Many of us have bellowed ‘Go your own way!’ at the top of our lungs when listening to Fleetwood Mac, but it’s in that pause that we imagine just what going our own way might be like. Of course, in the context of the song it’s a defiant refrain to a love lost, but this is also what the emotional context might be for those who wish to get away from the artificial nature of self in the twenty-first century and instead experience something real.
How do you have the strength to go your own way, and what might this look like? Perhaps it’s purchasing a set of private number plates. For others, it’s feeling happy simply being who they are and liking what they like, such as a gruff forty-year-old security guard who just loves singing to musicals in his spare time. Perhaps we may not consider those two things to go hand-in-hand, but not caring about image would be a strength on this part of this person.
Going your own way, perhaps to the point where you may wish to live off-grid, can be an exhilarating and also quite worrying prospect if you’re not used to this at all. How might you find the strength to live this kind of lifestyle? We would recommend the following mindset:
A Question Of Values
Questioning your values to begin with can be a solid first step. What is it that is important to you? Do you feel that working in the corporate rat race and living in a heavily urbanized environment to be incredibly tiring? Do you wish for more land, or to be more self-sufficient, or to simply feel like less of a node in a machine rather than a living, thinking, breathing person? It’s important to understand what your values are, because when you have them in line, you can begin to generate principles that help you along this journey. Perhaps having your own land and the means to stay practically self-sufficient are important to you, or perhaps you lament the loss of privacy in urbanized areas.
It’s easy to feel as though you’re making the wrong decision if you haven’t yet considered things.
Being Unafraid
Being unafraid takes, by definition ,a little courage. This sounds completely tautologous, but it actually isn’t. Fear keeps you sensible, and it allows you to use your sharpest senses to make the best decision going forward. If your fear of trying something new is put in its proper place, that can revoke the power fear has over you. This is where you can become more of a maverick, allowing yourself to focus on sustaining yourself through perhaps building your own shelter, negotiating the deed to land or renovating an old house for your purposes. It can also help you with protective tasks such as marking out your property borders and protecting said property if the need comes.
Staying Appreciative & Humble
There’s something incredible that happens when you decide to live in the great outdoors and drop from the grid to the best extent that you can. You begin to feel much more grateful that you aren’t chasing the never-ending hamster wheel of city life. You notice nature more, and feel restored within it. You are also able to enjoy the little pleasures, such as herbs or fruit you have grown on your own land, reading in the evenings watching the sunset, or rearing animals for your own table. It’s gratitude in nature that is the core of the off-grid lifestyle, and it can sustain anyone from lapsing and falling back into the easy conveniences of the modern world.
What Really Matters
What really matters? Having a social media profile where you are inundated with digital arguments, unnecessary news and the anxieties of modern life? Or is it worthwhile to protect your privacy, and to exercise your rights, and to have real-life survival skills? It’s incredible how we can feel like the odd-ones-out for chasing that kind of life, when the inverse is so artificial. Yet when you know in your heart what actually matters, you will brush off these definitions with a swipe of the shoulder.
Always have the strength to go your own way.