Why I Gave Up Everything For A Simpler Life!

hello again finally I'm making a video in the rain back in 2016 I spent my life savings on a cottage here in the West of Ireland and that's where I've been living ever since and now in June I made a video entitled moving to Ireland cottage restoration self-sufficiency and sustainable living and that video really focused on my goals in moving here what it was all about what I wanted to achieve how I wanted to live but this video I'm making now is gonna focus on why why I abandoned the life that I had moved to a different country because I'm originally from the UK moved away from from friends and family what motivated me what inspired me to do that so this video is going to get kind of philosophical at least in parts I apologize if that's not your thing but I need to talk about things like purpose because I think that's pretty fundamental in terms of quality of life we all need to feel a sense of purpose in what we're doing and different people find purpose in different things for some people it might be their career progressing up the ladder getting that next promotion learning that next skill for some people that's gives them absolute fulfillment they don't really need anything else for others it might be their family coming home at the end of the day it doesn't matter what job they've done really seeing their family progress nurturing them living vicariously through their children that gives them a sense of purpose and fulfillment for other people it might be living for the weekend going out traveling the time off work that gives them fulfillment I really wanted to find that in every minute of every day in everything that I'm doing that's not to say every minute of every day is good or that I'm doing things that I enjoy all the time of course not but I wanted to feel driven to succeed in everything that I'm doing because it's all connected to something fulfilling and purposeful and I think that's really important not just for me but for everyone else else out there you've got to find something that makes you feel like there's a point to your life and that's it and that what you're working towards is achieving that one of the things that i profoundly believe is that while life will twist and turn taking us down different paths some of which we we didn't expect it's ultimately down to us as individuals to shape the direction that our lives take and that isn't about sitting around waiting for amazing things to happen to us it's about going out and taking risks doing things that might go wrong in the hope that they improve our lives and create opportunities for happiness that means pursuing those intangible things that excite us and that's going to be different for every individual person the things that whisper to us in our dreams that really motivate us even if they seem impossible to achieve for me that was living a simpler life connected to nature adhering to the seasons using my hands every day feeling I came part of the land and I actually think the world is full of people like me who aspire to that simpler life not focused on acquiring more wealth and possessions or on climbing ever higher on the career ladder or even on that next holiday in some new exotic location but just on providing for themselves and their families getting their hands dirty growing their own food keeping their own animals building their own house basic simple stuff but on a little piece of the world that they can call their own and that doesn't mean some concrete box in an apartment building but a piece of land that's theirs that they can work and develop so how did I get here well it's a pretty big question I guess but I think we all yearn to go back to the happiest periods of our lives and for me that was probably my early childhood I grew up in a small country village on the edge of farmland in northern England and we had one shop not many houses lots of woodland lots of fields so most of my youth were spent outside making dens stealing strawberries from the neighboring farmers getting up to mischief I led a very kind of william brown esque life and for those of you not familiar with william brown he's kind of a British equivalent of Huckleberry Finn gets up to mischief in the country kind of living a bit like a savage much to the torment of his family that was more or less my life I guess as a young kid and I was deliriously happy I loved it I loved where I lived of course puberty and adolescence and adulthood brings new responsibilities and I ended up moving away but that early period of my childhood most of it was spent outside in nature I loved making things as well tree houses dens weapons bows and arrows you name it I was either making something or growing something or exploring in some way all my time was spent out in nature upon growing up and leaving home at 18 I then spent far too many years living in apartments and house shares in cities and urban areas surrounded by concrete and people and traffic and stress because that's what you do right if you're reasonably intelligent and capable you pursue academia you then end up in an office based job that's the direction that life siphons ours in certainly in the Western world it's just what you do and you end up working 8-10 hours a day five days a week in an office staring at a screen maybe you're enjoying what you're doing but the environment isn't great that's certainly what I did for 10 years or more of my life and I was never really fulfilled in doing that I eventually got the opportunity to move to Island when a company that I was working for in Paris decided to set up an office down in Cork City in the south of Ireland and it was on days off weekends that I would drive out west into County Kerry and the Irish coast and explore remote beaches and and mountaintops hike along trails the kind that don't have waypoints and signs which is how I like them and I really fell in love with Island during that period of just exploration and seeing the country Alan has a very rich history and it's very beautiful it's very wild but it's also accessible and it has the most for me fascinating mythology and folklore which I've always been interested in and so I really felt connected to Ireland as a country certainly the remoter Wilder parts of it during that period and I grew to love it and want to live here more than I have anywhere else that I've lived certainly as an adult also the fact that I could drive for an hour or two from Islands second largest city cork and be lost in a landscape of fields and forests and mountains and it's so accessible it's so on your doorstep island has a very low population it's less than five million it is admittedly a tiny tiny country but there's wildness and that sense of magic everywhere if you're willing to get out and explore so it was at that time that I really began to feel that yearning for simpler life living to my own schedule following my own plans doing my own thing every day especially as I was spending my days during the week sat in an office staring at a screen or in a meeting room and then my weekends out traveling in the countryside in the West of Ireland there was such a contrast between how I felt and my levels of stress I realized that that's where I wanted to be that environment and not back in the office that I had to go home to so I started thinking about the possibility then of buying somewhere and trying to build that life but it just seemed overwhelming and unrealistic and impractical and I started to question whether I had the knowledge the skills I doubted my ability to make it work so I did the next best thing which was to quit my job and go traveling so I spent a year traveling in Western Ireland parts of the UK and Canada I've had an affection for Canada for a long time so I decided to do voluntary work mostly on organic farms and wilderness lodges with crazy Hermits living alone in the woods various building projects things like that all sorts of different things over the course of a year and I learnt an awful lot of skills particularly things like vegetable growing construction skills building cabins even chasing away the odd bear things like that which was immensely useful in moving forward to the next stage in my life more than anything though the year that I spent traveling made me realize something quite profound and it's that the people that I was staying with were able to realize their personal dreams by refusing to accept that everything in your life has to be perfect before you make a big change they still had financial worries many of them a lack of money to do what they wanted to do they still had separation issues from family and friends having moved away they still had family issues and things in the life that weren't perfect they still had a lack of expertise and experience in what they were trying to do and even in some cases they had quite serious illnesses to contend with and yet they didn't let these things stop them because the reality is if you wait for everything to be perfect you know once one thing gets solved one problem another problem comes to take its place and your situation in a year in five years in ten years might be worse than your situation now if you keep waiting for that perfect moment it probably won't ever come and I hadn't realized that until I went traveling and I met these people who told me their their experiences and their life stories and put everything in perspective life is short and you have to go out and live it and that realization gave me a huge amount of confidence if I hadn't spent that year traveling I don't think I would have purchased the cottage in the land I don't think I would be sat in here now making this video it gave me the courage to take a leap of faith and pursue what I really wanted to be you even knowing that everything in my life wasn't perfect and I have all those people that I stayed with to thank for that that when returning from my year overseas doing voluntary work I briefly settled back in the UK while I was trying to figure out what to do next and I started searching really actively for old cottages in western Ireland for sale and there are a number of websites out there dafter II's one of the best ones and I knew I wanted to find something in the West of Ireland because it has a kind of wild rugged mountainous quality to it which I guess it kind of suits my temperament but beyond that I was searching all the way from the southern peninsulas of County Cork right the way up to the wild mountains of Donegal in the north and all the while I was researching subjects like cottage restoration I briefly trained as a furniture maker when I was much younger so I have some experience particularly in woodwork and carpentry and I'd gained a bit more experience with my year of traveling as well as experience in organic vegetable growing but there were still and still are many many subjects that I'm not an expert in have little to no experience in so I was trying to read as much as I could and learn as much as I could also about rather dry subjects like buying property in Ireland and how to hire a solicitor and how that process works trying to get myself clued in before I actually made the move and then in February 2016 with a shortlist of about a dozen cottages and properties in Western Ireland I packed a sleeping bag a camping stove and a few other bits and bobs and drove the 14 15 hour journey all the way from where I was living in the UK ooh western island spanning three countries in the process and ferry ride across the Irish Sea in order to spend a week driving up and down the west coast viewing these properties with the hope that I would find one that I would ultimately make an offer on I should add as well I could make a whole video about that that week viewing properties here in Ireland it's suffice it to say it was a very colorful experience bear in mind that most of the cottages were kind of at the end of lanes that had been left to wreck and ruin and they were overgrown and hard to get to and it was February so it was just following a very wet winter everything was muddy and boggy and wasn't the best conditions for driving around and I was been shown these cottages by very disgruntled auctioneers which is the Irish term for real estate agents who would much rather have been showing that to 300,000 euro new build concrete monstrosity for which they'd get a hefty Commission than the famine cottages that I was interested in they didn't really like walking around in their newly pressed suits in these old McCobb webbed cottages many of them were even disgusted at the idea of being inside them I think that I guess that's part and parcel with their job to have to show everything from the very expensive and plush to the very poor but it was a really fun experience for me and and certainly one I'll never forget in the end though when viewing mossy bottom as I ended up calling it this cottage I knew almost immediately that it was going to be my future home then it's not the best cottage in the best condition it's not even the best land or the most land of all the different properties that I saw but what it has is probably the best location it's right at the end of a completely private kilometer long lane and it's not overlooked or shared the space around it by any other houses so my little acre of land here is just completely surrounded by fields and woodland so I have complete privacy and space and yet it's still only a 10-minute drive to the nearest town in which there's a supermarket for buying food and a garden center and an agricultural supplier so everything is really on my doorstep but I have that space and privacy and feeling of being in a wild place surrounded by nature and that is so important to me it's something that I really love it then took a further four or five months to actually buy the cottage inland the main reason for that was that my solicitor here in Ireland was determined to convince me that buying an old ruined cottage with holes in the roof and walls and major subsidence in the floor no septic tank no water supply and questionable access down the kilometer-long overgrown Lane was in fact a terrible idea for someone who'd never bought a property before and to be fair she was probably right although I certainly don't regret buying it two years later but she had some some pretty good points and arguments I must admit in the end though it all went through and I bought it and Here I am now so the big question has got to be was it worth it am I glad I made the move am i happier now than I was do I have that sense of purpose that I craved and the answer has to be in complete honesty our big resounding yes to all those things I'm glad I moved to it was stressful it was a hard thing to do and I've talked about the actual process of physically relocating here in the other video I made but I am happier I do have that sense of purpose every day in what I'm doing now that's not to say that everything in my life is perfect I still feel stress every day with different things that I'm doing there are deadlines there are responsibilities that there are worries particularly financial worries like most of you watching this video will have as well it's just part and parcel of life that we have to worry about things like that not everything in my life is perfect but I do have that overwhelming sense of purpose I wake up and I know what I want to achieve that day and if I achieve it I feel this tremendous sense of gratification like I can sleep soundly at night I'm not worried about my future this is my future my life is invested in the right thing and it makes me contented and that's really important and I never had that before so for anyone in a similar position who is interested in changing their lives and living a simpler life like this the first thing I would recommend you do based on my own experiences is take some time out to travel and live with people who are living the kind of life that you're interested in even if you've got a wealth of experience and you know what you're doing already what that will give you is courage you know you can learn how to plaster a wall and Tylar roof and build a chicken coop in by reading a book or watching youtube videos but what we all really need to change our lives dramatically is is bravery is courage and you get that by doing things in your life you don't get it by continuing as you are you have to get out there and spend time with people that feed you that courage when you can see other people having realized their dreams doing similar things to what you want to do with your life having faced obstacles perhaps even bigger than the ones you faced you realize that it's not impossible all those excuses that you tell yourself you know it's not the right time I don't really have enough money I'm not really experienced enough you realize that none of those really count for anything that life is short and you've got to get out there and live it so if I could recommend one thing to anyone who has aspirations similar to mine it would be travel spend time traveling and living with people who are living the kind of life you're interested in there are websites out there like work away and help X which allow you to register as a volunteer and travel to all manner of different places in the world and stay with hosts for free effectively where they accommodate you and feed you in exchange for a bit of work which is a learning experience in itself I used those websites to travel around Canada and it was one of the best experiences of my life it truly was so yeah go out there and experience the kind of life that you're interested in living you'll be amazed what a difference it makes within yourself okay that's it for this video I really hope it's inspired some people out there again if you've got any questions or comments please leave them down below and I'll do my best to reply it's a fantastic feeling being able to advise and help people in any way that I can so don't hesitate to do that it's actually August here in Ireland now you wouldn't know it from this weather it's pouring down out there I'm sat under a very big ash tree desperately trying to keep dry but this is kind of typical weather for um for Island a mixture of sunny spells and rain so the next video is going to be set out in the Irish bog which probably doesn't sound terribly appealing but trust me it's a beautiful place and that's kind of the point of it because I I want to make a video or two showcasing how beautiful island is before the summer disappears entirely so that's my plan it's going to feature this guy mossy dog a bike and a bungee cord so hopefully that's enough to whet your appetite I'll leave you guessing exactly what we'll be doing but yeah that'll be the next video hopefully in the next week or two thanks again for watching thanks to everyone who subscribed there'll be a lot more videos to come I promise so stay tuned for that and bye for now and I think the world we all need to feel a sense of purpose in what we're doing yes yes thank you not focused on your contribution there mas and I think the world acquiring more wealth and possessions thanks for that loss and I think the world is full of people like me who sorry for the losses contribution there it's kind of hard to stop him doing that and I think the world is full of people like me yes thank you must know so how did I get here I must give it here give it here and I led a very William Brown esque kind of life as a boy boss will you stop it in case you're wondering what that moaning noises by the way that would be my dog Moss who's just off-camera they're chewing on some sticks I do that again I'm Anna stoop lock up the courage to end my job my 9 to 5 office job but instead of buying somewhere calm down you calm down I I decided so it was at that time that I really began to feel a for that simpler life you'd be quiet and a few other property search websites so anyone out there you just knocked the camera mas that's not very good go on going away now good boy stop stop stop

Channel: Mossy Bottom

Views: 491,380

Keywords: moving to ireland, living a simpler life, simpler life, building the dream, living the dream, simpler life ireland, dream ireland, starting a new life, new life ireland, living a simpler life ireland, building the dream ireland, homesteading ireland, self-sufficiency ireland, selfsufficiency ireland, buying land ireland, buying property ireland, the good life, the good life ireland

Id: pgIS1rHJ014

Length: 27min 44sec (1664 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 24 2018