If there was one activity in the world I could spend every single day doing and not get tired of it, it’s skiing. I love bombing down long, fast runs. I love the technical descents of more challenging terrain. I love the obstacles of the terrain parks.
It’s the vacation I look forward to the most all year every year.
But this year was different.
This year I couldn’t afford to go skiing. Lift tickets, skis, boots, it all adds up to a lot more than we can cash flow right now.
Facing that reality was a tough one for me. And while I knew in my heart this was ultimately where we wanted to be as a family, the pain of missing a year skiing was crushing.
Yeah, yeah, I know what you’re thinking. “Boo-hoo. My wallet’s too small for my fifties, and my diamond shoes are too tight!”
For me skiing is so much more than a luxury vacation. It’s a chance to challenge my physical limits! And the strength I gain from landing something I never thought possible is in fact very real!
But I knew the numbers, I knew our goals, and we just couldn’t afford it.
That’s when it clicked.
I remembered something Robert Kiyosaki taught me in his book Rich Dad, Poor Dad.
[box]“Don’t ever say you can’t afford something. Instead, ask how can you afford it.”[/box]
So I did. I had 4 months until we left, and I committed to earning the money I needed to ski outside of our normal income. Anything goes, everything counts, but I had to come up with the money.
I was fired up about the idea at first. “I should do this every year!” I thought. But very quickly I realized I didn’t have a clue where to get extra money.
Sell Your Crap
Then it hit me – sell your crap! One of our ongoing projects around the house is to get rid of crap. We love to be organized and enjoy the freedom of only having what we need, but we’ve got a long way to go to get there.
I looked into selling stuff on eBay, but to be honest it was overly complicated. It seemed like such an easy thing, but I was intimidated by the process.
We talked about having a garage sale, but that’s even scarier than eBay! (I’ve heard about you garage sale people!)
But if there’s one thing I know about achieving goals, it’s that the WHY makes all the difference. And I had a pretty big why!
How I did it
Adam Baker is a blogger I’ve followed for years over at Man vs Debt. Years ago he and his wife sold nearly everything they owned, paid off their debt, and traveled the world for a while. It’s a very inspiring story!
As you can imagine, Baker became an expert at getting rid of crap. In fact, he wrote the book on it!
His Sell Your Crap ebook is an amazing resource that I used to help me navigate the vast ocean of ways to get rid of stuff and make some extra cash.
He helped me get a better perspective on the stuff all around me, and understand what a life free of that stuff could be like.
I’m not talking about extreme minimalism – not at all! I’m talking about the stuff that’s collected in my bookcases, drawers, and boxes year after year after year. Things I saved “just in case” I needed them again. Things I kept because I thought it didn’t cost me anything to keep it (it does, it costs you freedom!).
I did it! After one (scary) garage sale and quite a few rounds of eBay postings I made over $800 for our trip. Not bad considering it was all made off of stuff I hadn’t touched in years (and didn’t have a good place for either).
This changes everything
So I sold some stuff on eBay and made a few extra bucks, big deal.
But to me this is a BIG deal!
Because this changes everything.
I proved to myself what Robert Kiyosaki says is true:
Don’t ever say you can’t afford it. Ask HOW you can afford it. – Kiyosaki
— Deacon Bradley (@deaconbradley) February 13, 2012
Believing this changes everything. Living this makes it real.
Next time will be bigger.
Next time will be better.
And someday I’ll be skiing as many weeks a season as I can handle.
Have you ever limited yourself by thinking “I can’t afford this?”
