Regular life generally sucks. Creativity is stifled by “real world” expectation. The whole cultural paradigm is fantasy. The intention is to keep people suppressed and fearful so control can be maintained. Fuck that. We must liberate ourselves from this drone life to be the change we wish to see.

Here’s how to start. First, get your finances figured out. If you owe a bunch of money on a car, find a way to get out from under it. Get out of vehicle debt. Get a reliable, long lasting car that can be worked on and is capable of off roading. I’d suggest Toyotas and Subarus. You can live out of a truck or SUV while you figure out what you need. Find an old 4-runner, Tacoma, Forester, or van. If your current vehicle is paid off, or if you’re buried in debt under it, get a decent tent and live out of that for a while while you collect the funds to graduate to a more preferable living situation. The key is getting out there and living, once you’re out living in the forest, following your inspiration you’ll figure shit out.

Next is housing, while you figure this out, you’ll have to live somewhere for a while. If it’s available, move into your parents house for a bit to save up cash and start eliminating expenses. Or rent a house with a lot of people in it, this way you can cut down on rent and bills while you figure it out. If other people judge you for your decisions, do your best to smile to their ignorance. You’re doing this to free yourself from the soul crushing trap they’re blindly stuck in. People won’t understand until you’re out there living it. You must cultivate your fulfillment and purpose internally, don’t look to others to validate you.

Next big bill is generally student loans. If you’ve yet to take on student loans, I’d strongly advise trying the internet before paying thousands for someone else to incentivize you to learn. Follow your inspiration, learn all the things that are interesting. Learn what you need to do whatever thing you’re trying to do. You don’t need to have an electrical engineering degree to set up your solar panels and battery, all the information you need is on Youtube. If you have student loans already, and they’re crippling your budget, consider deferring them. If you make little enough money you can claim to be facing “economic hardship” and defer paying your loans to a later date. This will be considered by some to be a delinquent strategy, but I know how naive I was at 18. These crooks made it as frictionless as possible for my dumbass to take out a real life (inescapable by bankruptcy) loan. Now I owe the loan holders stupid amounts of money for an education which taught me how to better fit as a cog in their bloody machine. I’d rather “face economic hardship” for a while and defer the loans in hopes that the bubble will eventually pop. I’m capable of making plenty of money, which I’ll do, but for now I need to figure out my path, before finally liberating myself from this weight I was hoodwinked into bearing. 

Figure out how to be frugal, and enjoy the practice. We shouldn’t feel like less of a human for not having the hot new thing. This feeling of being lesser than others due to our ability to buy things is bullshit. Most of the people with nice cars and houses don’t own those things, the bank does. And the ones that do will often chase the little dopamine kick from buying a new thing into perpetuity. Don’t try to be that guy, be you. Excess is not rebellion, quit buying what they’re selling. Marketing is a strong force in our society, it takes some real will power to not buy the poison on the big red signs. Know that the fast food, gluttony and consumerist ideals portrayed on the signs are killing our species. Give them a mental middle finger as you drive by, and smile to your newly found willpower.

Spend time in nature. Walk in the trees and breathe the air. Get out of the hyper consumerist climate in our cities. It’s tough to stay true in these environments. Smoke some weed if you need to, don’t hide in alcohol and other downers. If you’re smoking weed to escape yourself, stop. It’s not you that’s broken, its our culture. It’s not healthy to be a normal human in our society. Know that you likely feel bad because you’re part of a culture pursuant of vanity, doing all it can to avoid consequence and oneness. Get away from these vain pursuits, go be with the stars and trees. Find the good people, we are out here.

The point of all of this isn’t to just go be a hermit in the forest. It’s to escape the constant drudgery for long enough to cultivate our internal purpose. You don’t have to go live in the forest forever, but you may choose to. I think it’s healthy to sit with our thoughts, cultivate time to think, read, write, and grow as individuals. This lifestyle provides an abundance of time to grow. With this literal ground up mentality, you’ll have the space to do the things which fulfill you deeply, rather than being in a constant sprint to pay the bills. Once you have the time to think, you can intently choose your path. There is no sense in driving fast without direction. Choose the heading carefully, dial it in and pursue it directly. 

Know that there are plenty of people out here that will help you out. Once you’re out in the wilderness, you’ll find awesome humans to connect with, share discoveries, cultivate passions, and pursue life with. And most beautifully, you’ll realize what an awesome human you are, and you’ll come to love the time spent thinking your uninhibited thoughts.

If you live in the US, there are plenty of places to camp for free. Look at freecampsites.net for places to stay. On national forest land, you can generally stay for 14 days before you have to move. There are many towns in the west that have BLM and NF land surrounding them. You can call these places home and go into town for work. If you’re living in a van, or truck, a house that doesn’t detach from your vehicle, pick up a mountain bike. This way you can camp near town and bike into town rather than moving your house every day. If I were solo in a not detachable from vehicle house, I’d near surely have a motor or electric bike of some sort. 

For money, I’d suggest figuring out a way to make money leveraging the internet. Remember that all of these digital systems were built by other humans, with the intention of having other humans use them. Don’t tell yourself you’re “bad at computers” or you’ll surely be right. Figure out how to use the internet. Google is an excellent resource. Learn to word your questions in a way that will get at the answer you’re looking for. Rather than googling “car is making bad noise” try “Mini is making whirring noise in 2nd gear.” Use the free resources available across the web. Youtube is a great place to start any research journey. Ask questions, find experts, pursue what you need to know. I taught myself to “be a web developer” purely by learning whatever I needed to get the job done. 

 In summary, quit buying into the consumerist bullshit, figure out a portable home, live with nature, be frugal, learn to internet, fuel your body, be you and cultivate the space to think for yourself. Use this time to hone your vision and choose your heading.