018- How Gratitude Changes Your Perspective & Presents You With New Opportunities With Follow Your Detour

Published by This Indulgent Life on May 28, 2019May 28, 2019

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Sometimes life feels like it’s knocking you down and all your dreams of the future come crashing. Dan and Lindsay of Follow Your Detour have experienced this and have learned that the destruction of dreams is really just a detour to help you find new ones. In this interview with Follow Your Detour we discover how gratitude changes your perspective and presents you with new opportunities!

Have you joined our new Facebook group yet? Come join us there to learn how to create space in your own life for family travel and adventure!

I’m so thankful to Dan and Lindsay for being vulnerable and honest in today’s interview. Not only do they have an amazing adventure story with being expats and RVing and all the opportunities it’s provided, but they have a big heart for encouraging others. I can’t wait for everyone to hear this interview and hope you’re as inspired as I was.

PS. Sorry for the bad audio on my end… I forgot to replug the mic back into the computer!

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Who are Dan & Lindsay of Follow Your Detour?

follow your detour on getting through grief Dan and Lindsay McKenzie have been traveling the world and adventuring together for 12 years now. Shortly after deciding to put their traveling dreams on hold to start a family and “settle down”, they discovered after 2 years of struggling with infertility that they are medically unable to have children together. Through this loss and others, they decided to embrace this chapter as a “detour” rather than a dead end. Their detour has led them on a journey of self-discovery and transformation while full-time RVing the U.S. the past 2 years. They’ve made it their mission to share this message of following life’s detours and are here to tell us more about it today!

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In This Interview With Follow Your Detour We Cover:

How Travel Has Been The Foundation Of Their Relationship.

From getting married on a beach in Mexico to becoming expats in Costa Rica, Dan and Lindsay have always had a love of travel. They spent 5 years traveling the world before settling down the first time in Colorado and they firmly believe traveling gave them a good foundation to their marriage.

The Dead End To Their Dreams

Road Trip to North Carolina Mountains an interview with follow your detour on gratitude After traveling for 5 years they were ready to fulfill their biggest adventure of all, having a baby together. They bought a little house in the suburbs of Colorado, got normal everyday jobs, and life seemed to be perfect. Until their efforts to become pregnant were going by unrealized. After 2 years of infertility and all the testing that comes from that, they found out Dan had Sertoli cell-only syndrome. Basically, there was no way they could become pregnant on their own.

This was a huge blow to them both, but especially Lindsay. Having a family filled with kids was something she had always dreamed of and this diagnosis was like the death of all those would-be children and the life they had envisioned.

Realizing the Detour

After taking time to grieve the loss of their dreams they realized they needed to change their perspective. The decided that this wasn’t going to be the dead end of their lives, but just a detour. They changed their mindset and decided to rely on God and to accept whatever would happen next. It wasn’t immediate, they were quite broken for a while, but they realized it was time for a change in their lives.

How Being Grateful Can Put Things Into Perspective

“Grief is the cost of love, the only way to avoid grief is to not have love.” After the infertility diagnoses and the loss of Lindsay’s brother they took a class on grief at church and heard this quote. This idea, that grief and loss is a product of a positive in your life, helped create the mind-shift they needed to see their loss as opportunities. Being grateful for the pain seems like a crazy idea, but it’s by being grateful that you can change your perspective to follow your detour.

Why They Decided to RV

Follow Your Detour on changing your perspective with gratitude Once their perspective changed they realized they needed a change. The most obvious answer for them was just “somewhere warmer” as they faced yet another cold snowy day. So as a kindergarten teacher Lindsay started applying to jobs in NC and almost immediately got hired for a year-round school in Raliegh. So to NC they moved!

However, it wasn’t the change they needed. Dan had a location independent job already and so when Lindsay had long breaks they would go off on trips and explore. The more they did it, the more they realized they wanted to do it fulltime and decided why not?! They had already moved half-way across the country and so taking the risk seemed like the right choice!

Don’t forget to check out our Big Announcement in episode 4 about why we are also going to become a full time RV Family!

Shifting Mindset to Shift Careers

Becoming RVers- follow your detours With a Masters degree and 6 years of teaching experience, Lindsay knew she needed a change, but it was also her identity. She didn’t know how to translate her skills as a teacher into another profession, but connecting with other RVers opened the doors to collaborations, writing opportunities and more. She was a sponge learning whatever she could and took the risk to try new opportunities.

Those opportunities gave her the skills and the confidence to pursue her most recent venture of becoming an author and build a community for nomads, Nomad Collab. Not to mention they recently hosted a travel show on YouTube with Camping World where they explored different RVs, scenic locations, historic monuments, and crazy experiences!

Tips For When It Feels Nothing Is Going Right

1- Do Something Different!

The bigger the change, the bigger the results. Even if it’s not the perfect decision it’s important to take action. By taking action you feel the change and can better see what is working and what isn’t.

2- Find Support!

When we shut ourselves off from people we are actually shutting ourselves from help and improvement. Open yourself up to sharing your story, good or bad. When you do you’ll find people are waiting to help and support you in your journey. This was one reason Lindsay decided to write her book “Follow Your Detour”.

3- Find Gratitude!

It may be challenging when you’re in the midst of struggling, but it’s so important. Struggles are often a sign of change and improvement and not bad like we often feel. When you’re grateful

Have you checked out Madison of American Field Trip yet? In her episode she talks about setting big travel goals too!

Writing ‘Find Your Detour’

As she shared her story with others through the blog and Instagram, Lindsay was often told she should write a book about her journey. At first, she was really hesitant. She was scared she couldn’t do it, but she overcame her fears and found the support needed to get it done. Once she tapped into her purpose of sharing their story to show others they weren’t alone she found the story just spilled out of her.

It’s a great mix of inspirational story and self-help, pushing you to re-evaluate your perspective on the struggles in your own life. It’s a book for anyone looking to stop looking at the challenges as dead ends and instead see them as just detours.