Why we don’t want to retire!

At our Workaway in Turkey we had made some amazing ties to the community. Will played soccer every Tuesday with a group of guys, we visited the neighbors for tea and watermelon even though none of us could understand each other, we met the mayor, had our own doctor, cooked for friends who baked for us, and met many of the local business owners. Up until now, out of all the places we had traveled, we really finally felt at home and part of a community in Göcek!

It was bittersweet when our time ended but awesome that our Workaway hosts had hooked us up with four days of sailing with a friend of theirs! Göcek was a town that mainly serviced the marinas and a lot of the international yachters that came through. We had already been inquiring about getting sailing lessons after all the money we had saved volunteering at Cloud 9. It was even better news when we heard we would be able to get a mini sailing lesson for FREE! Nothing comes for free these days.So we bought some groceries and boarded the 49 foot Jeanneau Sun Odyssey with our new friends Aran and Aziz. Aran was our Workaway hosts nephew and Aziz was their lifelong friend who part-owned Budget Sailing with his brother. Aziz was delivering the boat for a customer to another marina near Bodrum and could take some companions for the ride.  Sweet deal!

The first day on the boat was a little rough for Will and Aran but Aziz, being a smart and simple man, basically said to us that sea sickness is all in the head.  Although its related to balance and equilibrium, a mismatch between what your body and brain is feeling, you can override the feeling of sickness by just opening your eyes and focusing out on the horizon.
By the next day the boys were much better.

We spent our days waking up to beautiful sunsets, eating simply, starring out into the vast seas, docking at secluded beaches or quiet bays, swimming in turquoise blue waters, exploring Roman-style ruins, and celebrating our luck each evening. It was the most peaceful four days we could ask for, where every breathe of fresh air felt like it truly cleaned out the toxins that had been lingering in us for years.  Now we know why people seek and love this lifestyle on the water, why they dream of retiring on a sailboat, touring the world by water.

Although our 49 foot boat slept eight people, the four of us were still in fairly close quarters and with that we got to know each other a lot better. One thing that really stuck in our minds was our chat with Aziz about what him and his brother would do with the Budget Sailing business when they were ready to retire. He smiled to himself, took a pause as the rays of sunshine licked his skin, the fresh crisp wind whipped through his hair and the waves crashed around the ship he captained, then responded,

“Why would I ever want to retire?”

That really hit home and completely shifted our perception of everything we were bred into believing back home. Go to school, start a career, work your whole life and retire on a beautiful beach somewhere far away.

But what’s there to retire from if you’re already living the good life? Why retire when you can continue making money doing what you love? Why not work for yourself forever? For the people you serve, your beliefs, your passions, or whatever? Why wait until you retire to do what you’ve always dreamt of doing?

Why work your youth away at a job that’s less than desirable, saving anywhere and everywhere you can, just to sit on a beach in Mexico or Cuba like a beached whale when you’re 60? Who even wants to be a beached whale?! When people see beached whales they organize groups to get those whales put back in the ocean, back to where they’re from and what they’re meant to do!

It’s something we’ve learned through reading books and listening to people from different cultures, that you have to know yourself and what makes you an optimal human being. I guess it’s to have a purpose that aligns with what makes you feel best, to be in a place where you can’t tell if your working or if this is just your normal life. Our time away has given us an ambitious outlook as to what we really want to achieve when we get back – to design a life that makes everyday optimal for us.

Our supportive relationship being the backbone, we are now wiping the slate clean when we get back to go after a life that we know exists. We are very fortunate after this trip to be on the same page because it was a huge gamble to see if we would even work out, but with big gambles in life you also can receive huge rewards.  Our reward was finding a partner in crime! A good relationship is essential in our opinion – if your going to build skyscrapers, you NEED to have a solid foundation! Close relationships have to be sound, loving and supportive in order for you to go and venture into the “good life”. So with the epiphany we received on this boat ride it was a good moment for us and we are happy to share the little lessons along our roller coaster with you.

So the next few days we admired Aziz for his wisdom and for the shift he propagated in our thinking.  We slept on the deck of the boat, underneath the stars thinking about how we’ll set ourselves up to live the good life now.  The type of life that we don’t need to take a vacation from, or eventually retire from.

We won’t be starting our own sailing business since we don’t necessarily love living for extended periods on a boat.  But we’ll be brainstorming to create a life we don’t have to retire from because the traditional retirement isn’t the right fit for us, and it might not be for you either. We don’t want to take up leisure full time and want some challenges to keep life interesting!

So by sharing we hope the doors of your mind are cracked open a bit for you to be aware of the many ideals one can live by. The rabbit hole of possibilities are endless for you, never think you are limited in your life in any way. All things are possible, all you need to do is get out of your own way to live a life on purpose.

Cheers, you good looking birds.