thoughts! At the moment, you're just sketching out your thoughts. You don't need to have an answer but this will get you dreaming and figuring out what you want.
Around that central point, write down all the things that cross your mind. It can be overwhelming because honestly, where do you start? The trusty who, what, where, when and why are good if you don't have ideas popping into your head.
Who.
Who would this move affect besides you? You'll need to decide what your relationships would look like if you end up nearer or farther away from the people in your life.
What.
What do you want? A home in a small village? Do you want to start a farm? Which animals? Do you want a huge garden? What would you grow? Do you want to harness solar or wind energy? What kind of home do you want?
Where.
Do you have ideas on a specific place you want to live? Maybe you want to be near a lake so you can fish. Maybe you love planes and want to live near an airport. Trees? Forest? Prairie? Keep in mind, you don't need to pick one. You're exploring so put down whatever appeals.
When.
We gave ourselves 5 years to explore, research, and plan. It's good to have a deadline because then it goes from being a dream to becoming your reality. You might want to move next year. Remember!! This is the start of your dream, it isn't a contract. There are no penalties for making changes. Life happens.
Why.
What reasons do you have for wanting to make this move? Even if you never make the leap, I bet you find this process enlightening for yourself.
How.
Brainstorm ideas for how you can make this happen. Work from home? Sell your house? Tiny House? Transfer with your company? You don’t need to have an answer right now, you’re just starting to wonder.
I've included an outline of what your mind map might look like to start.
We have created a 9-page workbook available that provides more details and ideas to help move your dream into reality. This is based on our own experience taking our dream of moving to the county to actually making the move to a rural property with nothing on it.