When you run into other families that travel a lot there are a handful of questions that keep getting asked. “How long have you been on the road?” “Where are you guys from?” "How do you like your rig?” And the coup de gras - “What’s your favorite place you’ve visited?”
With all of the incredible places to visit in the United States, how is it possible to choose just one?
There are so many awe-inspiring choices like the Grand Canyon, or the pristine beaches in Florida, the historic significance of New England, the towering Sequoias in California, iconic Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone - the nation's first national park, or even the Capital in Washington DC. When you choose a place to go with your family, have you moved beyond the simple choice between “mountain or beach?”
Today we're going to talk about how to make the move from "location" to "legacy." In other words, you're going to start planning things out in ways that don’t just entertain the troops, but impact their lives, and why it isn't as hard as you might think.
All along you’ve known in your mind that it isn’t about the destination, it’s about the (come on, say it with me) JOURNEY. Since you are one of those people that care about more than just getting that iconic selfie (and there is nothing wrong with getting that iconic selfie), you, my friend, want to move beyond planning trips and begin planning how to make a difference. If you join me, I’ll show you that it isn’t as hard as it sounds.
If you stick around until the end, I'll share with you a few of our favorite places, and why it is that we think they're great.
To begin to approach this idea let’s keep it simple. Which do you prefer, the mountains? Or the beach? Also, I'd love to hear, what was your favorite vacation destination growing up?
For me, we didn't really have vacations. It was always sports trips. We didn't go on vacations because we spent all our money traveling around following our sports teams. We would drive to Dallas for a soccer tournament, or to Houston for baseball. We went all over the country, ultimately, to chase our sports. So we never had the time to go on a specific vacation.
Having traveled the country full-time in an RV for the past 3 years, I've started working with people to help them smoothly transition their lives into an RV that's perfect for their family so they can live their dream, whether it's for 14 days or for 14 months. I do this with my signature M.A.P.S. method, walking clients through all the steps they need to take their family on the perfect adventure.
By the way - if something we talk about today resonates with you please share it with someone you think it would help. I remember the steep learning curve I had to endure when we started traveling, and part of my goal with these videos is to help people fast-track their experience.
Today I've got a question for you. When you're talking to another family and the idea of traveling comes up, what do you talk to them about? For us, we're always talking to new friends, whether it be at the campground, or we drive into town, or even just online talking to friends and family members. We get all kinds of questions, but some of the most common are
"How long have you been on the road?"
Where are you guys from?
How do you like your RV? What do you love about it?
But the biggest question of all is, "What is your favorite place you've visited?" That's a hard question to answer because there is so much to it. When someone asks me that questions I have to ask them a few questions back.
Well, what do you mean?
Do you mean, "What's the best place for kids?"
Or, "What's the best place to kick back and unwind?" Or do you mean, "What's the best place to learn about history?"
Or even, "What's the most beautiful place you've ever visited?"
All of these are really important questions to ask before you try to answer, "What's your favorite place to visit?"
One day, after we started the conversation, a friend countered me with this question. He said, "Well, if you found out you would die soon, where would you want to go back to?"
My response surprised me a little bit. I told him that I would want to go somewhere I'd never been before. I would want to experience something new.
Today, as we dive into this, talking about all these amazing places around the country, we're going to start off at the 30,000 foot level with the syllabus, and we're going to look at the broad view. Then we'll begin to dive deep and ask some questions that take us from the outer wants and desires into some of the issues of the heart.
As we start off I want you to simply answer the question for yourself, "Mountains or Beaches." Before you even begin I want you to realize that there are literally thousands of destinations around the country that are phenomenal. When I tell you that I want you to believe me.
I thought I knew America pretty well two and a half years ago. I thought I had a good understanding of our country three years ago. But then when we started to travel around the country I started to realize that I didn't really know anything about our country. Yes, there is all the information they teach you in school, and you may be able to point to Illinois and Ohio on a map, but when I started to travel around I started to see the history of our country in a brand new way. It all became real, and there was flesh and bones on it. I started to see how different people around the country traveled, how they thought, and what was important to them. We would drive into a city with a list of things we wanted to see and places we wanted to visit, but when we left we realize our list was longer than it was when we first got there.
As we came into a city and started to spend time with the locals, what do you think we started to learn? We started to learn the "local stuff," and there is brand new information you never would have read in a travel guide. We learned about things that we would never have had on our radar. We would leave a city with a longer list than we had when we got there because it was not being filled out by a website, but by local experts.
1 - Plan like it's your JOB
I remember being in college and traveling with our baseball team. I used to LOVE going on trips because I didn't have to worry about anything except being there. I didn't worry about where I was going to eat, or how the route we were going to use to get us from one location to another, or how much time to allow to go places because all of that was done by someone as part of their job. The details were decided before we left for the trip, which meant that all I had to think about was playing baseball.
One summer I helped coach a group of players that were about to go play in college. The team traveled all over the country and even went to a tournament in Puerto Rico. At the beginning of the summer, before our first practice, we were given a binder. It was our travel itinerary. It contained our roster, our schedule, the hotels we would be staying in along with our room assignments, and then it had the routes for every trip we would take the entire summer. I could tell you what time we would leave for every game and the route we would take to get there. Again, that meant that all I had to think about was baseball. This helped our team be more successful. The result was that we were national champions and competed for a world championship.
What was it that made both of these experiences so good? First, people had worked out all the details in advance. If your goal of a vacation is to relax and remove stress, then it only makes sense that you would try to take care of the sorts of details that would cause you stress. Think about what those would be: food, travel, sticking to the budget, etc.
2 - Plan like it's your CALLING.
Let's talk about what that means through a quick story. We had some friends that went to the church we attended when we lived in the Houston area. The first time we attended I looked up and saw a friend of mine singing! I thought, "What in the world is Heather doing here?!?!" It was someone I hadn't seen in years, but I was really excited to see her and her husband, who was also a friend. After the service I tracked them down to say, "Hi." They are amazing people with an amazing family. Fast forward a few years and their family took a trip to New York City. While they were there their younger son, Caleb, who has a huge heart, noticed homeless people everywhere. Each time he saw another homeless person he would ask his parents for some money to give them. After a conversation about whether it is a good idea to give a homeless person cash their family came up with a plan. A few months later they were getting ready to go back to NYC and so they put out the call to their homeschool friends for help putting together bags to give out to the homeless people they would meet on the trip. This time when they would meet a homeless person Caleb could give them a bag with supplies that would meet their needs in a much greater way. Things like a new pair of socks, deodorant, snacks, bottled water, a Bible, and a note from the kids telling them that they were loved, that they mattered to God. This trip ended up being more than a vacation. It was now a trip filled with purpose. Later, my wife and I planned a trip to Salt Lake city, and we were inspired by Caleb's story, so we did the same thing. We got a group of friends together and made homeless bags to give out to the large population there. One day we gathered a group of people together and just walked around downtown passing out the bags. To look in the eyes of these people as we handed them a bag, to see their smiles and even their tears was really impactful. From that day on we've kept a few homeless bags (we've got to come up with a better name) in our truck so that when we see someone in need we have something to give them that shows them that we thought about them before we pulled up to the stoplight.
When we talk about "planning like it's your calling," it means that you plan like there is more to your trip than just scheduling a nap in the afternoon, or making sure you get enough time at the beach. When I talk about "planning like it's your calling," I mean that you plan to do things with your family that elevate the way that they are thinking about the world around them. What you will begin to see is that your kids will start to see every problem as an opportunity to do some good, to make a difference. This is the heart of living a life of impact.
One place that you can begin to work through this concept is thinking about the things that have made the biggest impact on you and trying to find ways to share those experiences with your kids. Maybe it was a Thanksgiving where you served a meal at a shelter, or cleaning up a park with a group from your church, or going through your neighborhood to gather donations for the local food bank. Now take that experience and find a way to adapt it for your family. This doesn't have to encompass the entire vacation, but sacrificing a little time with your family could have a far more lasting impact than getting that nap.
What can you do to help instill a legacy in your children? It's not about location, it's about legacy.
One of our goals in this is to make a positive impact on the people around us. If something we shared today was helpful please let us know.
And if there is ever anything we can do to help you on your journey then set up a free consultation at our website, Xploretheunseen.com.
If you want to watch the full video you can check it out here:
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