So you want to go around the world?

Making the decision to travel around the world was, for us, a wonderfully liberating experience.  Betsy has done a lot of wonderful writing on how we reached that moment and feelings since then.  For me, the morning after started with a litany of questions and mountains of research possibilities.

Photo by Warren Talbot

After taking a couple days just to explore all the possibilities, I set down to the task of identifying the big questions we would need to tackle. Here is a peak into my process:

Everything at this stage was documenting the flood of ideas and questions.

• I started by creating a OneNote notebook.  You can obviously use any note taking software or pen and paper.  I just like the ability to organize all my thoughts and research into a single place.

• Next, I started capturing questions that popped into my mind.  I did this just sitting down with a glass of wine and wrote out the questions as they popped into my head.  Here is the initial list I created:
  
  • What about our pets (we have a dog and cat?)
  • Do we sell or rent our house?  Do we want to be worried about our place while we are on the road?
  • Do we store all our possessions?
  • Can I take a leave of absence from work or should I quit?
  • When should I tell my boss?
  • Where should we go?
  • How long should/can we stay on the road?
  • What will it cost us?
  • Where will the money come from?
  • What countries will require a Visa?
  • Should we take anti-malaria drugs?
  • Do we create a new business before we leave and keep it running while on the road?
  • What do we need to buy?
  • Do we believe we will come back and I will rejoin my company?
  • Do we see ourselves starting something new (either together or separately) after the trip?

• Once I had braved and documented the first wave of questions, and my glass of wine, I wanted to do some research.  I set aside a few hours and a second glass of wine to seek out others that had done something similar.  To my delight, there are a plethora of blogs and articles available to learn from those who had gone before us.  Here is a small sample of those that really helped me in the process that first week back in September (I will be doing a post soon on my favorite current resources soon):
  • 13 Months
  • Jan and Steve Round the World
  • Around the world in 80 weeks
  • Soultravelers3
  • VAGABONDING one man, one year, one world

• Finally, I spent the time making a list of everywhere we wanted to go.The original list I created back in September is posted here.

Once I had filled several pages with notes, concepts, questions, and ideas I sat back and enjoyed the view.  At the end of this process I felt so much better about the decision, but also about the viability of the plan.  I love the romantic idea of just picking up tomorrow and getting on a plane, but I know that the Planner in me will revolt and my eye will start twitch.  Instead, I gave my brain an opportunity to work through the process.

In the end I was left with a ton of additional questions and very few answers.  However, I have found that knowing the questions to ask helps to shape a problem and create a plan of attack.  For me, I had laid that foundation and now just needed to dig into each to address. I will use the next series of posts to dive into the open questions and talk about how to approach them.

Other Posts You Might Enjoy:

How to Get Ready for a Trip Around the World (the long way)

The Married with Luggage Story

How to Purge Your Belongings for a Round-the-World Trip