Van Life: 7 Biggest FEARS and How to Overcome Them!

hi everyone welcome back to my next video today we're going to talk about an important important subject one that I do not talk about enough and that is the topic of fear uh over the years I've been doing this a long time I've been doing it on YouTube been on my website for a very long time and I've gotten literally thousands and I do mean thousands of letters from people who have told me Bob I'm interested in what you're doing it just really appeals to me I want to do it but I'm afraid and uh sometimes people are are they'll just say I am I'm Paralyzed by my fear so over the years I would say that fear is the number one thing that stands in the way of you and transitioning into your very best possible way of life that means it's important that we deal with how can you overcome your fears so it's these fears that really keep you locked into a way of life that's kind of miserable for you a lot of you economically your finances absolutely dictate that you make this change and yet your fear won't let you and so you're right on the verge I know a lot of you are you write to me and tell me you're right on the verge of being kicked out of your apartment getting your eviction notice and living in a cardboard box on the street and for some reason the fear of doing this is so powerful that you can't overcome it and you might end up living in the street which is the worst possible outcome so you have to find a way to overcome these fears and that's what we're going to talk about today here's the one thing that you must understand about fear fear is a god-given biological evolutionary gift it is never our enemy even even when it's completely out of hand on the and we're Paralyzed by it it still is not our enemy it's our fear of fear that's the enemy FDR Franklin Delano Roosevelt's that was a famous saying he had back in the 30s when we were going through the uh the depression and through the Dust Bowl the only thing we have to fear is fear itself and it's true so I have a method that I think is virtually foolproof that will overcome your fears the first thing that you must do is realize that fear is god-given it is a gift you should be embracing fear as an ally before ten thousand years ago uh all humans were nomadic hunter-gatherers that's what we did that's the way we lived no one lived in a house no one planted crops no one had domesticated animal sheep cows goats uh chickens no one had any of that that didn't exist before ten thousand years ago so how did they they would get they got their food by going out hunting and Gathering and so say you were out hunting one day and you came across a tighter a a single human has no chance against a tiger they are just powerful incredible killing machines and so when you see this tiger there are three reactions you can have a normal healthy calm reaction the fear kicks in and says I gotta get out of here but if the fear is too strong then what you do is you jump up you and you're Frozen uh fight or flight or freeze that's a human response all to fear um fight flight or freeze so if you freeze that might work for a while maybe the tiger won't see you will go off and then again maybe the tiger will see you and then once he spotted you you're the Predator he's the Predator you're the prey he is coming for you and so freezing is not a valid Solution that's a really bad solution the proper solution is to crouch down Get Low stealthily back away and get away very very quietly very calmly control under control and aware that if the tiger does see you and attack you you'll you'll fight to the death you'll lose but you'll fight to the death you'll do your best you're in control you're calm you're rational your brain or your higher functioning is still in charge that's the proper reaction to fear the fear saved you in that case the if you have too little fear you're gonna say oh there's a tiger that's a lot of meat I'll go kill him and eat him well that's preposterous you're you're uh your lack of fear has overcome your good reasoning and thinking ability and now you're charging after a tiger which is certain death and you die so the right amount of fear not too much uh you calmly and under control get away too little you charge out there and and get yourself killed uh just the right amount the Goldilocks amount of fear not too little not too much just right that's what we want that's why we always have to strive for so if we make fear the enemy we lose the ability to see this is a stupid thing I'm gonna do and it's going to get me hurt so when you talk to your friends and your family and you start thinking about becoming a nomad almost universally and everyone the vast majority of people I've ever talked to said their friend said you'll get killed it's horrible that guy's a cult leader you'll go out there and he'll take horrible advantage of you or or there are wild animals everywhere or they're going to run out of money or there are there are roaming bands of ax murderers and rapists everywhere if you go out there it's certain debt so you're being constantly poured on this fear of becoming a nomad and it builds up and builds up and becomes completely disproportionate and you freeze or you make a stupid mistake you just do nothing this is most likely what will happen is what nearly everyone I hear from is they or they just drop everything and run out completely unprepared uh and that's if you have to do that then you have to do that but usually that's your worst choice you want to have some preparation time go out prepare it as best you can to be out here and that's going to greatly increase your chances of success so all these fears that are going to come up in your mind and there's a lot of my we're going to go over seven specific fears that I think you might have so the very first sphere I want to talk to you about is fear of the unknown and fear of failure I think of those as two sides of the same coin because because becoming a nomad is so radically different nothing for most of you a few of your exceptions but for most of us the idea of leaving everything getting in your car your van your RV and driving off and never living in a house again that is so radically different it it just creates all of these different questions and problems and they become a kind of like a cloud a chaotic Cloud of Unknowing of different possibilities and all bad and fears and and just all these different fears we're going to talk about get in there and they just swirl around and you have this sense of uh in impending doom and failure you talk to your friends your family and they all tell you how horrible this bad idea is so the first thing to recognize is your worst fear is fear of the unknown and uh fear of failure they kind of work together and the way we're going to deal with this fear of the unknown is we're going to identify all your other fears and we're going to find solutions for each and every one of them and then that will dispel the cloud When the Thought comes up uh you're going to run out of money then you have a you pull up your plan see above everything else the way to make fear an ally is that it forces you to think through is this a stupid risk I'm taking how can I avoid the problems the fear points out you're going to run out of money so that's fear number two let's look at that now you're going to almost certainly think in your mind I don't have enough money I'm going to run out of money so the first thing you have to do with this fear is identify it give it a name feel it embrace it accept it this fear the fear of running out of money is healthy and good in fact be grateful for that fear it forces you to develop a plan it will scream at you and say this is risky and uh you're taking a stupid chance don't do it no well let me show you this is why it's not as risky as you think and it's not a stupid risk it's not a a wild chance here's what I'm going to do and then you have a plan plan a plan B plan C Plan D so if you have this fear of money the first thing you want to do is develop a an emergency fund if you say if your fear comes to you and say you don't have enough money and you say I've got three thousand dollars in savings I have a budget I have a plan I can live within my budget I can always stop and get another job then you see there's a plan with an a b and c and d on it so whatever you're doing right now get a second job you want to build up your emergency fund so if it's at all possible if you're physically able get a second job put every penny into your emergency fund stop buying things from now on you only buy things that if they're life and death and they're absolutely essential to your new life start selling sell everything you have that isn't essential to uh life and death I'll die if I sell this so I can't sell it otherwise you sell it for everything you can get you build your emergency fund uh you buy things really cheap you buy everything that you can at the thrift stores at garage sales spend as little as you can make as much money find siding jobs find gigs find any way if you can't get another job and work two or three jobs do it work two or three jobs build that emergency fund so then when you go you'll say uh I have a plan I'm going to be safe I'm not going to run out of money and if I do I I have a plan I'll pull over I'll stop I'll get a job I'll stay there until I build up back up my emergency fund then the next big fear is fear that you won't be safe in essence you're afraid of predators two-legged Predators criminals I have a series of videos I'm not going to cover this in any depth at all I have a series of videos on how to stay safe I can promise you that if you do it right if you don't do things wrong that's all you have to do is just use any storm sort of Common Sense and you come out here you'll be safer than you've ever been in your life so don't let fear of safety of predators two-legged or four-legged stop you you'll be safe out here I promise you know you could be at the wrong place at the wrong time anywhere at any time bad luck in there hit us all so I can't promise that won't happen to you but I can promise you that statistically you will be safer out here than you'll be anywhere else in the United States of America uh fear number four fear of breakdowns of all the fears this is the only one that really is statistically valid I mean it's almost inevitable that if you're out here long enough at some point you're going to suffer a breakdown I've had a lot of breakdowns a lot I might have had a dozen in the last 20 years of being a nomad uh and so a dozen out of 20 years really isn't all that bad most of them were in and out a few were overnight and almost always I've been able to stay in the shop one time I actually had to rent a motel room so again I have an emergency fund that's why you have an emergency fund so if you break down you have the money to pay for the repair you have money to pay for the tow you have money to pay for the uh the motel room now the next fear is a fear I think of of loneliness and not having any friends so there's not only is it this is such a radical change becoming a nomad but you're leaving behind your infrastructure of family and friends people that care about you you're leaving them behind and so that can be very fearful fortunately while social media I think is doing our country a lot of harm it also is doing us a lot of good if you choose the the good and then leave behind the harm social media can be a very good very very good thing so you can have a whole bunch of friends before you ever get on the road that is that's a really distinct possibility for you so let me give you some idea of social media that you can use to uh to make friends before you even go oh we started a 501c3 called homes on Wheels Alliance Howa homes on Wheels alliance.org go there to that website and uh you will find two things that are really really going to be helpful to you first is virtual Caravans so uh online we have zoom meetings you don't have to be on Zoom you can just call in with the phone if you can dial a phone number you can come and join this meeting if you can know how to use zoom then you can be in and see people and and be seen by people that's always a better thing I think but either way uh and so it's virtual Caravans virtual campfire you sit around you talk and visit there's a topic you get to know each other you get to tell your story it's a really really good thing another thing that Howa homes on Wheels Alliance at homes on wheelsalliance.org that's the website does is we have Caravans running so at any time uh you can leave your house and go to and meet a caravan a caravan is a group of people it has to be less than 75 that's usually in the ballpark of 15 to 40. 40 on the upper end 10 or 15 is is a pretty typical number so you'll just beat them you'll camp together in one place for two weeks then you'll then you'll move and then you'll just move place to place in your vehicle in this Caravan it's been my experience that you will make better friends and more really deep friendships as an omad than you ever had living in a in a house I've got a lot number six and seven together they're kind of the same thing one is a fear of camping some of you have never gone camping before and so the idea of setting up a tent in the wilderness like this is a completely new idea and you you don't really know how to cope with that so uh camping can be a real fear and driving some of you have lived your whole life in one town or in one County or one state and you've never really even driven cross country the idea of driving cross-country is intimidating to you so uh camping and driving can be a fear that kind of paralyzes you and the answer to both of them is is very similar it's uh to take baby steps to practice now if you go to a psychologist or a psychiatrist with a a paralyzing phobia the way that they deal with them is they inoculate you against the fear you go up against the fear and then when it becomes too hard you back away you go up again hopefully further uh eventually you go further and then once that becomes overwhelming you back away over after a while you just keep doing it you keep pressing and going forward and doing what pressing into the fear by doing what you're afraid of then eventually you overcome the phobia the fear and you're no longer paralyzed and so that's what we're going to do with camping get your camping gear shut down your house your department now probably a house of some kind stop using your kitchen uh get a ice chest a camping stove and a five gallon jug of water and do all your camping right there you've gone camping you're just in your house your house is your tent instead of a real tent you're learning how to Camp before you ever go out on the road so you're inoculating yourself against this fear and you're going to do research at the same time you're going to watch uh YouTube videos maybe you'll read books maybe you'll read websites you'll learn how to camp and then you can find a local Campground probably in your city there's probably a park in your city that has overnight camping there's RV parks find someplace cheap uh go tint into find tent camping in an RV park that's by far your cheapest and they're going to be in the tent and then go there and sleep in your tent same thing with driving it's the exact same thing you start you get out you buy a GPS you put GPS on your phone you learn how to use navigate all around town with your GPS you take a trip to a nearby Town eventually you go camping an hour or two away then the next weekend you go camping uh three hours away then eight hours away and then a day away drive a day away then drive a day back you know you just you press into it and take inoculation okay now I'm going to add a seventh fear you can just barely see those mountains now because there's a big Forest Part in the silos mountains and so forest fires uh floods and droughts and uh heat waves have all become an enormous part of our life wherever you are so how are we going to overcome that fear well the main thing is you got a key you put it in the ignition you turn it you drive away you have less fear of those things than you did when you were in a house when you lived in a house you couldn't get away from the flood those people in Jackson Mississippi when they were out without water for two weeks or if their whole town is flooded or if you have a hurricane coming and you know it's coming but you can't get out of town fast enough to get away from it or if there's a fire suddenly come up well if you live in a vehicle you simply go where those things aren't happening um and I've got a I've got a video out on on dealing with wildfires and so I'm not going to go into it all again just go watch that video there are websites that tell you where the fires are and what's going on fire alerts fire warnings and if you learn how to do all those things then you can stay on top of all of these events as they're coming so that's it that's uh I've covered I think everything I want to cover and I I probably in more detail than I should have because this took too long uh forgive me but I just want you to know that if you make fear your Ally and if you use it as a tool to prepare yourself so that you are not taking foolish risky stupid risks so down in the comments below I'd really love to hear from you have I left out any fears what are some ways you have dealt with some of your fears that have made it easier things I haven't thought of fears I haven't thought of I just hit the big ones here the main value of this YouTube channel is what you contribute in the comments so please contribute down there so if you've got anything out of this video Like Us on YouTube subscribe to the channel hit that thumbs up button and we'll talk to you later bye now

Channel: CheapRVliving

Views: 68,059

Keywords: car, van, RV, Full-time, nomad, camper, camp, boondock, travel, caravan, tiny, house, RTR, Bob Wells, Nomadland, CheapRVLiving, Cheap RV Living, vanlife, van life, how to live in a van, van dwelling, van tour, van conversion, living in a van, camper van, van build, diy van build, sprinter van, van living, #vanlife, van dweller, campervan, vandwelling, diy camper van, RV Life, Living in an RV, Class B, Class C, Truck Living, Living in a car, boondocking, Living in a RV

Id: D3KCY36N0NI

Length: 19min 17sec (1157 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 16 2023