This article is sponsored by Abbott as part of their LIFE.TO THE FULLEST. mission. This story, thoughts and opinions are our own.
It’s been 7 years since Dave and I started Marketingkonferenz and it’s been the most exciting and fulfilling time of our lives. We found our purpose, we reached our goal of working and traveling together, and we turned something we loved into a full time career. But just because you found your purpose, you shouldn't let it consume you.
Find your Purpose
When we partnered with Abbott to help them fulfill their mission of asking 1 million people around the world what living fully means to them, we took a long hard look at our own lives. We are living a fulfilled life, but it is always a work in progress.
Turn Your Passion into your Career
Our love for Travel Turned into a Successful Career
When we turned our passion of travel and adventure into a career, we thought that everything in our lives would magically fall into place. We were making money at a job we loved, we spent every day with the one we loved, and we were constantly inspired to try new things and push ourselves outside our comfort zone.
Do you want to travel the world? See our tips on how to do it at the Ultimate Guide on How to Get Paid to Travel
Dave punches through Ice – Pushing our Limits in the Arctic Watershed
But after a couple of years of living the dream we learned that old habits die-hard.
We have a tendency to be workaholics and when work consists of travel and adventure, it can easily consume every aspect of your life. We soon found that once again we spent every single day working.
- dave working at computer
- Deb working again!
- Deb at the airport…again
Without knowing it, we fell into the pattern of working too hard and neglecting our health and relationship all over again. Even though we were together every day, we felt separate because we were both glued to our computers frantically meeting deadlines, editing photos and videos, and constantly trying to catch up on work. Even when we were doing adventures, we found that we weren’t enjoying them because we were too busy documenting the experience.
- Dave and Deb cycling and filming
It was last year that we started to realize that things had to change or we’d be right back in the rut we were in near the end of our film careers.
We Learned Your Purpose Shouldn't Consume You
Life has a funny way of giving you a sign when it wants things to change. We were finishing up the last of our travels for the year and had every intention of slowing down after a frantic first half of 2014. We only had a few more months before we were going to take a much needed break from travel to focus on getting back in shape, spending quality time with each other, and taking on less work so that we could enjoy our travels and focus on creating a better website.
Wanting to slow down
A Wake Up Call
It seemed that Mother Nature had different plans and while on an Amazon Cruise, she forced us to slow down sooner than expected. Dave fell and broke two vertebrae in his back and had to be air lifted out of the Amazon and eventually air ambulanced back to Canada to recover. His recovery took 4 months, but we looked at this as an opportunity to refocus on the important things in our life.
Since his accident, we’ve started a new chapter in our lives. We have learned to balance travel with other interests and relaxation because we decided that we had to make sure that no one thing should ever consume our lives.
Last month when Abbott asked us how we learned to live a full life, we felt confident with our answer. Last year we may not have been so confident because we were needlessly stressed and tired. But because we took a step back and re-examined our lives, we now feel that we are living life fully.
Enjoying the quieter moments in life
This is Your Life
Take the Quiz and see how others around the world are living life fully
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It’s easy to put 110% of yourself into something when you've finally found your purpose. It’s easy to put friends and family on the backburner when you are working on an exciting project but it is important to make sure that you live a well-rounded life.
Read now: The Most Inspiring Travel Quotes in Photos
To us, living fully is not only about finding the job you love, but having people in your life to share the good times and the bad. It’s about having your health and endless energy to wake up each day because you are excited about what lies ahead.
A full life is a balanced life. We’ve been talking a lot about balance this year because it’s very important to us. Just because we found our purspose, it doesn’t mean that we are one-dimensional. It’s important to us to have stillness to appreciate the life we are living. If you live each day in high gear, you eventually burn out: no matter how much fun you are having.
So we have are making our declaration to continue to pursue balance and stability in our lives. It is our mission to encourage people to follow their dreams, but to make sure they don’t lose themselves when doing so. Take it from us, it’s a great thing to follow your dream and still have time to smell the roses.
Are you living a full life? Tell your story on LifetotheFullest.Abbott and share your mission to live life fully on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram using the hashtag #fullosophy.
By Best Travel Quotes - 61 Inspiring Quotes in Photos | Marketingkonferenz January 22, 2019 - 12:20 am
[…] we found our purpose, and quotes played a large part in that. Since then, we've always looked to travel quotes for […]
By akash December 29, 2018 - 6:43 am
Getting the right work-life balance is so important
By akash December 29, 2018 - 6:41 am
You are so right. I’ve been telling myself the same thing for the last few months
By Meena Singh July 9, 2018 - 7:55 am
Wow! I want to visit this place…
By Ema Tour January 3, 2016 - 3:33 am
Congratulation of your successful. You have given passion on traveling inspiration to the world. I love all your article
By Biru Purple December 26, 2015 - 9:17 pm
this article inspires me to live my life to the fullest. I love travel too!
By rebecca December 16, 2015 - 12:19 am
Such fantastic advice!
By For The Traveller December 5, 2015 - 12:51 pm
Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.
By Cathy November 27, 2015 - 8:01 pm
I haven’t been able to find the balance since I started my travel blog. I’m trying so hard to grow and improve, and I can’t keep up. A full time job and the blog means sleep and free time are often given up for social media. Fortunately my blog covers lots of hiking so I am getting exercise at least:) I keep thinking I will slow down when the blog is successful but if I burn out before then I guess that is pointless. I will read and reread this to remind myself to enjoy and unplug more!
By Dave and Deb November 28, 2015 - 5:11 am
Thanks for sharing Cathy. We have been in the same trap before. We kept saying, once the blog is making money, we can relax. And then it became, once the blog is making more money, we can relax. Then it was, once we get everything to exactly where we want it to be, we can relax. We learned the hard way, that we can never put it off because there will always be new goals and more work. we found that it was important to make time for ourselves or we couldn’t enjoy our success.
By Mary @ Green Global Travel November 24, 2015 - 11:23 pm
This is such an important message to not let work or even passions consume you. Dave’s injury in the Amazon was terrible, but at least some good came of it! Life seems to have a way of working out like that.
By Dave and Deb November 28, 2015 - 5:27 am
Thanks Mary. We’ve definitely had a lot of time to contemplate this year and look at what is important in life. Sometimes we all need a little nudge to get us back on track. Things definitely could have been worse for sure.
By Traveltoodle November 24, 2015 - 6:25 am
We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend.
By Dave and Deb November 28, 2015 - 5:36 am
Thanks for sharing that lovely quote.
By Lori Henry November 23, 2015 - 12:04 am
Great post! I am also guilty of being so passionate about something that I will work at it like a maniac. (Sorry, I don’t mean to call you guys maniacs; I’m referring to myself. 😉 ) I find I’m more comfortable at dealing with pain and darkness than I am with passion and success. What to do with all that joy?!
By Dave and Deb November 28, 2015 - 5:41 am
Haha, don’t worry, I know exactly how you feel. It’s hard not to put 150% into something when you love it and want it to be a success.
By Alisha Paul November 20, 2015 - 5:54 am
Completely totally information what we tend to run the life. you’ve got been created inspiring of life with the story and your expertise. thanks for sharing with ME. That’s precisely why I wished to start out my diary, too, therefore I may escape from that mentality and begin living a purposeful life.
By Dave and Deb November 28, 2015 - 5:43 am
Thank you Alisha, a purposeful life definitely leads to a full life. I used to always say, “if only I could find my purpose”It’s a wonderful thing to have found it.
By Laura November 18, 2015 - 11:09 am
It’s so easy to slip back into that work mentality, almost like we aren’t doing something truly important unless it causes us to work around the clock at it. That’s exactly why I wanted to start my blog, too, so I could get away from that mentality and start living a purposeful life. It’s always good to have the reminder to reset and remember why you chose to live life the way you did. Thanks for the inspiration!
By Dave and Deb November 19, 2015 - 2:37 pm
You said it. We were quite upset with ourselves that we started letting our travels and work consume us again. Each year we have to take a step back and re-evaluate. I think it’s our society and upbringing that makes us slip back into working too hard. It feels like we are supposed to suffer for our craft and if we are too happy and relaxed we must be doing something wrong. But we are determined to have it all and make time for relaxing, family and friends as well as travel and career. Whew, it’s a lot, but we can do it 🙂
By Marvin November 18, 2015 - 2:15 am
Life is full of unexpected things. Enjoy your life as fulfill as possible, Never give up
By Dave and Deb November 19, 2015 - 2:39 pm
Well, said, Never Give UP! That’s exactly how we feel. It aint over until it’s over, so we must always keep trying and striving for more.
By Suze - Luxury Columnist November 17, 2015 - 6:45 pm
Getting the right work-life balance is so important and I have a tendency to be a workaholic like you two! I agree that health is the main thing and I want to fit more exercise into my day
Suze | LuxuryColumnist
By Dave and Deb November 28, 2015 - 5:47 am
You are so right. It is an ongoing battle. Health is number one for us. We want to be able to stick around awhile to enjoy it. If we work too hard, we get sick, overweight, tired, achy..ugh. Who needs that? I prefer balance 🙂
By Bella Mare Corfu November 17, 2015 - 9:46 am
Your passion is big !,I believe that if you follow your passion and you will never work a day in your life . You have beautiful life !
By Laura @Travelocafe November 17, 2015 - 8:28 am
You are so right. I’ve been telling myself the same thing for the last few months. I need to slow down and remember to ‘smell the roses’. Maybe after reading this I finally slow down enough to actually do it. Thank you.