How did we get here?  How is it that in 2 months my family and I will be packing one suitcase and one backpack each and traveling around the world for 1 year? One of the most frequent questions that I am asked is, “What inspired you to do this?”

Every December, my wife, Kristin, and I spend a weekend planning the year ahead.  During this “retreat,” I not only compose a 1 year plan, but I also revise my 3-year and 5-year plans.  In preparation for the new 3 and 5-year plans, I first review the past several years’ plans.  My goal is to be inspired by these outlines.  But five years ago, when looking over everything, I realized that my plans were static — each was essentially a duplicate of the previous year’s plan.  They were boring and uninspiring.

What was missing? From the outside looking in, I had it all — good health, a happy marriage, a smart and beautiful wife, 3 healthy kids, a successful business, a great group of friends, a busy social life, and financial stability. But the truth was, something was missing.  A lot was missing.  I felt an intrinsic void.  I was bored at work.  I was unhappy in my marriage and didn’t realize that I was the source of the unhappiness.  Over the next several months, I tried to figure out how to make this better, how to make ME better.  I started therapy and got back into Transcendental Meditation (TM).  But that wasn’t really enough.  What finally gave me some clarity was trying to remember the times in my life during which I felt most fulfilled.  Two moments that immediately stood out were my experience on Semester at Sea during Fall of my Junior year and the 6+ months that I spent traveling around the world after college.  I also noted that my happiest experiences were during times that I felt challenged and was learning— in Business school and when creating new business solutions.  Whether it was through travel or learning, the highlights were all moments through which I grew tremendously.

So, now the question was, “How do I replicate those experiences in my present day life as a husband, father of 3, and business owner?”  With my renewed practice of meditation, I opened my mind and waited for the Universe to give me the answer.  It was actually during one of my TM sessions that the idea came to me —  I should take a year off and travel around the world with my family.  Naturally, I dismissed this thought as an impossibility.  Who does that?  Thankfully, the Universe didn’t give up on me.  A couple of weeks later, I received an email from a friend with a business article that he thought I would enjoy.  That article was ok, but what really caught my attention was the beginning of the article that started right below this first one — “My wife and I just completed a nine-month trip around the world with our three children…”  I was hooked.  I asked my friend to send me a copy of that next article and reading it re-enforced the message that had previously come to me during meditation.  I could no longer ignore the idea.  A few days later, I was playing golf with a friend who had just attended the funeral of the father of a high school friend.  He shared how moved he was by the eulogy the three daughters gave about their father.  They each spoke of the amazing gift that their father had given them in taking a year off and traveling as a family.  And there it was —  the third sign.  I had to do it.

Up to that point, I hadn’t put any of this into spoken words.  That was too scary.  I decided to test out the idea with two of my mentors — one business and one spiritual.  They both enthusiastically endorsed the plan.  Now, the even scarier part was how to tell Kristin and get her on board.  I had to find the perfect time and place to have this discussion — no kids around, uninterrupted, unhurried.  It was a long four days until I was finally able to take her out to dinner to explain what had been weighing so heavily on my mind.  I didn’t expect her to say “yes” right away.  I just didn’t want her to reject the idea outright and thankfully, she didn’t.  Her reaction was appropriately filled with skepticism and questions: “What about your business?  What about my job and my patients? What about our parents?  What if they get sick?  What if we get sick? What do we do about school for the kids?  What do we do with our house?  Our dog?” I had had three months to process all of this and more and I knew Kristin would need some time too.  Surprisingly she didn’t take very long to embrace the adventure.   And now the question was “WHEN?”  We decided that the best time to take off would be at the beginning of the school year, when all of our children could read, and before anyone was in high school.  That would mean 8th grade, 6th grade, and 3rd grade.  And that was in 5 years.

With Kristin on board and a general departure date, a huge weight had been lifted off of my shoulders.  In a way, I had a new sense of purpose and a new challenge.  And since I was now in such close communication with the Universe, it decided to let me know that I was on the right track.  This time it did so via snail mail.  I rarely get mail in my inbox at work anymore.  Most communication happens electronically.  But the very day after Kristin and I had formulated our new 5 year plan, I found a book in my inbox.  The cover read, “Where will you be 5 years from today?”  I paused, looked around for a hidden camera, and read it again.  Was this a joke?  Did Kristin sneak this into my mailbox?  Puzzled, I let the book fall open in my hands.  And then my breath caught.  Across the two open pages it said, “SEE THE WORLD.”  There was no camera and Kristin had nothing to do with it.  But thanks are due to Merrill Lynch for letting the Universe use it’s marketing mailer as a “medium.”  I had heard the message correctly.

Call it the Universe.  Call it fate.  Call it God.  With His help and some deep soul searching, I had a new challenge that would, right away, bring me from unsettled and unhappy to excited and fulfilled.