Posted on by Evan Mullins

Haters Gonna Hate or How We Cope With Naysayers in Life’s Arena

Haters gonna hate, I ain't even mad

Sharing news with people of our nomad plans is interesting… For the most part, people are amazed at first and supportive that we’re following our dreams and express some sort of “I’m so excited for you” or “I’ll live vicariously through you” and “Please, share lots of pictures!”. Usually it’s positive and supportive.

We’re not looking for approval or permission. We are excited and feel like we’ve done our research. Some people have expressed disapproval in our life choices though. It’s too bad that the naysayers can be so loud sometimes. We’ve been told that it will be too hard, that we’re being irresponsible, foolish, immature, selfish, blinded, that our children will suffer from our poor decisions, that we will suffer from our chronic instability, etc. Crazy to think that just because we want to be location independent, people will say these kinds of things about or to us.

We’re big fans of the author and speaker Brené Brown. Her thoughts helped us through that. Following a famous quote from Theodore Rosevelt, she compares life to an arena, and when you’re in an arena you likely won’t have support of the whole crowd, but if you’re careful about who you listen to, you will find supporters who are cheering you on.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. -Theodore Roosevelt
If you aren't in the arena also getting your ass kicked, I'm not interested in your feedback. - Brene Brown

I understand that there will be challenges to our nomad life, but there are challenges in any life style. We do know we will miss being around family a lot and anticipate that will be among the hardest parts. The world is only as scary as we let it be though, it is also an awesome place. We know others are sad and anxious for us, but understand that we’re not jumping into this with no plan or consideration. We are excited and enthusiastic, and we will certainly adjust as we gain experience and learn lessons. This adventure will no doubt be hard, we get that, it is also scary. But that’s not our focus, we’re being careful and doing our best to be smart about it, but I’m sure we’ll make mistakes and have hard days, but in those times we’ll need love from our supporters, we hope you are among them.

You can choose courage or you can choose comfort, but you cannot have both. - Brené Brown
Cheers to all my haters. Be patient. So much more is coming.
When setting out on a journey, do not seek advice from those who have never left home. - Rumi

One Reply to “Haters Gonna Hate or How We Cope With Naysayers in Life’s Arena”

  1. We haven’t run into haters, but we do get people who don’t understand. “But you have an apartment, right?” We also get apologists—“Oh, I’d love to do that, but…” What they don’t understand is that we don’t care. We believe folks should follow their own dreams, not ours.

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