When your home is your van and it breaks down it means you lost your mode of transportation and your home all at once unless it's just a simple repair. This is one of the reasons my website is called Vanning Ain't No Joke. So lets say your van has to go to the shop. It's going to be a few days they tell you. The first thing I learned is that even with auto repairs it doesn't always go as planned so try not to have any expectations on the due date. That way if it's finished on time thats super awesome but if the wrong part came or they are having unexpected difficulties you are not super bummed when it's not ready. I've had parts that took a month before!
Also your outlook and point of view on the situation is going to be a major factor on how things go. What I learned from my van breaking down again recently is that the universe is going to throw things your way. Good things and bad things. It's hard to control these things that happen. You can only change the way you look at things. It helps me to put things into two categories. Things you can change and things you can't change. If it's something you can't change you just have to figure out the solution. If you can't change it there's no sense stressing over it.
Recent events give a perfect example. Long story short I built my ambulance at first around what was already in there as ambulance stuff to save time and money. I had mounted the roof rack next to the cabinets that were already in there so I wouldn't have to remove them and the roof flexed to much at that spot which created a leak. After a really wet winter and tons of water coming into my van I decided to tear everything out and rebuild it. After spending a month and a week working hard on remodeling it the van breaks down. There's diesel getting into the coolant reservoir. It's most likely a cracked injector cup. It's a pretty expensive repair.
At first I was like wondering what to do and questioning past decisions like getting a vehicle with high miles and stuff. That mentality was getting me absolutely nowhere so I changed it to kinda an "it is what it is" mentality. I put it into the category of things I can't change. I'm getting it repaired and focusing on other things in the meantime currently like keeping up with my blog!
I hate the saying "sometimes you win, sometimes you learn." I prefer to say it like "sometimes you win, sometimes you learn."
Everything that happens to us and every day is another learning opportunity so do your best to take advantage and learn as much as you can from every experience whether it's a positive or negative experience.
Furthermore you have the ability ands power in your brain to take a negative experience and turn it into a positive one. It's all about outlook.
This is one of the many life skills I have learned from living g the van life and I still have to remind myself about it every time something happens. After all. Vanning Ain't No Joke!
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