Today I am not stealth camping. Yes.
You might've seen some other van life videos from me talking about stealth
camping in the city, in my camper van. However,
today I'm going to tell you the top three reasons why I decided to pay for more
camping this particular year. Now,
right now I'm in on the gold coast in a place called Miami beach. Yes.
We do have a Miami beach here in Australia as well.
I'm going to show you around Miami beach right now and then we're going to get
into the top three reasons why I'm not stealth camping this year.
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I think we're going to need a towel this time. It's so hot there.
Anything that a tea towel just can't do? So if you're new to the channel?
My name is Mitch Asser.
I've been living in my fully converted Mercedes sprinter van for 10 more than 10
months now.
And I've also been a digital nomad for many years building multiple businesses
to six figures or multi six figures.
And today I'm going to tell you a little bit more about why I've decided not to
do as much stealth camping this year. If we rewind, rewind back to last year,
the first 10 months in the van,
the only time I paid to park somewhere at night in a, in a caravan park,
it was actually a showground was when, uh, I,
one of my tyres exploded as I was driving down the highway and I had,
and I got stuck in a little town for a couple of nights and I just didn't want
to move around in case I got another flat.
It just wouldn't have been fun times up until that point,
I'd never really paid for any parking whatsoever.
So as I reflected on my year last year and my first 10 months in the van,
there were a few things that came up too for me. You know,
most of the time I was stealth-parking either in the city,
in Sydney or along the East coast,
somewhere in Australia or on the gold coast is where I spent a lot of time as
well. And though, don't get me wrong, they're all amazing,
but there's a few key three key reasons in fact,
that I'm going to share with you today that might change your perspective a
little bit on stealth camping or at least help you get more prepared if you are
building a van now so that when you do stealth camp you are fully equipped and
fully ready. So let's dive into those now. Now,
reason number one really comes down to this one word and that one word is
certainty. I needed to have more certainty in my life. Tony Robbins,
one of the world's best business and life coaches talks about that as humans,
we need six human needs in order for us to be thriving and to feel happy.
And the first one of those is certainty. The second one is uncertainty.
So variety and surprises and all those types of things.
I had a lot of uncertainty in my life from always travelling around in the van,
not knowing where I was going to be at night.
To having to find camping spots or stealth camping spots at night so I could
park my van safely and know that I was going to safe place and that I could
sleep well. Um from running a business,
there is absolutely no certainty in running the business.
The only certain thing in businesses that is completely uncertain. Um,
and then a whole host of other personal things that were going on in terms of
like not feeling great,
getting a little bit burnt out and a few other things I can expand on another
time. So by me having so much uncertainty in my life,
I was actually a little bit out of balance.
I didn't have enough certainty what that caused was a little bit of I guess
anxiousness, not feeling settled,
not feeling grounded always been in that state of fight or flight.
Like I never really felt like I could relax in that state of rest all of the
time and what I,
what I had to do a couple of times was I hired an Airbnb for a week once because
that I've felt my body going into that state where I really needed something,
some more certainty,
and as soon as I did that I actually got a little bit sick because my body
finally had a chance to rest,
what I've identified from learning all of that is that by moving around
constantly, it actually doesn't serve me.
And I guess the whole reason why we got into van life, right,
is to actually save money and live more simply and not have to have so many
outgoings and more expenses and that type of thing. However,
what I've noticed is that if I don't take the time to spend more time in a spot
where I can just rest for a period of time,
like in a caravan park where I'm having to pay,
I'm just going to burn myself out,
right and I'm going to start to get really over there in life and now I'm going
to have to move back into a house anyway.
So by taking some short periods here and there,
maybe once every two or three weeks just going into a caravan park for maybe two
or three or four nights to really ground myself and settle and be in that
restful state. So that was, that's really not really number one.
And I'm actually recording this right now from a caravan park in Miami,
which you've already seen, and its been a really beautiful spot for me to be.
I noticed that the first night that I stayed here,
I did sleep in three hours past the normal time that I wake up.
So I normally wake up about five or 6:00 AM I think I slept until 8:30 AM
yeah, that's way better with the door open.
Now reason number two is because of electrical and power needs. So if you have,
you might've seen a video that I created at the start of 2020 in just a couple
of weeks ago where I talked about this. I had some,
I didn't build this fan so I have some limitations on what I can and can't do,
especially when it comes to power because my batteries are under the front seat.
There's only a certain size battery that can actually fit in that space.
So if I wanted to upgrade the system it means a lot of work and that's not not
really the work that I want to do right now.
So what I've done in the meantime is I bought a couple of goal zero lithium
battery packs. So I've got one inside the van,
which you might be able to see right there is a 400 so it's a much smaller
compact one and I've got one in the back as well,
which is the 1000 so this helps me meet my electrical needs.
The only challenge with that is that I need an external solar power to panel to
actually power up these battery packs and for a few days at the start of this
month or quite a few days,
it was actually overcast and cloudy while at the same time having a lot of
deadlines that I need to meet in terms of my,
what I'm doing with my business right now.
So that means I was using a lot of power,
but I wasn't putting enough power back in by not stealth camping all the time,
but I'm paying for more camping sites at caravan parks.
I can then plug into the 240 volts and charge up those battery packs from,
you know, completely flat up until they're totally full.
And then I'll be good to go for another week or two or three
now. Reason. Number three, and I've already alluded to this a little bit,
but a big thing that is really important to me,
which I didn't really know until recently,
is that when I stop stealth camping and I'm in a place where I feel really safe,
I have a really deep restful sleep.
Now I can consider myself to have really amazing sleeps virtually 99.9% of the
time.
What I didn't understand and what I I'm thinking and contemplating more about is
that, you know, my body,
even though I'm camping on the street as in stealth camping,
that my body is still always in a little bit of fight or flight mode.
It is not completely restful. Even though I feel fine, like most of the time,
and I feel like I've had a great sleep.
I feel like there's something that's there that's not really,
that I'm just not getting my full potential in terms of the sleep and the deep
restful sleep that I could be having. And that's very noticeable by, you know,
if I go and stay at my parents' house for a little bit,
I noticed that I'll sleep in at the very first night that are, that I'm there.
And as the same one, I pulled up to this caravan park the other day,
the very first night I slept way longer than I did before. So there's a,
I think there's a lot to say about that. And I think, you know,
if you're outside, you're always wondering like, you know, am I in a safe place?
Is someone gonna knock on the van at 3:00 AM in the morning,
is a ranger gonna come by and give me a fine is someone gonna run into the van
at night while I'm in this place.
So there's a lot of things going through your mind,
at least on an unconscious or a subconscious level when you're actually stealth
camping all the time.
Now these are the things that I didn't even think about for the first 10 months,
but it's something that's just popping up a little bit more recently.
For me now it's,
I think it gives me a little bit more time and space so I can think about these
things and then so then I can put the right measures in place to actually make
sure that it's not going to happen as much. So a lot of people say, well Mitch,
I don't want to stealth camp. I'm here to want to live the van life.
I think if you're always out in nature and like on the road where away from
people, I think you probably don't need to as much. But if you're in the city,
maybe these are a few things that you need to think about and contemplate and
see if it's going to be right for you because just spending, you know,
one or two nights here and there is not going to break the budget. In fact,
it might allow you to extend your van life living for an extra one or two or
three years,
which means you're going to save significant amounts of money in that time.
Whereas if you had to go back into an apartment way sooner,
then your cost immediately rise.
So always be thinking long term but not not only that,
like are you starting to cause health issues by not actually taking some time to
be in that really deep restful state and getting the sleep that you need and all
of those and getting that certainty in your life?
Is that causing anxiousness or those types of symptoms and those types of
feelings as you're moving through the day.
I just wanted to share this to give you maybe a fresh perspective on on my
thoughts.
I always try and contemplate the deeper thoughts about what's happening in my
life and the reasons why that's happening.
And then putting measures in place that feel really good so that hopefully they
don't happen in future.
And this is the measure that feels really good for me and I feel like it's
really important to share. So I'd love to hear from you.
Has any of this resonated?
Are you going gonna make any changes living in your van life and stealth camping
now? So pop a comment down below,
if you're not following me on Instagram at Mitch.Asser You should see a little
logo right down below there that would point you in the right direction as well.
So, so to finish this up, as I said,
I am a digital nomad or have been putting together some really amazing free
resources for helping people who are living the van life be more sustainable,
living that life as a digital nomad. It's the most amazing,
rewarding and super cool lifestyle that you could ever live.
So I go to digitalnomadsessions.com
and you can learn more about what I've been putting together,
but it's going to be something that you'll definitely enjoy.
So thanks so much for watching and I'll see you in the next video.
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