As I am writing this we’ve been on the road for almost 14 months. For the first month or so, when we were in France, it felt like we were on vacation. We went sightseeing. We enjoyed way too much wine, pastry, cheese, and other delicious French yummies. We slept as late as we possibly could with a 5-year-old in the house. We goofed off constantly.
But as time went by, we settled into what we always knew this would eventually be: a life on the road. A nomadic life requires balance, just like any other, and it took us some time to find some little bit of it. And then we moved. And we found it again. And we moved again.
Check Out: Rome – A Week Ain’t Enough
Over the past year, we’ve become pretty good at finding a balance in a new location, with a new schedule, pretty quickly. It’s not for everyone, and it won’t be for us forever, but it’s been reassuring to find that we can learn how to adapt quickly to all kinds of weird stuff and live a life we think is fulfilling on the road.
When refer to “balance”, I mean the state of working on several things in my life that are important to me, but not feeling like I’m missing out on something.
It’s still a work in progress, but this is how I’m doing it so far:
1) Identify the Important Stuff
I’m just like anyone else. I discover something that captures my interest or that I consider worthwhile and I try to start doing it. However, as time goes by my schedule slowly fills up with other “stuff”, making it more difficult to focus on the important things.
That’s usually when I start to feel overwhelmed. When I realize I feel that way, I stop, look at everything I’m trying to accomplish, and I attempt to reevaluate it. I can’t do everything, so I try to identify the single most important thing I need to get done every day, the one thing that, if I get it done, will make pushing everything else aside feel ok.
I think of this as “clearing the weeds”, and I do it regularly. When my Google Calendar has 6-10 things for me to do in a day, it’s time to clear the weeds.
2) Get the Important Things Done First
Once I’ve figured out that one important thing, I put it first on my daily schedule. I wake up, have breakfast with my family, and as soon as my teeth are brushed I sit down and work on that one thing.
Check Out: A Visit to Siem Reap
For the past couple of months that “one thing” has been Braeden’s schooling. When breakfast is over we push the plates to the side and immediately start in on 15-30 minutes of work on reading, writing, or math.
It took many months of thinking to finally figure out what was most important to me: making a bit more money, creating something that would help a lot of people, etc. In the end I realized that the thing that jazzed me up the most – and that which would pay the biggest dividends – was teaching my son how to learn. Now that is how I start my day.
3) Use the Rest of the Day as I Please
After I’ve finished work on the “Most Important Thing”, I use the rest of the day to address the other stuff I like or need to do: spend time with my wife and son, work on my business, hit the gym, read, explore the city or town we’re currently in, etc.
That’s it. I figure out the single most important thing I have to do, I do it first every day, and every few weeks or months I revisit my priorities to keep the most important stuff first.
To paraphrase Tim Ferriss, the author whose work inspired this lifestyle, if I feel like I don’t have enough time to get things done, I realize I need to reevaluate my priorities.
Sevilla
Seville was one of those destinations on our itinerary that I just knew we were going to love. It sounded like a beautiful, sun-drenched, small city filled with amazing architecture, and that’s exactly how it turned out.
We loved it. Our apartment on Calle Mateos Gago was just two blocks away from the Catedral de Sevilla, a gorgeous 500-year-old cathedral that we could see from our balcony. The city itself was intimate and felt very comfortable to us. We walked pretty much everywhere even though there was a clean and convenient Metro just a few blocks away.
The food, of course, was fantastic. There was a wonderful little bar around the corner from our apartment, Bodega Santa Cruz, that we liked to hit as often as possible. The interior was dripping with character, the tapas were delicious, and the crusty bartenders took a shine to Juliann. We would order a couple of glasses of Tinto de Verano, a glass of milk for Braeden, and some plates of food, then eat and play Uno at our table for an hour or two.
Seville was definitely a city I would return to in a heartbeat, even though it had one feature that I’d previously considered a showstopper:
It was hot as f**k.
Given, we were there in the middle of the summer, but still…cripes. It was over 105 degrees for several days in a row our first week there. I didn’t think any place on Earth could feel hotter than Cambodia, but Seville took that prize by a fair margin.
I found Feel CrossFit, a large gym about 20 minutes outside the city center, and worked out there for duration of our stay. The owner, Jose, was a sweet guy and he let me tackle their competitors’ programming while I was there.
We explored the Catedral, the Real Alcazar, and toyed with the idea of taking a horse-drawn carriage tour, but after a few days we had seen much of the city on foot anyway. For our 11th wedding anniversary we had dinner across the street from our apartment at Mama Bistro, where Juliann surprised me with a beautiful flower arrangement at a reserved table.
We had repeatedly passed by a hole-in-the-wall called Bar El Comercio, supposedly famous for their fresh made churros. Near the end of our stay we stopped in for a couple of cold drinks and a platter of churros with melted chocolate. Braeden’s eyes nearly popped out of his head, and we devoured the hot, crusty treats.
Seville was another one of those places we would have loved to stay longer, but our plans forced us to leave before we were ready. The town felt small enough to be cozy but large enough to be entertaining, the architecture was simply stunning, the people were friendly and warm, and even though the weather was holy-crap-hot at least it wasn’t snowing.
It’s definitely on our “To Return” list.
Next up: Lisbon!