My husband and I sold everything and left our suburban Portland lifestyle behind in 2005 in order to have an adventure abroad. The tricky part: we had four teenage daughters at the time and were up to our necks in the typical suburban crap that makes it seem impossible to extricate yourself!

We had to make our businesses virtual and figure out how to usher our girls through high school and into college (I wrote a book about what we learned–The New Global Student). Oh, and create a completely new life for ourselves in a new culture and new language in a place where we knew no one.

Biggest obstacle for mid-lifers making a change: the naysayers who suggest you are:
1) about to ruin your career
2) about to sabotage your kids’ education
3) about to head down a road to financial ruin

We did it anyway. We spent our first year in Mexico and for the last three have been living in Buenos Aires, Argentina–and loving it. Despite the predictions of our peers, our girls got a GREAT education (all graduated from college by 19 and are launched into the world) and we ended up SAVING enough money each month–while living a much nicer lifestyle abroad–to pay for four nearly-simultaneous college tuitions out of pocket. We couldn’t have done that in Portland!

I think it’s up to parents to let their kids know that there are all kinds of dreams out there to pursue. Our daughters–now 18, 20, 22 and 23–are thriving by making their own choices, picking their own destinations (all over the world) and figuring out what lights them up.

We can do this at any age–and we can teach our kids to do the same.

Best of luck to you and everyone who aspires to lead the life they are dreaming about….

But society is just your playground, nothing more. You own the dreams.

I lived half of my life in a communist regime which didn’t had many options. Still, I managed to keep my dreams and follow them. I tried many different approaches and what I found fulfilling was not the degree of success in each of them, nor the degree of failure, for what matters. But the journey itself. That was, and still is, my reward.

Thanks for a great post.

Great article Sean…

David Damron
LifeExcursion

My mom brought my sister and I to America when I was 10 years old, and even though at the time we wouldn’t necessarily have put it in terms of the “American dream”, that’s what we’ve been chasing and living.

The beauty of the real (unadulterated) American Dream is that it exists in a country whose values were written hundreds of years ago and supported by our collective striving for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The definition of this “happiness” is purposefully vague and allows us all the freedom to define it any way we wish – within a society that gives us the freedom to do so.

As an American I get to choose my dream and pursue it. I’m glad to be living in a time when so many others are realizing similar truths – that rampant materialism, property ownership, or accumulation is no substitute for experience, connection, and friendship with those around us – our family, friends, and even our future friends.