Tressa moved countries all on her own, and in that process she has learned how to determine life’s essentials. What’s really important in life? What stops us from doing what’s best for us? It turns out a lot of it has to do with simply trying a bunch of things and seeing what works for you.

“For me, I don’t want to get to a point where I’m over-analyzing things because that will keep you from making any kind of…quick decisions or any kind of decisions that you actually really need to make for your life.”

This kind of confidence or ability comes naturally to her.  “I don’t know where it comes from—I’ve actually always felt like I can be myself.” It might come from her lifelong talent for picking up new skills, mostly because she had the confidence to try. “I can do literally anything—I’ve fixed cars, I’ve done films—I mean, just because I’ve felt like it.”

It may have to do with her refreshing perspective. “I’m just going to do whatever because no one needs to live my life but me and nobody has to live other people’s lives but them, so you can’t really afford to live the life that someone else wants you to live.” In the end, it doesn’t matter to her if she is ‘successful’ traditionally, it’s more about the experience. “I don’t really consider…that what I might do might not work out because I just figure that, I guess if it doesn’t, I mean, you know, you tried!”

“There’s nobody that’s going to tell me that I can’t do it. I mean, they can, but they don’t pay bills in my house, so, like, what, really what difference does it make what they have to say? I’ll take into consideration depending on who it is. Like, if they have a good point, I’m not above being wrong. But for the most part, I just do what I feel like is best for me and I’ve always done that.”

What about when anxieties rise up? “There is a lot of stuff that I do second guess, but that doesn’t stop me from doing it.” You’d rather learn by doing, than wonder and never get around to it. “The kind of learner I am is to just go ahead and do it.”

It turns out Tressa’s only real essential is time. “Really, to be honest…the only real essential to me is my time. …I would say my laptop, the Internet, and my time, with time being the top one, of course.” This because without time, you can’t really take care of yourself well. “You don’t realize how neglectful you are to your physical and mental self until…you get your time back.”

When it comes down to it, you come up with a vision and figure out the first steps, you get started and see where it takes you. You’ll learn soon enough whether it’s right or essential for you. “You need to figure out at least a little bit of where you would like to be—even if it’s short-term—and then reach that goal, and then you can go from there.”

“Come up with a short-term plan for where you would like to be to change your situation for that moment, and then you can kind of think about the next step after you get there.”

This kind of confidence or action takes practice. “It takes time. It’s not something I did overnight. I haven’t been this…fearless person. I’ve progressed a little bit at a time.”

Tress leaves us with these words, to figure out what’s actually essential in your life:

“I think…really reevaluate what you’re spending your time on in your life, particularly when it comes to television and things that are really time suckers and they’re not really helping you live the best life that you can possibly live. What can you trim down, trim out of your life that will give you more time to do the things you want to do and have the experiences you want to have?”