Posted: 04/27/20 | April 27th, 2020
Emily Dickinson once said, “To shut our eyes is Travel.”
I disagree.
Confined inside for the last six weeks, no matter how often I shut my eyes, it’s simply not the same. The beauty of Dickinson’s quote seems to only go so far.
When she was alive, the world was a “bigger place.” Leisure travel was not really a thing. Most people would never leave their hometown, let alone their state or country. You couldn’t just jet to Japan for a few weeks. Going anywhere was a very long and expensive endeavor.
And, as a recluse who rarely even left her house (she left her hometown three times in forty years), maybe using her mind to explore the world was probably the best for Emily to “see the world.”
But we live in an age when the entire world is our oyster. We can (or could, anyway) jump on a flight and visit distant lands at the drop of the hat. We can text, call, and Zoom people in real-time from anywhere in the world. Travel has become so cheap and easy that we worry about the “overtourism” of destinations. Everyone is on the road these days.
Our society is the most mobile and globalized it’s ever been.
And, yet, these days, no matter how many travel books, movies, virtual museum visits, and Zoom calls I devour, I still feel like a caged bird.
It’s not that I’m yearning to travel. I had no travel plans until late May.
But I miss the outdoors, seeing my friends in person, glasses of wine at restaurants, and going to cocktail bars. I miss freedom. All my big plans to be home, join social clubs, take gardening classes, and hike more are postponed.
What’s more, when I moved to Austin, I furnished my apartment so it would not be comfortable to work from. I knew how easy it would be to just work all day from home — and doing so can make you lazy and unproductive.
So I created a space that would be good for a few hours but would then force me out of my house and into the world.
It was my insurance against my innate laziness because I didn’t want to be inside all the time.
Yet here I am (here we all are).
A lot is being said about how the coronavirus will change how we live. A lot is being said about how it will change travel. (I already shared my thoughts on it.)
As I watch spring bloom outside my window and remember what it was like to hike in the mountains of faraway lands, I can’t help but wonder if Emily would feel the same about living in her house if she had been around today.
Being inside has made me think a lot about Emily’s quote and my own life and relationship to the outside world.
Like most people, my problem has never really been “not having enough time” to do the things I wanted. I was simply misusing the time I had and falling into “the busy trap.” Endlessly doing “stuff” but nothing that really moved me forward. And, in truth, most of that “stuff” I did was work or wasting time online anyways.
But it took up time and made me feel “busy.”
Now, suddenly confronted with all the time I’d always wished I had, I find myself in my old habits — and even less motivated than before. I sleep longer, I eat worse, I’m unmotivated to go for walks, and I spend a lot of day at my kitchen table working or on social media.
That reality dawned on me last week. With restrictions probably loosening in a couple of weeks, I felt like the chance I had a reset had not been used wisely.
So, in an effort to make a change, last week, I started to create a semblance of a normal day by scheduling everything. From sleep to reading to when I would eat to work to even social media, it all went into my schedule.
First, I wanted to feel motivated to get out of bed again.
Second, I wanted to see if I could learn to better use the time I had.
The verdict?
It turns out there is plenty of time in the day to do everything you want to do.
You can get a surprising amount of stuff done in a day with a plan. I’m reading more consistently and completing the online courses that have lingered for months. I’m finally catching up on Schitt’s Creek (it’s great). I’ve even put in “social media” time so I can ensure that I still get my fix in.
Before this, I moved a lot by inertia. My life was relatively balanced and, with enough to keep me busy and on the move, I never had to really wonder about all the plates I was spinning. All the chaos balanced itself out.
But, now that the music has stopped, I can see that I was never really balanced.
All I was doing was just moving.
I hope my future self will one day read this post and say, “You kept it up and found balance.”
After all, we always say we’ll change, but we rarely do. As time passes, we usually go back to our old ways.
Humans are creatures of habit and we have short memories.
I am no different.
But I definitely don’t want to look back and say, “Well, past Matt, you failed.”
A crisis can be an opportunity. A chance to reset who you are and how you live. Being young and single affords me more time than others but if I’ve learned anything from my experience — and from talking to my friends — little changes can produce big results.
You don’t need to change a hundred things in your life. Even doing one thing (scheduling for me) can produce a big and positive change.
After all, time really is too precious a thing to waste.
And I can’t believe it took having too much time on my hands to realize that.
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Kyle Wenner
When will we be able to travel internationally again?
NomadicMatt
Probably the fall! That’s my guess.
Emily
I think probably in the beginning of the summer it will start with local (intracountry) travel. Then in late summer, regional international travel will open up gradually. It will begin with countries with low risk/infection rates and probably neighboring countries will start opening to each other first. Long distance travel probably will start latest, perhaps in autumn. Cathay Pacific has a nice overview of travel restrictions by country. In the meantime you can update yourself there with specific travel advisories.
Julie
Always enjoy your insights Matt. We, too, realized we had fallen into the trap of busy-ness and doing too much. Having this time allowed us to hit reset and work less (no more working at night!) and reconnect and enjoy our lives more. Despite the challenge of this situation the past six weeks, we appreciate the gifts and opportunity to see things differently. And make some changes for the better.
Pris
I honestly believe that something we should all be taking away from this is our priorities. We should be taking a huge look at what they are, maybe rearranging them and changing them. We should stop and see how we really are blessed, appreciate what we have and what we take for granted. Change our habits that we need to change and make new ones that move us forward…in all areas of our lives. Something good will come out of this. It might not seem like it at the moment with so much hurt and loss. But it will.
Peter Rettig
Having reached that age when younger people kindly refer to us as a ‘senior,’ we – my wife Ulrike and I – may have found the necessary changes less stressful than others: We continue to learn other languages and work on improving our language learning sites. Yes we miss seeing our children and grand kids, but have learned to play online games with them! And yes, planning/scheduling our day has always been a staple of our working and retirement life
Being young and single, you have the right attitude to see this situation as an opportunity to reset your life.
We enjoyed your post!
rich
“Our society is the most mobile and globalized it’s ever been.” That can be a good thing but also a bad thing. Over tourism has caused problems for many locations. And with the current virus you can see how easily one virus can cross the entire world in a very short period of time. And what damage it can do to the environment.
I agree with the laziness thing, especially when you are young. As you get older you realize how much of life you either wasted or were afraid of doing certain things out of embarrassment, etc.
Years ago I left a contract assignment and planned to take a month off since I made quite a bit of money (not millions or even $100K but about 2X the previous year). That month turned into nearly 3 months before I looked for and got a new job. And what did I do during that time? I honestly don’t remember. Mostly resting, messing around on the computer. No great trips or anything memorable. Pretty sad looking back at that time. And now you are limited on what you can do.
I’m hoping to retire in a few years and hopefully things will be better before then. Right now, even if I could retire today, what is the point? You can’t do much of anything out of the neighborhood.
NomadicMatt
I agree that it can definitely be a double edged sword.
Cisley
Thank you for sharing this, Matt. I feel completely related and I’ve definitely come to the same conclusion as you: I’m just keeping myself busy, not being really productive. I will follow your advice and start scheduling everything, so thank you for that too, I have done it in the past and yes, I find it’s a great way to really find the time to do everything you need to do, but, as you say, we always end up falling into the old habits…
Let’s not do it this time.
Lori
Being an expat and not being able to travel is like living an oxymoronic dream. We’re so fortunate to be healthy and safe where many are fighting for their lives, and I have to remind myself of that when I start to feel antsy, frustrated, or completely unproductive. While homeschooling 2 kids has never been on my parental bucket list, I’ve found the blessing in the fact I have 2 hours back in my day that’s not a commute…so, it’s finding the positives, making the best of it and maybe even trying new things. Like you said, an opportunity for a total “reset”. Hang in there!
Dianne Kidder
Hey Matt: I am thinking of taking your blogging course. I just have to think if I have much to say anymore. Keep up the good work! You richly deserve your popularity! And I enjoyed your latest book.
NomadicMatt
Awesome to hear! Thank you! 🙂
Jill
I also miss my freedom. I’m sure, just like after 9-11, I will never get it back. What I can’t understand is why so many people just accept this?
NOTHING is worth shutting down the world! No, this virus is NOT worth allowing them to take our freedom. Our freedom to travel or any other of the hundreds they’ve just stolen.
Why do we accept this?
Ted Mittelstaedt
Jill, everyone is always given the same choice. Either live within society’s expectations, and gain all it’s benefits while accepting it’s restrictions, or live completely outside of society, not gaining any of it’s benefits, but being completely free of it’s restrictions.
If you want to be free – do it. Get rid of all your stuff and don’t expect anything from society be self-reliant. You will be free to ignore any lockdown but if you get sick you are on your own, there will be no emergency room for you no matter how sick you are, no health insurance, no nothing.
But since you are posting here that implies you own a computer, pay for electric power and Internet, and the infrastructure needed to run that, so you have clearly made your choice. You just want to have your cake and eat it too – you want the benefit of society without accepting any of it’s restrictions. The world does not work that way. The rest of us understand it which is why we accept this.
Shelley
As Spock said to Captain Kirk on the Star Ship Enterprise, “It’s life Jim, but not as we know it.”
At the end of January, we arrived in South Africa from Australia, to begin our epic 2-year overland Africa road trip – also our honeymoon.
We bought a 4×4 with a tent on top, and as luck would have it we were on a 6-week house sit in a remote town 4 hours from Capetown when one of the world’s strictest lockdown came into force.
That 6-week stint is going to be much longer than anticipated.
We chose not to be repatriated – having sold everything, we have no home to return to – so we have no idea how things will turn out here. Africa is expecting a tsunami of deaths – and we can only hope the early lockdowns have given the continent a fighting chance to get ready.
We are the lucky ones. We have running water, food and a solid roof over our head. Seeing the millions who are starving, hundreds sharing communal toilets, no water, and living either in tin shacks or homeless brings the COVID-19 into perspective.
It highlights the reality – not the fact we can’t go out, not the fact we have lost our freedom, and not the fact that certain aspects of life have become inconvenient …. It highlights the fact that we are the lucky ones.
That is travel … adapt to change, embrace new experiences and be grateful for the opportunity.
Stay safe everyone and protect the vulnerable – #stayhome
David
It’s times like these I miss George Carlin, but I’m not going to get into it. Yes, things will be a tad different unfortunately but sooner than later all will feel normal, right? People think the whole quarantine is to kill the virus when really its to slow it and to keep availability open for those who do need ER hospitalization.
Personally I just want to start working again. I work at a hotel here in The Grand Canyon area, I recently like a week before we shut down started my new blog site, I joined Matt’s blogging courses , and even started working with a helicopter tour company and BAM CORONA.
Anyway, Matt your doing an awesome job I hope to learn a lot from you guys, everyone else I hope your all healthy and well, we will get through this. One thing I have learned in my life is that we humans are tough cookies.
Take care everyone be safe, go out hiking you don’t have to be locked up.
Ted Mittelstaedt
Wow Matt you just discovered what everyone who is self-employed has known since they started working for themselves!
Seriously, US culture over my lifetime has gotten so depressing on this issue. When I was a kid my mother opened the door in the morning, pointed out and said “go” then locked the door behind us until the evening. Well perhaps not that bad but my parents bought me one of those Brownie cameras when I was 7 or 8 and don’t have a single picture from the album I made up at that time that isn’t taken outside, or that has my parents in it.
But something happened since then and parents today have such overall control over their kids schedules they have them booked back to back on -everything-. People are raised to never manage their own time – someone else is always doing it for them. First is is their parents then when they leave their parents house increasingly it’s the media and the advertisers and the sellers of products who plan on them spending their money on the products.
Does it take a pandemic to teach people they only thing they truly own in this world is their time? I guess so.
Zaky
Hi Matt
I agree with your statement that We don’t need to change a hundred things in this life. Even doing one thing (scheduling for me) can produce a big and positive change. Yeah.. this is the one way We re confonting now.
Vinn
I agree there’s really “time” in our hands to do what we want to do but its a matter of a decision or we need a reason why. This pandemic i found myself venturing another hobby – gardening and it’s doing pretty well – roses in the garden. With traveling, yes i will definitely fly again soon. Cyprus is planning to open the airport by next month for selected countries. Hoping all the best.
Carina - Punkiotravels
I think that Coronavirus has changed us all and the way we choose our priorities. During 4 weeks I was confined Alone in my appartment, and although I like it I was missing my family, friends and travelling.
After this, I am focusing on my family and friends, and throwing away any unnecessary worries. And also, looking forward to travelling again soon!