You’ve been there. I’ve been there. I think we’ve all had some kind of dream and spent many weeks and months planning, preparing, and dreaming. And then we get overwhelmed by it all and scared by all the what-ifs and we decide we don’t want to do it after all.

Overplanning is the death of many a dream.

Planning is important – I’ll never say otherwise. It’s important that we know what we need to know and have what we need to have. But, as college kids learn quickly, there are other things that are best left unsaid.

You want head out vagabonding around the world? Grab a backpack and go. Don’t overplan. Don’t freak out at all the things that could go wrong but probably won’t. If you focus on the what-ifs, you’ll never make it anywhere.

As we cycled from Alaska to Argentina with our children, there were plenty of things that could have happened. We could have gotten hit by a car, but we didn’t. We could have gotten lost, but we didn’t. Our entire journey was filled with could haves, but the vast majority of them didn’t happen. If they had, we would have dealt with them then.

Know in the back of your mind that something can happen. It’s possible that things will go terribly wrong. Not likely, but possible. Know also that there is no way to plan or prepare for that thing, so leave it way back there in the deepest recesses of your brain and go anyway.

Don’t overplan or you’ll never hit the road.