The Optimist and The Pessimist

Hiya and Hello!

We wanted to share with you a real time… real life… story we’re calling “The Optimist and The Pessimist”!

Miles: It was something Tamra thought of doing… and the perspectives that she realized… go ahead and tell the story.

Tamra: It was so interesting, the other day we were at Francas (on the Southern Coast of Spain), just driving in one night… it was dark out… and we were looking for a place to park on the beach…

And we came up to a bridge, that I thought, “Oh, we CAN’T fit under it, with our 10 foot tall trailer mobile home…” And Miles thought, “No. Let’s just try! Let’s stop righting front of it, and look.”

After he stopped, there was one gentleman there, stood, he was actually walking his dog, but he just stood there… thin, and straight and tall and looked a little, um, “What’s the word?”

Miles: Officious! (Shall we say.)

Tamra: Yes. (Laughing.) Perfect.

Yes, and he said, he looked at it (our mobile home parked right at the beginning of the bridge) and said, “No, you won’t make it.”

And, Miles had climbed onto the back to look up at the top and see if we would make it (under the bridge). The guy just kept saying, “No, you’re not going to make it. It won’t fit. Go around another way.”

And then another gentleman came up…

Miles: “Whoa, wait. Before we go onto the other gentleman…”

However, I had climbed up the ladder, and just done an eye check, and thought, ooohhhh, it’s inches… but it is inches… and I think we’ll make it.

So I came down the ladder to say to him, “Yes, we will make it.”

And he replied, “Well, no you won’t. And, you can’t park there.”

So he tried to come up with another reason why we SHOULDN’T go through the low bridge to the other side, where there was a beautiful, beautiful sandy bay!

Tamra: Then another gentleman came up, kind, short, nice guy, (not that that matters whether he was short or tall)…

In fact we have a picture of him, with us (in the beginning of this video!) 🙂
His name is Stephen. (Steven?)
So, Thank You, Stephen! You are fabulous!

So, he came up, and he looked at it (the situation), and saw what was going on, and he said, “You can make it! Just barely! Yes!”

And, in Spanish all of this is going on…
And he said, go really slow, just go really slow, I’ll help you through. But you CAN make it!

And I just stood there, watching all of this, speaking to the two gentleman in Spanish… but I just stood back and thought, “This is the SAME situation… but people looking in two completely different perspectives, looking at it…”

And I just thought, “How intriguing…” But I’ll get back to that…

So, this guy, Stephen, said, “I’ll help you!”

And Miles had said, “We can make it! Just slow…”

So Miles got into the Mobile home to continue driving, and the guy… he went back (under the bridge), and he kept looking, and with one hand he said “Stop” and with the other hand he would motion for us to drive, REALLY REALLY SLOW.

And he helped us through the entire way (below the bridge), and he told us where to park, and he said, “I have a caravan… just park right by this boat… there’s free parking! You can park here (in one specific place), you can’t park in another spot… he said this is the most FABULOUS place to park! It is BEAUTIFUL!”

He was SO kind, and giving and generous, and positive! It was just amazing!

Afterwards, after we got through (below the bridge) and we parked, I sat back and thought, “What an amazing LIFE LESSON, that we can all choose! Well, I can choose, I’ll talk about me… I can choose how to look at ANY situation! Through positive eyes, or negative… I thought, how brilliant is that, I got to see that, and witness that, and remember that, every day.”

Miles: Yes, and the added lesson of why is it even worth looking at the optimist point of view?

Well, we ended up parking there for three nights, (it was GORGEOUS), and found THE BEST bay on the south coast of Spain that we’ve found anywhere. For a gorgeous, private beach, beautiful developments, not overpopulated… NOT over commercialized… it was absolutely gorgeous! Exquisite buildings to walk through! It was like a maze to walk through… we have pictures! We’ll put them up, so you can see, the place was just gorgeous! The lovely little alleyways that go through the complex… right by this private area.

So, the lesson learned was, because this guy said, “Of course you can! Of course you can park here! Yes, they say that, but it’s out of season, you can park where you want! I’ve got my own camper van.”

It opened up that he was another mobile homeowner, and… he lived life the way he wanted to live it. He didn’t let things get in the way.

Look at the outcome! We ended up in the MOST IDYLLIC place, next to a gorgeous marina!

And, had we not done that, we’d have missed out on that, got back on the road, and tried to find somewhere else that night.

So THANKS Stephen for your help! And for giving us a wonderful life lesson!
Muchas Gracias!

Tamra: And then, a few days later we saw him, and insisted on we take a picture with him! LOL

He was SO kind, and he lives there. He lives in this gorgeous town, and he was welcoming enough to say… “No, come join us! Come see the town! You can park here also!” It was just SO lovely to meet someone SO kind!

Miles: Absolutley! So this was the outcome of what we got to experience, but also the uplifting nature of how some people can be!

And the message here to you is… and it was to us, is how do you look at things when you see something come up that could be to potentially be perceived as a challenge? A challenge is that actually an opportunity and when you see past it, and get through it, break through it, what’s on the other side?

Is it worth it? Because if it isn’t worth it… nothing lost. But if you didn’t… then nothing gained.

Tamra: Ohhh… and, the best part of the story, that Miles just reminded me of…

Miles: “Oh, am I to tell it?” Ok…

So the best part was that he mentioned that the guy was just edging us forward, edging us forward… and we thought, “Why is he being so cautious? I’ve checked it it looks good to me!”

And it wasn’t until afterwards that he said to us, well we said to him, “So was it close?”

He literally said, it was that much (TWO FINGERS) between the top of the van, and the underside of the bridge at the point we had to come through.

So, he was doing this from afar, just saying, “Yes. Yes. You are alright…”

Bit by bit.

BIT by BIT.

And what it made us realize also is sometimes you are just THAT FAR (two fingers) away from getting to where you want to be.

And sometimes you just have to push it that much further (two fingers), and all the rest of it, is just that little gap.

Sometimes you have to fit yourself through to get to where you want to be.

So, we just wanted to add that.

Tamra: And, I’ve just thought of something else brilliant…
Also to NOT LISTEN to people, when they say, “No. You can’t.”
You touched on that a little… but if someone says, “No you can’t…”

You saw that we could, or we should at least try!It’s our lives! And I’m SO glad we did that! (We pushed through.)

Miles: Yes. And, do you know… a thing you could even say to the person who says to you, that you can’t…
Just say, “Yeah, but what if we could?”

See what their answer is to that one! Because you’ll probably completely throw them, and then they’ll come up with the positive side of what we possibly could do if you could.

So, there you go!
Just in addition to that, we thought that might help as well!

Bye for now! Chow!
Tamra & Miles
Online Offgrid

Life Sucks Sometimes… Until…

Hi, Miles and Tamra, Online Offgrid!

Miles: We just wanted to talk to you today about sometimes how you feel things aren’t necessarily going the right way and you feel a bit low…and we thought, do you know what? We’ll get real.

And do you know what? Life is sometimes a bit of a crap bucket at times… (yes, a rollercoaster) And it feels a like things aren’t going well.

For instance, yesterday, we had a second flat tyre, which I think for me is my 3rd ever, in my whole life. And we’ve had 2 flat tyres, in our motor home in as many months… And, ok, it’s only a flat tyre, but getting one changed and getting it sorted, and you don’t know where you are, and you don’t speak the language necessarily (or as well as you could do), and the time you loose and you have other things you have to do… And you just think, “Ohhh.”

But, of course, it’s such a 1st world problem… isn’t it? And, we’ve talked at times about how (you think), “Goodness me, is that it? Flat tyre?”

And the next thing is… we’ve got computers, and one goes wrong… and that’s how we get by, we work online, as we live offgrid, (which is a bit of a give-a-way in the name of the business we’ve created, LOL)… and you just think, “ohh, another thing.” Because it is, 100 Euros here, 200 Euros there, it’s like “Oh My Goodness.” We are living a very different lifestyle, where money… we have to be very conscious of money. And we’re learning to make money along the way, and this is the sort of thing we are going to be sharing as well (how we earn money)… as we do (earn it). Because making this change, in terms of a lifestyle is a big decision for one, and you have to be ready for what’s going to come your way.

Tamra: And you don’t know what’s going to come your way, obviously… sometimes something that you thought would work out work wise, just falls through, and that’s disheartening…

Or at night when I can’t sleep and my mind starts thinking of all the negatives, and I’ve realized that more and more lately. And I think to myself, “Why do I do that? Why does my mind search for things that frustrate me, or are ‘negative’ things in life?”

I’ve been noticing this more and more and thought, “Ok, I’m going to start a gratitude journal… What am I grateful for, REALLY?” Because I’ve done this before, but I’ve simply pretended… or thought “this is what I SHOULD feel grateful for”… I haven’t thought, “This really IS what I’m grateful for… I’m in Southern Spain!” No, we don’t eat out every night, but we’re in Southern Spain… in the winter! It’s beautiful! It’s peaceful!”

Miles: It’s beautiful, as you can see we’ve got a t-shirt on, just a warmer, and it’s nearly 6:00 at night… it’s not even the warmest part of the day, AND we’re in the shade! In the sun it’s even warmer! And it’s beautiful, as you can see in the background, and we’re in Tarragona.

And, Tamra, you’ve really helped me… by looking at some of the simplest things you’ve been grateful for, your attitude changes almost instantly.

So, for instance, we were just sat in the motor home and I said, “Here we are, with a glass of wine, talking, in candlelight, on a lovely evening, in the South of Spain, and we know that tomorrow morning we’re going to wake up with a coffee… with the ‘Our World is Our Backyard Episode’, in a most gorgeous, gorgeous city, like Tarragona, which has amphitheatres, and very old buildings… a century, or a millennium even.”

And it’s just amazing what I’ve learned along the way, that when you start realizing the little things that you have, then the big things don’t matter so much… or what you think of the big things.

Tamra: Yes, and I’ve heard that since I was young… you’d hear, “Oh, it’s the little things that matter.” I didn’t understand it, LOL, and thought, “The big things DO matter. I want a big house, and 7 cars…” But, actually, I DON’T want that, I love not having a house, because we get to choose where our backyard is… we get to say, we want it to be by this “Sea”…

And, no, it’s not all rosey, it’s not all perfect. Because friends and others say, “Oh, I’m jealous” and I think, “Well… it’s not always rosey…”

Miles: “Yeah… if you RELALY knew what it was like…” Because you see all these videos of people having fun and it’s like, “Oh, life’s such a breeze all the time.” Do you know what? It isn’t. But it helps to remember that the breeze is sometimes blowing in your own direction too.

So, it’s about taking that opportunity to realize how lucky you are and the fact that we’re together! And, that we can get through anything! And, I think thats our message to anybody out there, “You know what? You’ve got where you are, because you’ve got through everything you’ve got through so far. So, who’s to say it can’t be the same thing as you go forward!?”

Tamra: Yes, and it’s like our video on the Visa Application… how we got here… you can watch that, it will explain…

Miles: Oh goodness… some of the trials and tribulations, which again are (only) 1st world problems!

Tamra: Yes! And it all turned out to THIS life!

Miles: Yes, it shook our world… but it also changed our world! For the better! And, should we say, nudged us into the lifestyle we’ve always wanted to live. But didn’t have the guts to do, I think, in my case certainly… didn’t have the balls to go out and do it!

The fact is, when you get there and you do that, you’re going to face those challenges and you get through those like you did any other.

So, just those little things to be grateful for in life… help you get through those troubles, (what feels like troubled times).

Miles and Tamra from Online Offgrid
Wishing you a fantastic time and please remember what you could be grateful for.

And all your fantastic friends around you can help you realize those too!

Tamra: And if they don’t, get NEW friends!

Miles: Get new friends! Good advice! Good advice!

We’ll speak to you soon!
Miles & Tamra
Online Offgrid

How To change your future in an instant!

Hi, Miles and Tamra from Online Offgrid…
Hello! Hope you are doing well today!

So, we had another discussion today about how we want to change our future. And we suddenly came to the conclusion, there’s only one thing we had to do to change our future, and it’s actually the only thing you can do… to change your future… and that is, change your now. Change what it is you are doing now, in THIS moment, even in this moment.

Something you can try as an experiment, right this minute… is if there’s something you’re doing that is not helping you get what you want, not helping you get where you want to be.

Then change it, right now, and see what the impact is!

Try it! LOL.

An example of that was, something real simple, right? (Yes, brilliant!) We got back into our motorhome, and I just felt tired, and a little bit lower… you know? Didn’t really know why…

And I did what I have done for SO SO long, fell into one of those patterns of mine, which is basically just escaping the now. And I do that, by watching a movie. And it might be a movie that I’ve watched 1,000 times before… and in this instance I just thought, “Let’s just watch the very first Star Trek movie.” You know, I’ve seen it about 10 or 15 times before, and I was going to get absolutely nothing from it! And we were half way through it, and I just turned to Tamra, who I knew wasn’t enjoying it anyway, thinking, “Do you know what? I’m not even getting anything from this? And, nothing is going to change, unless we change what we’re doing.”

And it’s like that Einstein saying that people keep talking about, which is something along the links of…, “If you keep doing the same thing…”, no, “The definition of insanity is to do the same thing and expect different results.” LOL

Well, LOL, even though it was such a small change, what happened… it was 8pm at night, what happened was we actually had a fantastic night! We did something else that was FUN!”

Yes, it was wonderful!

We talked, we played cards… we had a deep conversation that night…!

And it led to this!

So, because we changed that NOW, our future changed. And we thought, “My goodness, what an amazing learning!”

So, what could YOU change right now? Or tomorrow? Or whenever it is… In that moment, that you’re about to do something, what could you change to change your future?

And what we also discovered was… that the greater that change, the greater the impact on the future it’s going to have!

And, yes it’s scary sometimes but you know what? You’ve always survived. You’ve got to where you are now. So, how big of a negative change do you think it could be? IF that’s what you’re thinking. If you’ve got an objection to it, or resistance to it… It’s because we have this fear of change.

Well… what if that was just a SMALL change to begin with?

Why not test it out?

Do something small… change a little now, to change a little future! And see what happens!

And, I was SO impressed with you… I was so impressed that you just stopped. You just decided one day, “I’m going to stop. I’m not going to do this.” It was lovely to see that, and to watch you do that.

And, it reminded me of… years ago, I was 50 lbs overweight, and one day, I just decided at 2 in the afternoon, I wanted chocolate, MnM’s (the candy), I decided to only eat ONE handful of SPINACH! And, still have my chocolate, but just try one change…

Wow.

I did that, and I would then do that every day. I wouldn’t cut chocolate out completely, I simply did it one step at at time… and I thought, “Today, I can make a LITTLE change.”

Right! So, what you’re saying is, is that doing the little change meant it’s more sustainable. Because I guess if you try changing everything, it’s like if you try to change your whole diet, and then suddenly…

It’s a bit like the people who decide in January, “Right, that’s it. I’m going to the gym 5 times per week!” It’s just not sustainable… one, you have never allowed yourself that much time in your life to do that, and it’s such a… change to the actual body. And the physics, and your biology… you can’t do it.

So, I guess the message is, with anything, whether it’s a change in your mindset, it’s simply do a LITTLE BIT at a time.

Do yourself a favor, change a little now, to change a little future!

Then change a slightly bigger now, to make a bigger change in your future!

And then when you’re ready, and you realize just how incredible that can be, how much better you’d feel… you can make the changing now as BIG as YOU WANT! Because you know the impact on the future its going to be… so much more rewarding!

Yes!

So, there you go… there’s our message for today, which is quite simple…

CHANGE YOUR NOW, AND YOUR FUTURE WILL FOLLOW!!!

Miles and Tamra from Online Offgrid…

We’ll speak to you again soon!

Do subscribe, there’s lots of great videos we’re doing on all sorts of things we’re learning and sharing with you to help you find what YOUR FREEDOM IS… find out what YOUR HAPPINESS IS… and find out what YOUR DESIRES ARE!

So, we’ll speak to you soon… bye for now.

Yes, AND (sorry to interrupt you), and while we’re being REAL… because we see so many out there who just put a smile on their face and they SAY “this” is what they do and… “this” is the product they use… etc… BUT, it’s not true.

Can I say “B.S.” on this video? LOL

Yes.

Anyway, that’s all!

So, we’ll speak to you soon!
Bye for now…
CHANGE YOUR NOW… and YOUR FUTURE WILL FOLLOW!

Miles & Tamra
Online Offgrid

How To Get What You Want In One Easy Step!

The other day Miles brilliantly said, “Stop doing what you NEED to do… and what you WANT to do will START!”

And where that came from was… we realized that a lot of things that we wanted in life, just weren’t happening!

I think what came to us was, “Well, there’s no space for it… so there was no OPPORTUNITY for those things to show up, to crop up and be available as opportunities or options that we could seize hold of.”

We realized what we were doing were all the things that we needed to do, or as Tamra quite rightly said earlier, was it’s not just what we need to us what we think we need to do and then it broadened further not just what we think we need to do… what we think others think we need to do, what we think we should do, what we think would conform to other people’s beliefs, fit the peer pressure of all those who are in a position of authority above us who we think we should be pleasing, approving what we do to protect my own time.

It feels ridiculous saying it, looking back, but today I was very uncomfortable… I mean how often do you actually look at your boundaries and consider, “Am I even respecting my own boundaries?”

How could you do that, expect that?

When we’re not even respecting our own boundaries, why should anybody else do that?

If you’re offering yourself on a plate to somebody who gets more, then they can have a three-course meal on it (on you).

It doesn’t mean you don’t help people, it doesn’t mean that you don’t care about people… what it does mean, is you care enough about yourself! To use that analogy they talk about on an aircraft, that when the oxygen mask comes down, get the mask on yourself first and then help your kid. Well it doesn’t matter who sat next to you as a kid, or person or anybody else who’s not unable to do it for themselves, if you’re not breathing you can’t help anybody.

And in the life that we tend to lead, we sometimes struggle for breath! We are stumped on a struggle for the things that we know we want in our lives. We’re so busy trying to sort out other people’s needs, and then our own our actual wants and desires don’t get the chance to have it (our time and attention).

So, that’s where the saying, “Stop doing what you need to do… which runs out into… what you think you need to do, and what you want to do,” all those things that make you happy, all those things that make you feel peace, calm, tranquility, reward, whatever… Excitement! Joy, joy beyond joy!

All those things can happen because you’re giving them SPACE to just happen, and then you don’t have to make what you want happen!

When you stop doing what you need to do, what you want to do has to fill that space because there’s nothing left and that means you can start to feel that joy and happiness, freedom!

And there is a way to help others, whilst helping yourself at the same time.

So unless you stop completely self-serving the same way you can’t get self reward unless you get something out of it too. There are ways in which you can help others that gives you fulfillment at the exactly the same time and I think that’s the best way of caring and supporting, because then you’ve got something left because you’re filling your own coffers of emotions and your own self fulfillment, whilst helping others to find theirs.

And, sometimes you can just help someone, open someone’s door to the happiness they can’t see, because it’s not open yet, and by doing that it gives you that feeling of “joy” as well.

So, there’s all sorts of ways that you can change the way you help others… from the position of positivity.

What we meant by, “Stop doing what you need to do”… well there were things that we’ve done to make money in the past to “get by” to make profit, to do whatever it was, but it wasn’t actually making us happy. Now, this might be something you can relate to, if you’re in a job where you are also not necessarily getting fulfilled. Yes, knowing at the end of every month you’re going home with the wage packet for paying the mortgage, for paying for the things that you need… it’s probably even paying for some things that you want, but you don’t get a chance to enjoy them!

We were a bit frustrated and felt unhappy in some areas of our lives, (including work), so we decided that we no longer would live this way. And that we could make more money doing one thing, but we decided, “No, we’re not going to do it in the marketing world.” Plus, in the past he (Miles) didn’t always feel true to himself. This was something we felt we needed to do now, and just because everyone else was doing it, doesn’t mean we must.

We can do something different, and now we are doing it! We’re actually ENJOYING our lifestyle, we’re helping and working with people we want to help, and we are getting joy out of it!

It’s exactly like you said the other day, you’ve got to make a change!

Coming up, we’re gonna be talking about how and what you need to change to make things happen…

Please do take time out to subscribe!

We’re going to film more lots of videos on every subject of life… and they might well be something you resonate with, so join us, and subscribe!

Bye for now,
Miles and Tamra
Online Offgrid