If you’ve ever wondered, “Is it too late for me to...?” the answer’s NO, and The Uplifters will prove it to you. This space is for purpose-driven women who want to do big, brave things in the second half of their lives. I’m your host, Aransas Savas, and I’ve spent the last 20 years at the intersection of behavior change research and coaching.
September’s episodes are all about new beginnings.
Listen to this episode if you’ve...
Been curious about full-time solo travel
Wondered how people really make a nontraditional life work, from safety to money
Found yourself bracing against change instead of embracing it
A month after a breakup, Kristy Halvorsen was crawling across her kitchen floor in tears. The sadness was overwhelming. So she called her mom and asked for help.
Her mom, lovingly, set her straight. “Yes, you miss him. But I think you believe he stole your dream to travel full-time. I think you believe you can’t do this alone.”
The moment she understood the real source of her deep grief, she started cleaning out closets, making piles for Goodwill, and making plans to sell her house. Within two months, she was living on the road.
Before the breakup, Kristy was a firefighter in Southwest Florida, working in a male-dominated field where she had worked really hard to build her career. Then a difficult stretch of illness and a torn ACL left her wondering whether she would even make it to retirement, and what shape she’d be in if she did. So at 35 she asked herself: why not live my dream now? She bought a camper, left her job, and hit the road.
It wasn’t instantly magical. She had imagined staying in campgrounds and RV resorts, and discovered she didn’t like them, but she didn’t yet know what she did like. The first year was hard enough that she thought she’d made a mistake and wanted to quit. She stuck with it, kept getting curious, and eventually figured out that what she wanted was to go fully off-grid: solar panels stacked on the roof, a composting toilet, deep forest and open desert, all by herself.
Nearly nine years later, Coddie, her 28-foot Airstream, is still home. Kristy has written a riveting memoir from her journals. It’s called Perfect Unfolding: Seven Years of Life-Changing Solo Adventure, One Year That Broke Me Open. It’s about full-time solo travel, but it’s really about trust in yourself, other people, and serendipity.
In our conversation, we get into what to do with fear, how she makes the money work, and so much more.
Her Courage Practice
When Kristy is stuck on a decision, she asks herself one question: if I knew I couldn’t get it wrong, what would I do? Or, in another version she loves, if I knew everything would turn out just fine, even if I don’t know what “just fine” means, what would I do?
Her theory is that the decision has usually already been made. We’re just talking ourselves into something or out of something, because the logical part of our brain has taken charge. The question isn’t about good or bad, right or wrong. It’s a way to get quiet and hear the answer underneath. And she says the answer is usually really simple.
As I said to Kristy, most of us have put so many layers between ourselves and our intuition that it sounds like a foreign language, so a question like this helps fine-tune our radar.
Lift Her Up
Read Perfect Unfolding, then hand it to a friend, because that’s the biggest thing Kristy asked of us. If you have a book club, she says it’s a perfect pick, and if you happen to know someone connected to Oprah, Jenna, or the Sunshine Book Club, she’d love an introduction. Find Kristy at PerfectUnfolding.com, on Instagram at @kristy.halvorsen, and on LinkedIn.
