Just go and do it independent of the outcome

Honestly, I feel quite tired with the success - failure narrative our society is most of the time driven bye. It doesn’t leave much room for trying things out, experimenting, or just following an idea without knowing whether it’s gonna pan out or not.

If you define success in a very traditional way, I haven’t achieved a whole lot, no accolades. Most probably I wouldn’t have had the guts to go for the things I did, would I have known how challenging things would get sometimes.

Still, many people always have admired me for following my own path.

Let me tell you a little, in case you don’t know!

I left Germany, my home country, in 2010. It's been 13 years that I've been away. Can you believe it. I first went to England, Cornwall. At the time I didn't have a big plan. I was frustrated with my situation in Hamburg, so I simply took my car, drove over and sussed it out for three months, before deciding to give it a proper go.

Cornwall ended up being my home for seven years. Then the Brexit happened and there were a few other factors playing into my decision to leave and hop over to the next island, Ireland. Ever since I set foot on Ireland, when I was 19 years old I fell in love with it and wanted to live there someday.

Why not now? Better late than never!

I packed my stuff into my blue, VW Golf and made my way to Galway. A city I always liked a lot. I stayed for six years, with a lot of moving and of course the pandemic in between.

And now I just moved to Portugal. Sometimes I wonder:

‘How did that just happen? Lol!’

The next adventure, which I never planned, is unfolding. Including dust paths, very old cars, lots of wine and galao (cafe latte) and learning the language of course.

Life is a journey with many unexpected stops or detours we never expected. When I look back at both my times in England as well as in Ireland, there were many beautiful things. But also so many things, which didn’t work out. And can be classified as failures, at least in the traditional sense.

Even if that may be the case, how many people how many people can say that they had the courage to do something and to do it on their own?

I went on my own to England, I went on my own to Ireland, and now I landed on my own in Portugal.

Often I have the feeling we categorise experiences maybe too quickly in failure and success stories.

What does that much celebrated success fairytale mean anyway?

In my book it’s important, that we just went and did the things, we felt we wanted to do. We engaged with our ideas wholeheartedly and didn’t worry so much about the outcome.

I can say, I accomplished my dream wanting to live close to the sea, I’ve been doing this for the past 13 years.

Life is a journey, there are many stops and detours we never thought we would take.

Don’t worry so much about, whether it’s gonna work out or not, just do it. You always can change it, when it doesn’t suit anymore.

It may sound very simple, but I can tell you from my own experience it’s not so easy. You need to trust yourself, even when you’re doubting everything along the way. Moving forward step by step, enjoying the sites as much as possible.