The best way to get over the fears that surround a journey of this magnitude is to confront them head one. I should not say “get over” because some fears can never be dealt with. The proper term is to face them.
Embarking on a world tour that will take me away from home for a few years and in different places and on top of it doing it by car has some risks associated with it hence the constant fears that always crop into my mind.
I have started writing down every single fear or concern that is related to the big journey.
I once heard somewhere that the only two fears that humans are born with are fear of noise and fear of uncertainty or being abandoned. I don’t remember which one exactly or even if I really did read that anywhere but my point is that most fears that humans have are “acquired”.
Just like extra pounds, if you gain them, you can work them off.
I don’t think that I am ready to make my exact fears public but here’s an example of how I am going about my simple but important exercise…
Name the fear: to be stranded in the middle of nowhere without any cell phone signal.
Foiling the fear: take a satellite phone on the big journey
Here’s another one…
Name the fear: public speaking. (I am part of that often talked about group of people who would rather die than speak in public. You will probably observe that for a DJ it’s pretty odd seeing that I perform in front of an audience. My answer: true! But I never have to speak. I am not a radio DJ and never have to MC when I perform because people just want to dance and not hear me running my mouth 
)
Facing the fear: Take speaking classes or start making speeches to small familiar and friendly audiences such as family members, close friends, fellow DJs and so forth.
Yes, the above examples were a little bit simplistic but you can see the pattern. When I lay down at night after spending my day preparing for the grid skipping expedition and some fears pop into my mind, the following day I write them down into a document named Fear Fool.
I am not going to lie. I am scared of wild animals. The funny thing though is that I love them (from a distance of course!). One of my biggest fears on the Big Journey is to be minding my business outside and have an encounter with a huge animal I cannot outrun!*
Writing down the fears and the possible solutions to the problems that cause them accomplishes two things: 1) It is actually part of the preparation and it allows me to draw a checklist 2) I run out of excuses to bail out of the big journey!
Speaking of writing down things, I will also put on together that I will probably name: Mr Murphy (yes, the one from the Murphy’s Law fame!). I will discuss this in a future post.
* Photo by: claudiogennari
