WHY NOMADS ARE QUITTING. The Reason Is Not What You Think.

I've been seeing a lot of questions about why long-time travelers, van lifers, and RVers end up giving up on the lifestyle or changing their lifestyle and doing something that involves being a bit more stationary, having an address or an anchor somewhere. After all the years they spent on the road with no permanent address, no anchor, just wandering, traveling, doing whatever the heck they want, that sometimes you see them on YouTube go and start doing things that are more stationary and people are wondering why. And you know the answer may not be what you think it is. It's actually quite basic. It comes down to the core of always wanting to adventure. How's that? That's new. That's the kind of food you haven't had before. So tonight I'm covering the front of the vehicle so nobody can see me back here. That's how I used to do it. I used to have a black moving blanket not a red one and I would just tuck it in on the ceiling panel piece. That piece right there. That's how I did it when I first moved in. It's kind of, you know, it was kind of nice because if I ever needed to peak I'd have a full shot outside on some treats. We would be patient. He has no patience whatsoever. Look at him. He's like okay okay okay I've had enough okay okay. Look at him. He just can't control himself. Hey patience bro. He just looks off to the side. Can you not look at me and focus? Focus. You focus? Okay. I know some of you are thinking maybe van life is just really really hard. That it just takes a toll on us and then sooner or later we just get tired of living in a small small space and things get cluttered and we get frustrated and quit. Yeah that's, I don't think that's the case. You know you minimize your life as much as you can but van life isn't about being a minimalist all the time either because I sure as heck ain't. I know what you're thinking Dad can we go back to the luxury van where things were all cushy and all posh? I know bro. I miss it too. This is a reality of living in a basic van. You know starting out on the cheap is that everything's got to be thrown on the floor. It creates so much clutter to have everything visible out here in front of you and that's one thing I learned when I first built my van out was putting upper cabinets. So good. When I had the chance to actually put my clothes in this big cabinet that's in my van up top here. Oh getting things off the floor. Taking my laundry bag and stuff like that. Sticking it into a cupboard so I don't gotta see it. So good. But here I'm feeling very cluttered in this space. So Lauren's coming out to my shop hopefully in another week and take a look at that engine. Maybe we might be back in my home soon. I don't know but I think Cruzy's gotta go out and go pee. Is that what you're waiting for? You gotta go outside? That's what he does when he has to go pee. He just sits there and waits. He doesn't bark at all. He just sits there and stares at the door. Alrighty Cruzy I'm coming. Bye so we don't scare people. So do you think maybe it's the constant pressure of always trying to find a place to sleep every night? Especially when you're traveling and you don't know the towns. You don't know where you're allowed to, where you're not allowed to, where is safe, where is not safe. You think maybe it's that pressure that pushes nomads out of being on the road and putting them to somewhere where they know they're safe and can call home every single day? No I don't think that's the reason either. At all. I clearly don't care if anybody exceeds me living in my van. I actually prefer it. I sleep better in a van that looks like a camper van versus the temporary one I'm in now. That's where we chose to park. There's a big residential building there. Some business stuff over here. You can hear the ruckus of the highway and stuff over there but it's a peaceful little place. I've been sleeping in a lot of industrial areas lately. Well out here anyway. Oh he's keeping me nice and warm back there. All right we're gonna turn the heater on. I got the remote for the heater here and it actually works from this far away. On. It's kind of like having the luxury of my old van right here just pushing the little button. Anyway guys I'm uh I'm going to bed. I'll see you guys in the morning. That heater is freaking loud. Listen to that thing. That's ridiculously loud. There's a nice shower in this one. Look at that. Who needs a sticks and bricks? Shower was great. After I posted that video the other day letting you guys know that I signed some papers to a commercial building. I've seen a lot of people asking why they're seeing all these nomads on YouTube slow down and stop RV life or van life and get an off-grid property or a cabin or just quit in general. And here's my honest opinion. So I'm not quitting van life. I'm clearly living it right now like old school style like a bum. It's so bad in here. The uh the reason is this is my opinion though just my opinion. The reason is is I think after being on the road for me I hit this point around year number four is when the towns that you traveled through started to all look the same. When you hit a lake in the backcountry and it was like it's kind of like the five lakes I was at in the last three days. Things kind of start to wash and blend themselves together to the point that you're not stimulated about your travel anymore. And I think what happens is that little sensor that's inside you gets bombarded with so much epic stuff over your first stack of years of van life that when you hit these places it takes more than what it once did to get pumped up about it. Like I'm in this van now. I've lived like this before. This is not exciting. But I remember when I very first moved into my van putting all of my life in plastic bins and trying to organize this little space to make it feel like my own was the most exciting thing I ever did. Now in here all I want is my nice beautiful professional build back. That pretty little home with lights where I wanted it, heater, everything I need is already there. Fridge, freezer, all of it. I want that back. But that's what happens though is like you get stimulated so much with all this excitement. It takes more to make your travels epic. So you either gotta do bigger more crazier adventures or you just shake your life up a little bit and do something else that you've been thinking about. And what you find with some nomads is their thought is well maybe the next step is you know instead of buying another another rig and doing you know setting your life up with a new home. Some people don't want to go on big epic expeditions and challenge their travel. They just buy a piece of land and then they go live off the dirt for a little while and enjoy a new park and a new adventure in their life. They're not quitting van life because it sucks. That's true. They're not. They just they've tapped that sensor so much that the sensor's like okay time for some serious change. Let's move on. And usually you'll find that most of those people are not in the retirement age bracket. Most of those people that are doing homesteading and stuff like that or branch from that way from van life usually are past that work stage in their life and they're just looking at getting into van life and enjoying some travel and sitting by a lake and doing a little bit of fishing. The ones that you see usually flipping their world upside down a lot on YouTube still have that work left in them. Like for me I know there's going to be a point where I'm like all right I'm done. I'm gonna go sit by a lake and take a fish and now I'm good. I'm not there yet. I still have that that inner hustle inside of me that just won't stop. So for me shaking things up wasn't building an off-grid cabin and following the usual YouTube trend. For me it was well I want to launch this business that's been in my head for a long time or at year four was like I want a shop. A shop that we can go back in the winter and just play around and have some fun. Shake my adventure up a little bit. Still live in my van time but shake my van life up a little bit and that's why you usually see RVers or Vanners stop the lifestyle is they just need to embark on a new adventure. Maybe they buy a sailboat or buy an off-grid cabin. All they're doing is continuing on their life adventure allowing that sensor to feel something again. And the reason why a lot of YouTubers don't talk about this this lack of excitement in travel is because we know that a big chunk of our audience dreams about this travel. When I go to towns now I try and seek out unique things for me to so I can feel something. I try to find places that I do something different in those places. What happened was the first two years of living in my van I stayed on the pavement a majority of the time and then that started to get mundane. I'm like okay another town yay. So I decided to go play out in the dirt. That flipped everything upside down. Those towns became much bigger because I was stuck on pavement and parks. So it took me adventuring into the backcountry to shake up all those towns. But then after a stack of years of being out there in the backcountry in those towns you just need more. Me was the shop. Does that make sense? That little sensor inside you that just seeks adventure all the time will always want to seek new adventures. Right now the adventure may be van life 100 percent. That's where the let's go and it's awesome but the second that sensor stops feeling that let's go feeling you just let that sensor go find another way to feel some excitement. You know whatever the heck it is I don't care I don't care if it's you quitting van life and and buying a mansion. If that's your thing so be it. If that keeps that sensor feeling excited then go get it. You know when you choose one thing you're not stuck in that adventure forever. You're not. You don't have to choose van life and stay with it forever. You can go from van life to RV life. You can go from RV life to living in a giant Unimog. This is great big military trucks. Whatever your adventure is or you can go get a little piece of land live off the earth do your own hunting your own fishing and live way out in the wilderness away from everybody. It doesn't matter what you choose to do as long as that little thing inside you feels something. Feels some kind of excitement. It makes you pumped up to wake up every day and that's it. You know because you change things up it's okay. It's nothing wrong with it. It's nothing wrong with me wanting to live van life and have a shop and years ago when I did that my channel didn't get it. I don't get it. What are you stopping van life for? Who cares? This is my sensor and I'm responsible for making this thing feel exciting. So take care of your own sensor. I don't know I don't know how else to word this. Just do whatever it takes to keep that little thing inside you pumped up to wake up every day. All right guys I got to go see my daughter today and for the first time in a long time I'm running my camera on my daughter's visit today. I don't film them very much anymore because she's getting a little older. I'm like oh yeah does she really want to vlog with her dad? But today we're gonna run the camera because I know a lot of you guys have been like we haven't seen Danica in a very long time. Well on the next video you're gonna see.