Tag Archives: how to get what you want

Day 3257 – January Letter Status – or – How Visualizing The Future Helps To Change It

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I told y’all a little bit about my January Letter a while back and I wanted to give an update to show just how powerful this technique can be.

The short description of a January letter is that it’s something you write in January like it’s the end of that year. So I wrote mine on 1/1/18 (and 12/31/17) and it starts with “It’s December 31, 2018.” After that, I listed how the year was going to look “we’ve closed XX deals…I have read XX books…I met the Super Carlin Brothers…etc”

There were a few items (and still are) that I’m not sure if they will actually happen. First was seeing John Williams in concert. I heard he was touring and after my life-changing experience at the Hans Zimmer concert, I knew I had to make it happen. Unfortunately, it was something I kept putting off and the less expensive tickets were gone and the left-over tickets were going for $200-300+. While I do think seeing a film composer is an amazing experience, I didn’t want to spend that much (especially when that amount of money can do a lot better in our real estate business). Another item was “I saw Thrice twice.” A few weeks ago, we could have seen Thrice at a pretty epic festival, but it just didn’t work out. I then realized there was only one more tour date in the US this year. Ugh, well, at least we can go to that one! (It just so happens to be the day after our anniversary, woo hoo anniversary trip!) While a little disappointed I wouldn’t be able to tick that off, I was happy to see them once.

The John Williams Baltimore show is this Wednesday and has been on my calendar for months. A few days back, I thought, let me see if he’s playing a show somewhat nearby that would be a little more within our budget. Dudes. Dudes. Dudes!! The first location I checked was in Massachusetts….in August (before Bret goes back to school)….and is at a venue JUST like Merriweather (where we saw Hans)…AND it was under $30 each!

On the SAME day, I happened upon an announcement….Thrice is putting out a new album and doing a tour this fall!

While I’m not saying that these things will now happen because I wrote this letter. What struck me is that because I have been visualizing this, I look for opportunities to make them happen. How you see the world has a major impact on how your life plays out. If you’re looking for a job and think “there are no jobs out there” it will be much harder for you to find one. If you think “there are plenty of jobs for my specific skill set, there are people who need what I can offer” odds are, you’ll recognize opportunities right under your nose.

It’s been so exciting to see my letter come to life. One of the items – meet The Super Carlin Brothers, will happen in only a few days time! They’re hosting a viewing party of Incredibles 2 and a meet & greet after. I’ve watched so many of their videos and they bring joy to my days, so it will be an honor to meet them in person.

Have you written a January letter?

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Did you like what you read? Here’s some ways you can support us and this blog!
Join our Facebook group, Planning an Epic Road Trip on Any Budget
Join the Journey With The G’s email list (bonus – you get my Epic Road Trip Budget spreadsheet)
Buy my book, Planning an Epic Road Trip on any Budget
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Check out our resources page.
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Day 3128 – One Of My Best Experiences Was Right In Front Of My Face And How You Can Experience It Too

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Eight years ago, we were drowning in debt, I was working a job that was not the right fit for me, I was struggling to build a photography business, and I really wanted to travel. It was the second Christmas Bret and I were married and we were hoping to visit his family in California. We had flown the year before, and friends, as I’ve written before, flying to California is a LOT during the holidays. I’m so thankful for Southwest and our many free/cheap flights over the years, but I hadn’t discovered this magic yet. When we started to do the math, and look at the time off we could both get, we realized that driving might be an option. It turns out that it was really affordable to drive across the country instead of flying. There is the time factor, you have to take off work (thus not make money, unless you get vacation time) and spend days in a car. But we did it, only stopped at a few hotels, and got our visit.

Here’s the thing though, we got to take a cross country trip! We did something together that people sometimes only dream about. To us, it was a way to save money, to make it work with what we had. But as it turns out, we were able to see eight states on that trip. We were able to spend days together. We took a totally epic road trip.

We used this technique two more times for Christmas visits until Bret started a full time teaching job. It wasn’t until our 2016 summer road trip that I realized I had learned a really valuable skill – how to take an epic road trip on any budget. I learned so much the hard way (and some the easy way) that I could use to help others take an epic trip as well.

It seems to me that people don’t realize how easy and affordable it can be to take a road trip. I figured out a sample budget for a trip from Baltimore to the Grand Canyon for two people under $500! While I haven’t taken that exact trip myself, I have gotten coast to coast for under $500 in gas (for my 2016 trip…but that was not a straight coast to coast, ha ha, we went all over the place on that one!)

There’s one phrase that I hate to hear when I tell people about my cross country travels – “I’ve always wanted to do that.” It seems to be quickly followed by a “I can’t wait until I retire to do it” or “once I have XZY I’ll take it” or “every other excuse in the book.” I want to shake them and say, “don’t you understand? You CAN take an amazingly epic trip on any budget!” Coming from the experience of paying off a debt of over $30,000 , I know what it means to sacrifice to save. The hard work we put in to get out of that hole really prepared us to plan and save for the road trips we wanted to take.

So friends, listen, it IS possible to take a cross country road trip. You CAN take the trip. I have put together all my knowledge over the years into a book, it’s not long, you can probably read it in one sitting. It will help you plan YOUR epic road trip, so you can be the person that people say to “Oh my gosh, I’ve always wanted to do that!” You can hand them my book (which hopefully you’ve got a physical copy of and have written all over!) and say, “here, this is how you can take one, and much sooner than you think.”

So if you want to take an epic road, get a copy of my book (which includes the sample trip for under $500 to the Grand Canyon), and then I want to hear your story of how you TOOK the trip. (p.s. If you have Amazon Prime, you can get it TOMORROW!)

Here’s us on our first epic road trip at the Grand Canyon.

When are you taking your epic road trip?

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Did you like what you read? Here’s some ways you can support us and this blog!
Join our Facebook group, Planning an Epic Road Trip on Any Budget
Join the Journey With The G’s email list (bonus – you get my Epic Road Trip Budget spreadsheet)
Buy my book, Planning an Epic Road Trip on any Budget.
Buy my book, Trusting God With 2 Cents: 22 Days To Becoming A Successful Christian Business Owner.
Shop on Amazon (no additional cost to you, this gives us a percentage of what you order).
Check out our resources page.
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel