Our lives have changed so much in the past ten years with careers, marriage, and starting a family. Throughout all the changes, we have always prioritized living our best lives. A big part of that has been the freedom to travel.
How it all began: A standard 9 to 5
I went to school for eight years to get a degree as a Doctor of Physical Therapy. So of course, I didn’t want to squander that time and money and not get a job in my field. I started working a job I was pretty happy with and put in my 40 hours per week for pay so we could live comfortably.
When we started to think outside the box
Being married to someone who grew up in a completely different culture from me has helped me realize how many different paths can be taken in life while still ending up at the same destination. Honza (my husband) and I grew up with entirely different parenting styles, religious exposure, and ways of life. Yet we connect on a very personal level as partners in ideals related to spirituality, healthy living, and just general life ideas.
How can this be? Well, obviously there isn’t one path to a destination! Meeting Honza and marrying him has helped me realize there is much more to life outside the box. Even when I was working a regular 9-5, we learned to free ourselves from the standard “ideals” related to spending money, how we use our time, and traveling (more of that story here).
When my perspective radically changed: Having babies
We have worked and traveled successfully for over eight years, even with our kids in tow.
However, for the first two years, I was still working a 9-5 job for three months at a time when we wanted to save and “recuperate” from our travel time. I figured this was how our life would continue. I was happy with this life, but it did require some budgeting and things like staying with my parents (both a blessing and a curse).
Then I got pregnant. Throughout pregnancy, I figured I’d have our daughter, and then I’d return to work around the 3-month mark because that’s what working moms do! Right? Well, for a lot of women, yes. But for me, it turns out no.
Exposure to other cultures changed my perspective
I had my first baby in Czech, where the norm is for a mother to stay home for TWO TO THREE years. That’s amazing, and after having our precious daughter, I didn’t want to be anywhere but with her.
We saw both extremes in our travels when we met a young girl working as a tour guide in Vietnam. She was taking her 6-week-old baby on tourist hiking treks with her so that she could pay her bills. We were shocked, but she didn’t have a second thought about it when we asked her about it. So, of course, taking time off is not always an option.
Ultimately, I realized I needed to make the best decision for our family.
Embracing the remote world to achieve my dreams
We are becoming a society of shared commodities. Why should the medical profession be any different? Of course, there is value in interacting with people in person and one one-on-one. However, the benefits have mainly been skewed in a health system where the average doctor sees a patient for 7 minutes (at least in the US).
I saw my therapy patients for an average of 20 minutes for a 60-minute visit because it was all I had time for in my busy schedule. Could I have used more time with most of them? YES. Could the quality of care have been better? Unfortunately, yes. So, I realized there could be an advantage (for me and my patients) to providing excellent services for a fraction of the cost while maintaining high quality care. This is where information and education are the key.
This opens up a new information-sharing avenue I can embrace as a medical professional. I am now writing books, making online programs, and writing medical articles for medical equipment companies. I’ve also branched into blogging about healthy habits, motherhood, and more. It’s been a fun ride!
It all started with ONE step.
I’m not unique by any means. Our life has been full of adventure and amazing memories simply because we chose to start chasing our dreams rather than waiting for “one day.”
We run into many people who say, “I wish I could travel like that, but…” or “Someday I would love to live my dream life…” The literal only difference is that we decided to start. We had to get our ducks in a row (which was not easy at times), we had to face some of our fears, but we decided to do it!
We took that first step. If you truly have a dream you want to pursue, that’s all it takes. No more dragging your feet and hypothesizing. Figure out how to get that ball rolling NOW, not tomorrow! For us, it was buying a plane ticket to Asia!
