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I’ve been on the road this segment of travel for a little over a month again and been testing some personal tolerances.  I’m just working some more on pushing my comfort zone.  There is a philosophy that says the only time you are really growing is when you are uncomfortable, out of your comfort zone.  You can find a lot of information regarding this in metaphysical teachings and the more main stream.  In fact in a recent email a family member J.T. mentioned, “no mud, no Lotus”.   I actually was introduced to that phrase a couple of months ago and is about getting through the discomfort or mud to stretch towards growth and betterment.  (Google it, it’s interesting) For more main stream thoughts Forbes has done articles on being uncomfortable, there’s a TEDx talk “Why Comfort Will Ruin Your Life” and for the hard core there’s the ever popular “no pain, no gain”. 

The basic idea is to get out of your comfort zone and see how it makes you feel, live in it, see what you learn and stretch with it.  I guess the phrase “get comfortable being uncomfortable” covers it fairly well.  On the road you’re mostly forced to get out of your comfort zone being confronted with unexpected events, plans going off track and unfamiliar surroundings as part of the program.  I thought a little extra work seemed like a good idea.  

In my past life, which was much more regimented, as I kept doing the same routines and digging deeper ruts, at times it was like my mind sort of numbed out.  My last corporate job I was so programmed that I would drive to work most days and not remember just driving there until I arrived.  Almost eerie, it was just auto pilot. 

At times I could almost feel barnacles growing on me and rust setting in.  I’m not saying that you need to get so far out of your comfort zone with adrenaline pumping action that it makes your hair stand up.  Simple, smaller acts can have impact too.  An example is when I was reformatting this blog in Sedona, AZ over the winter.  I was having some trouble getting my thoughts together on what to do after deleting the old blog and starting over from scratch.  I went to the store and bought a good size white board and some dry erase markers and hung it on a door where I saw it anytime I went out or passed it on my way to the kitchen.  I then decided to shake things up and put some urgency in the task by making myself get up at 4:30AM every morning and start working on ideas.  When I was standing over the coffee pot at 4:35AM in the dark it made me want to get moving or face the fact that I got out of bed for nothing.  Quite a shock to the system the first few days, but I got a lot more productive and it really helped me. 

This white board is an example of what 4:30AM can do to your mind.  I did this for well over a month, ended up going through a few packs of markers and a couple of erasers and came out the other end with a refreshed web site and some other helpful ideas. 

So for this particular trip I saw some low hanging fruit I could test and push myself out of my “normal” and see what came about.  These are not things I would have tried while with someone else or my family, but traveling solo right now it seemed like it would be interesting.

One of the first things I did was I abandoned my radio and CD player for almost the entire trip and replaced it with nothing, just quiet.  This one was actually kind of easy because when I go on long trips on my motorcycle I have no radio or music, just me and the bike.  On a very few occasions I put the radio on if I was getting tired on a long drive, but it was just to sing my lungs out and try and revive myself.  Basically in 4 weeks I’ve probably had the radio on for a couple of hours total.  To a degree it helped me to be more “in the moment” and take in more of the sights and sounds of the road.  No music or entertainment somewhat forces that.  If it gets a little boring or if the squirrels get out of their cage inside my head and start trying to mess with my thoughts, I would do some positive affirmations or mentally work on possible solutions for something I am thinking of doing.  All in all I think it was positive and turning off the noise made me think longer and hopefully a little clearer.

While taking in the sights, enhancing the “sounds” and “smells” on the trip I though it might help to have the windows open.  So I abandoned my air-conditioning for the first month of the trip and will probably continue to do so.  I just turned it on today for the first time to see if it still worked well.  Hottest it got was about 106 degrees so far and if you’re moving it’s not so bad.  When riding the Harley I just have the wind or if you’re out walking someplace you don’t have A/C either, so maybe that helped me to acclimate easier.  I have nothing against A/C, I was just sort of curious to how I would handle it now being spoiled and older.  My first car didn’t even have A/C, actually not much heat either for the winters. You cranked down the windows and drove as fast as you could to cool off.  Yes, you had to manually crank the windows down.  I also have no AC in the camper, so there’s no option there at all when sleeping.  I do however have a mighty 4 inch battery powered fan that I use when going to sleep.  This means I am living like the majority of the people in the world with no AC.  Not sure I gained any lessons from this as much as some confidence that if I need to go somewhere and it’s uncomfortably hot, I won’t be worrying about my ability to deal with it.  There were a few times when the temps were in triple digits that I almost turned it on, but worked my way through it.   

The next test is that I enjoy a shower once a day.  I love to get in the shower in the morning or after a physical day or hard workout, nothing better then a shower… sometimes twice a day.  So I decided I could go a week without a shower, which turned into two which turned into a month.  I’ve been using Wet Wipes and Dude Wipes on a regular basis and doing laundry every week so it wasn’t like I totally abandoned being clean, just not getting wet.  That lasted until the other day when I went to a local YMCA in Wyoming and purchased a day pass.  I actually did a half hour workout first and then spent about that long in the shower.  I surely could have gone longer without showering, but I got the feel for what zero showering was like. It’s another thing you just adapt to, but I have to admit that getting in that shower was excellent and I’m still a big fan!  Since I’m traveling alone and not using the AC this was an easy experiment to do and not offend anyone or at least not too many people.  I did however notice on occasion if there was a fly or two in Starbucks or Panera when I was having coffee, they were usually hanging around me.

I also have a streak of 4 weeks of not using a hotel or paying for a campsite leaving my lodging bills for the month at $0.00.  The only thing uncomfortable about this is on occasion you don’t have a lot of options on where you can go and stay for the night for free.  So those nights you either keep traveling to find someplace, or perhaps be a little bolder then usual and stay someplace you really shouldn’t be staying.  So far, so good.  It is kind of interesting that you never know if you’re going to camping in a place like this…

or this… 

On past trips if I’m not having good luck finding a place and getting a little road weary, I’m not against pulling into a hotel of a camp site you need to pay to stay.  This trip I’m trying to be more resilient on finding a place.  I try keeping in mind that I see what appear to be a lot of folks out here on the road that don’t have the resources to get a hotel or probably  pay for a campsite.  So I try to frame my mindset to “what if I was in the same situation”, when I go looking for somewhere to stay. 

My camper roof raises high enough that I can’t even palm the ceiling when I reach up.  Once it’s raised I then have access to a queen size bed over the cab of the truck.  It’s very comfortable and I sleep well in that compartment.  There is also an optional bed for when you do not raise the roof or have a (small) guest.  You take the table and pedestal that it sits on away and then there is a board that gets slipped into that spot and the tiny dining area turns into a small bed area.  It’s about four and a half feet long, with some leg overhang that’s about one foot wide.  You can kind of stretch out on an angle but it’s pretty cramped.  On the first couple of nights of this trip I opened the camper up fully and enjoyed the bed.  Then there was a night I opted to not do the full opening and slept on the cramped bed below.  Plus with the roof not raised the actually living compartment is kind of cramped.  Again it is an easy uncomfortable thing to do, so I have now gone the full month using that smaller bed, having a low ceiling and not using the campers full potential.  That took about a week to get used to, but I am able to sleep well and wake up rested in this smaller bed now.  Just took a little practice and you adapt.  This has actually made me assess my current traveling set up and I realized that although I purposefully downsized my life int a truck camper, I’m feeling like I still have too much stuff and I can downsize yet again. Not sure what will come of that, but the wheels are turning in my head.  No doubt that the flip side of this would be if you want to establish a good habit or replace an old useless habit it really just takes a little application, a little bit of a shift in mind set and some time.  Basically the same process.

So the next round of experiments will be towards increasing some better habits in my life moving forward.  Like when I started demanding myself to get up at 4:30 in Sedona.  It really turned out to be something that worked well for me and helped me get very productive.  That hour of the day seems to make me think a little clearer. 

This past week I have begun a campaign to claim the first hour of my day in a BIGGER way.  Sometimes if my morning starts out a little slow or listless it can set the tone for the rest of my day.  So I have created a list of “To DO’s” with several positive things to accomplish every morning before proceeding with my day.  I’m curious to see how this works out and if it gets me motivated for the remainder of my day or causes other things to improve. 

So might not be a bad idea to get uncomfortable once in a while and see how you react to it and deal with it.  You will probably learn or rediscover more about yourself. 

To reward myself for this experiment and for medicinal purposes, I rewarded my efforts with this beautiful Dirty Martini on the rocks.