Serendipity's Sweet Spot

Howdy from Bend, OR,

Welcome to the 3 new subscribers from this past week!

I'm using built-up PTO to take the next couple of months off from work.

Catch me exploring California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.

If you're in these areas, hit my line. I'm always down to see old friends and make new ones.

More on making friends + content that I'm paying attention to below.

Giving myself permission to be spontaneous.

I was "supposed" to leave Bend, Oregon for California this past Saturday.

Spoiler: I'm publishing this 5 days after the fact, and I'm still in Bend.

What was the driving force behind my change of plans? I found out that indie electronic group Rüfüs Du Sol was coming to town Sunday evening.

I wanted to see the show. I also thought there was a decent chance I could make nomad friends because of the high volume of van lifers in Bend.

California was put on pause in place of the concert.

While in the parking lot before the show, I opened up my van's doors and tried to make my one-man tailgate as inviting as possible.

Yeah, writing those words down makes it pretty darn clear why that strategy proved to be ineffective - who the heck is gonna go hang with the dude in the white van rolling stag?

After about an hour of no luck, I watched as a stream of 3 vans pulled in one after the other. A crew of about 15 hopped out and aggregated around the rigs.

If I wanted to make friends, they weren't going to come to me. I had to go to them.

With views like this, I can't say it was particularly challenging making the decision to stay in Bend. Homes on the other side of the river featured modern, minimalistic architecture styles with wooden accents.

Mom, I made van friends.

The funny thing about making friends as an adult is that it initially feels like pulling teeth.

You use 1/3 of your brain trying to actively listen, 1/3 of your brain trying to formulate coherent sentences, and the other 1/2 of your brain frantically searching for some sense of common ground to build off of. The math on energy allocation in these situations just doesn't add up.

I took a brief moment to prepare my brain to operate in overdrive, then I made my way to the nomad crew.

The vans were parked in a remote section of the lot. That meant folks could see me coming from 50 yards away - too far to make my introduction, too short for us to not acknowledge one another. Lovely.

I'm proud to announce that a great deal of the "pulling teeth" analogy was all in my head, as it typically is when building the courage to do something uncomfortable.

I got to know a few of the folks and found out that they were all camped just off of a forest service road where ~100 vans/buses were located.

Unbelievable. I had been in Bend a full week by myself while the community I had longed for was 10min away in the forest.

The concert was awesome, and I've been camping with the crew ever since.

We're a collection of folks from all walks of life who kick it around a fire each evening. This sense of familiarity and community is so foreign to me on the road. I'm grateful to have found it.

As the others have told me, "Van life circles seem large, but they're not. Once you know a few of us, you know all of us. We'll connect you to the other meet-ups and camps."

Gosh darn it, we did it. It took a great deal of trial and error, but we became a part of an awesome nomad community.

Week 1 of not working 9-5, and I've already gained a whole new perspective on van life.

A group of us left the woods for a dinner in downtown Bend to celebrate the end of summer. Lots of folks will begin to head south and migrate towards warmer weather, myself included.

The road doesn't reward complete structure or complete spontaneity. It rewards an optimal balance of the two.

The key takeaway: Serendipity sits on a spectrum. On one end is complete structure. On the other end is complete ambiguity.

Too much structure results in one becoming rigid - no space to pursue creativity, an inability to go with the flow, and no room to be spontaneous.

Too much spontaneity results in one becoming aimless - no discipline to execute, a lack of accountability, and an inability to be consistent.

Somewhere in between the two is a balance that I call serendipity's sweet spot.

Had I been too structured, I wouldn't have gone to the concert and made new friends.

Had I been too spontaneous, I wouldn't have the means to make the concert happen.

Make an intentional plan, but make sure you build in room to be flexible.

Here's what that looks like for me:

Structure (what's non-negotiable):

• Writing - this newsletter goes out at 8am EST every Thursday.

• Fitness - hydrate everyday, workout 3x/week, and send a weekly update to 3 accountability groups (s/o to Kyle, Matt, Nick, Pete, and Jeff)

Spontaneity (what I can let flow):

• Flexible Itineraries - the plans I make are only set in stone if I've made them with someone else. Otherwise, I can let things come to me and not force it.

• Walking Without a Plan - each time I get to a new place, I get to know it by walking it for hours. There's no set plan. I walk where the wind takes me.

Writing and fitness provide me routine, clarity, accountability, and discipline.

Flexible itineraries and walking without a plan provide me with unique experiences, unexpected lessons, and new connections.

Grounded yet free; solid but flexible. Serendipity requires both.

Picture of Rüfüs Du Sol. Incredible show and great company.

What I'm paying attention to:

New section of the newsletter!

I've previously written about information diets, paying attention as an investment, and the importance of intellectual health.

I'll highlight what I'm consuming each week to help advance the 3 ideas above and showcase the work of others.

• Lessons from 30 Years of Living by Joe Wells - this hits on 2 concepts I've been thinking about lately: 1. The person a few years ahead of you is better positioned to guide your short-term thinking than someone much older b/c they recently went through a similar season of life in a similar era. 2. Online writing allows mentorship to take place w/o consistent 1-on-1s because I can consume the distilled thoughts of others.

• Sahil Bloom on The Danny Miranda Podcast - two of my favorite creators online linked for a conversation around defining what "enough" is for you, exploring then exploiting your unique edge, and life's different lenses. Favorite quote from Sahil: “My fundamental belief is that the questions we face are the same regardless of where you’re from, how old you are, your ethnicity, your religion… We just view them through different lenses.”

• The Indie Thinker's Newsletter - Legacy media organizations have large scale distribution channels, but it's harder to find a source for individual creators/writers such as myself. My friend DKH is building a solution to this called Indie Thinkers, a platform that aggregates high signal, low noise pieces from independent writers. Check it out!

Photos of The Week

Location this past week: Bend, OR

Gave Caroline a bath for the first time in 6 months because I was having trouble seeing out of the windshield. I then proceeded to send her down dirt roads all week long (see below lol).

Caroline on top of Pilot Butte in Bend. You can drive or hike to the top for a 360 degree view of the mountains, downtown bend, the sunrise, or sunset.

Hangin' out with other van lifers in a forest outside of Bend. Check the white dish on the roof of the Honda next to Caroline. It's my buddy Nathan's Starlink receiver. I've been using high speed internet in the middle of the forest thanks to Elon Musk and SpaceX's satellites - what a world.

Havin' new friends Jamie and Nathan test out the cowboy hat collection.

A lot of the folks I camped with this past week are artisans. I picked up this turquoise/amethyst pendant. So dang cool supporting folks who work on a unique craft such as this. Anyone who knows my father will get a kick out of the fact that I now own turquoise jewelry (dude wears turq rings on the regular.)

A couple of guys around the fire asked me where I had gotten my hat. I let them know my dad had given it to me. One of the guys had also received the hat he was wearing from his dad who had recently passed away. He did me the honor of giving me a feather from his dad's hat to put into mine. It took me a bit of time, effort, and failure, but I found the nomadic community I've been looking for.

Thanks for reading

How can I best help you balance structure and spontaneity?

Hit the reply button and let me know!

Josh

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