Extra: The reason I decided to sell up and sail away (video)

I created this video to give you a perspective as to how and why we made the decision to sell up and sail away. It’s quite raw and unpolished but I think the message is solid. I’d love to hear your thoughts in my comments below. Thank you for taking the time to watch this.

If you’d like to read my next article in The Journey, please read: Courses, becoming British, putting our remaining possessions on a pallet and what else?

The reason I decided to sell up and sail away – the transcripts to the video

When I made the decision that I wanted to sell up and sail away, I made it out of frustration. I was really frustrated with my life. I had spent years working really hard. In fact, I had considered myself a workaholic. I worked really hard to buy a really big house and then I realized I spent all my time cleaning the big house and buying things to fill the house that I never even enjoyed. I had lots of closets and dressers and cabinets and they are all full of all sorts of things but I wasn’t any happier. Overtime I just got more and more frustrated. I thought to myself “Why did I worked so hard to get this big house so that I can just sit around and clean it?”

Also, my diet was atrocious because I was working and cleaning so much I only purchased processed foods, ready meals the kind you pull the cling film off or wrap off, and put it in the oven. I’ve got this big house, I’m eating crap and I have no time to spend with my family, my daughter. My frustration grew and grew and grew and I just thought “Man, life. This doesn’t make sense anymore.” When it came to the decision of selling up and sailing away, I thought “Wow, that would really help me get back to a place that I would prefer to be in.” A lot of people have asked me “What do you want to achieve about this? What do you want to achieve when sailing around the world?” I created a list of all the things that I’m interested in. I’m going to look down here just to refer to it so I can remember.

One of the things that I really want to experience is a feeling of space and freedom. I’m fed up with things. I just want to get out under the blue sky and see the blue sea and just feel that freedom of space and be outside. I want to reconnect with nature. I know it sounds a bit woo woo but I’ve spent so much time commuting on trains, traveling on planes, working in an office, being in board rooms and I just want to be outside. I’d love to be outside in a place where the weather is okay. I mean coming from Rochester, New York the winters are very, very cold. The summers are very, very hot. Living in England, it rains a lot. I would just like to be outside and be under the sun and just breathe the beautiful salt sea smell.

Apart of me wants to reconnect with nature. The other thing that I’ve got down here in my list is to eat wholesome local fresh food because I’ve been so busy I suppose I never really learned how to cook. When you have extra money, you can buy nice organic meals even though they are still processed you feel like you’re doing good for the family, you’re not. I realized that now. I just want to sail around and go up to maybe a fishing village and buy fresh fish that was just caught that day. Go to a local produce stand and buy whatever the vegetables are that they grow in the area. Again, I think it’s this reconnection to what’s natural. I got down on the list, the other thing I have is to stop working so much.

I mean, no matter what I do in this life I really enjoy working, I enjoy creating. In the normal context I just end up working too much. The one thing that sailing does is it forces me to stop and just enjoy the moment. I do get seasick, I can’t really read or type or write when I’m sailing. I just sit in the cockpit and I look out and I look at other sailboats. I look at the scenery. I feel that peace and it’s almost like I’m forced to be at peace but I love that. I love being forced because I won’t do it if I’m left to my own devices. The other thing that I’d like to get out of our adventure is a stronger connection to people. Of course, my family I want to connect better with but also the friends that joined us and the people that we’re going to meet.

I just imagine things might be a bit more simple and I won’t be so stressed and I just look forward to just meeting new people and hearing what their story is. I guess, seeing the world and connecting with people and making memories. The last thing I put is to somehow out of all this create a way that we can maintain our ability to enjoy life and to create an income. I’m not sure how I’m going to do it yet but I really want to prove that you can do what you love and make an income from it. That’s something. I just noticed here, I missed out really the most important thing. In 2010, I had a baby, Sienna Maddison Brown and I think that’s when I actually really learned what love was and I learned I guess I learned a lot.

My whole perspective of life changed. I learned to love myself more and I learned to I think take care of myself and ask myself what do I really want in life. I wanted to be a good role model for my daughter and she’s just taught me so much and to have an opportunity to sail around the world and spend all that time with my husband, my daughter and the friends and family that are going to join us. It’s an absolute dream come true. I’m still grateful for this opportunity and I’m just so happy that I’m going to take the risk and we should be using the money for our retirement but this feels right. I know it’s going to work out and yeah so here’s to Sailing Britican.

Next Chapter: 31. Courses, becoming British, putting our remaining possessions on a pallet and what else?

Previous Chapter: 30. The contrast of sailing around the world and cancer

Or…if you’d like to carry on reading all about our journey from selling up and sailing away, you can purchase my book, ‘Changing Lifestyles – Trading the Rat Race in For A Sail Around The World,’ 

READER REVIEW On Amazon. 5 Star Review! "Interested in The Sailing Lifestyle? Are your needing just one more reason to change your life for the better, Just buy this book. I actually bought this for my wife(Workaholic) last year. It was the deciding factor for us to change things 😉 , After she read Kim's Book & we watched a few episodes of Sailing Britican (& a few others) we realized there is more to life than the rat race.....! Thanks." Jon D.