2015 : The Art of Non-Conformity

Work

You Don’t Have to Win at Everything

I had coffee with an aspiring entrepreneur who was struggling with priorities.

“I worry I’m doing everything wrong!” he said.

Everywhere he went, people gave him free advice. They told him about email marketing ... and webinars ... and the latest new social network ... and all the things he had to do to keep up.

"I'm not sure I'll be able to do all these things," he continued. "I can hardly keep up with the list!"

Well, that’s the thing. First of all, it’s very hard to fully "keep up" these day. There’s always a new network to learn, a new tool to master. There’s always one more thing that can be done.

Et Cetera

6 Discoveries from Near and Far: Volume XLVI

Things I found on long walks in foreign cities, or perhaps when someone posted them on Twitter.

Quiet Revolution -- an inspiring new community for introverts, made by our good friend Susan Cain
The Man Who Loved Only Marbles -- Video of a man who's been spending several hours a day with marbles for more than 60 years
Saving $150 in Airfare by Searching Better -- When connecting in a hub city, sometimes it's best to search for each segment one-by-one
Graffiti Just Like Grandma Used to Make -- Because seniors like to tag, too
Elevator Training -- Why Germany now requires people to be trained before using some elevators
The Fabricant Way -- A new webcast series featuring stories of artisans and creative entrepreneurs

Life

Don’t Make a Bucket List; Make a List of 100 Dreams

OK, it’s kind of like a bucket list. But it’s a really big one! From Laura Vanderkam:

In 168 Hours, I recommended creating something called a “List of 100 Dreams.” This exercise, which was shared with me by career coach Caroline Ceniza-Levine, is a completely unedited list of anything you might want to do or have more of in life. It’s like a bucket list, but most people don’t get all the way to 100 when creating a bucket list. The point is to really think about what you might like.

I also wrote about these lists a lot in The Happiness of Pursuit. I call them "life lists," on the theory that the lists should be well-rounded and not only consist of adventure travel kinds of goals.

But hey, whatever you call it, make a list! I love the challenge of trying to get to 100 items.

Travel

“Make Your Dream Trip a Reality”: Live Wrap-Up Tomorrow at 9am

Link: Live Broadcast (Friday at 9am Pacific)

Hey everyone! After nearly thirty lessons in our #DreamTrip course, we're going back to Seattle tomorrow for a live finale and our final lesson.

You can join Stephanie Zito, myself, and a few audience members live at 9am PDT Friday morning and ask questions or tell us about your own Dream Trip.

This has been quite the journey with many of you. And if you haven't seen any of the course before now, don't worry—we'll be recapping key points and telling you how to catch up.

Profiles

A Traveler Who Loves Coming Home: On the Road with Megan Cain

This is a traveler case study. (Read others or nominate yourself.)

I love finding people who are able to incorporate travel into their lives without making it their whole life. Here's how Megan Cain has done just that.

After college, I lived in San Francisco before packing up and moving to a rural, 100-person town in Missouri to live at an eco-village and learn how to garden. I felt a pull towards growing my own food. My move was a leap of faith that changed my life forever. I lived in a 90-square-foot cabin, met my future husband, and started the basis of a career in sustainable living. Mark and I are now have jobs, enjoy owning a home and being rooted in Madison, Wisconsin, while incorporating longer travel adventures into our lives.

Work

Waking Up at Night with Big Ideas

Long ago, right before I started this blog and began the full-time quest to "go everywhere," I went through a six-month period of thinking about it. When I say I was thinking about it, I mean it occupied my mental world approximately 80% of the time. I was still working and going to grad school during the day, but my attention lay elsewhere.

Then, at night, I'd go to bed with a notebook on my nightstand. I kept it there because almost every night, I'd wake up feeling excited. I'd have another idea or something new to add to the outline.

I loved this story of Benny Hsu making $100,000 from his t-shirt designs—a huge entrepreneurial success on his own, no doubt. But I also related to how the project took over his life and became all he thought about.

Et Cetera

6 Discoveries from Near and Far: Volume XLV

I. Around the World

Things I found on long walks in foreign cities, or perhaps when someone posted them on Twitter.

Why Some of Us Don’t Have One True Calling -- Emilie’s new TEDx talk on becoming a multipotentialite
The Forgotten Houseboat Hotels of Kashmir -- Photographs from the lost golden era of tourism in Kashmir
Historical Photos of New York City from the Public Library -- Click on an interesting vintage photo, and the site shows you where it was taken on a map of New York
You Don’t Have to Be Excited to Stay Committed -- "Things that bring you the greatest joy are often not that fun while you’re doing them."
Smart Ideas for Instagram Photos -- How to improve your on-the-go snaps and shared experiences
The Age-Old Cynicism Surrounding the Dream of Book Writing -- "Younger people aren’t interested in passive consumption-they want to engage, respond, create"

Travel

Starwood Card Makes It Easier to Earn 25,000 Point Bonus

Link: Starwood Preferred Guest (Personal)
Link: Starwood Preferred Guest (Business)

Years before I became a full-time traveler and learned to use travel hacking to pay my way around the world, I had only a couple of credit cards. One of those cards was the Starwood Preferred Guest by American Express, and I used it religiously. Years later, I have many other cards, but I continue to use this one every day.

The card just made a big update to make it easier for people to earn the initial signup bonus of 25,000 points. You used to earn some of the points upon signup and the rest after completing a minimum spend. Now, you'll earn the entire bonus upon spending $3,000 in the first three months of having the card.

Travel

“Make Your Dream Trip a Reality”: Week 5 Recap (Upgrade Your Dream Trip)

Every day for six weeks, we’re teaching people how to “Make Their Dream Trip a Reality.” You can watch each lesson for free on the day it’s broadcast, or you can purchase the whole course and have access anytime.

This was our fifth week (already?!) with the in-studio audience and the thousands of people who participated online. We've come so far! And we’ll be back again after the weekend for our last week where we'll bring it all together.

For the five daily lessons this week, we focused on helping people strategically use the miles they earned. Here's what we covered:

The Best Hidden Redemptions
The Secret World of Airline Lounges
Airline Status and Upgrades
On the Ground
More Ways to Use Your Points and Miles

Et Cetera

What Remains in the Quest for Literary Permanence

From Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher:

I am always taken aback when students confide in me that beneath their desire to write lies a quest for permanence. It’s odd but touching, I think, that even during this disposable age, while consigning great mountains of refuse to landfills and to atolls of plastic in the Pacific, these young would-be novelists and poets believe that art is eternal. Au contraire: we are in the business of ephemera, the era of floating islands of trash, and most of the things we feel deeply and inscribe on the page will disappear.

Profiles

“I am capable of more than I imagined”: On the Road with Elizabeth Glanzer

After experiencing many travel misadventures around the world, I love hearing other people's "silver linings" stories. This one (and other stories, too) comes from Elizabeth Glanzer in Los Angeles.

I'm a therapist and work with teens and young adults who feel misunderstood and out of place. I study psychoanalysis and neuroscience every chance I get.
Traveling is one of my favorite things to do. For me, it pulls everything together and shatters blind spots. People, culture, art, and "normal" is all relative when I go abroad, and I appreciate the ability to see how someone else lives and thinks.

Et Cetera

The Habit of Giving

Today I made a small donation to a cause that inspired me. It wasn't really because of the holiday, it didn’t cost me much, and I won’t miss the money. Yet, I still felt good after I pushed the button that finalized the commitment.

Notice how selfish this sounds: It felt good to give! I was the one with the benefit.

But this is how it works. The more you give, the better you feel.

Give it a try.

Travel

“Make Your Dream Trip a Reality”: Week 4 Recap (Book Your Hotel)

This was our fourth week with the in-studio audience and the thousands of people who participated online.

Everyone made lots of progress, and we’ll be back again after the weekend with much more.

Life

Creative Street Posters Show Another Side to Youth Homelessness

I liked this project that highlights the stereotypes many of us have about homeless youth. If you look at the poster from only one side, you see one message.

But if you stand from a different angle and see the other side of the corner, the message becomes something very different.

Life

Three Things I Know Are True: Taking Risks

I’ve been attempting to find “true north” in a lot of things lately. This series explores what I’ve found to be true in my own life. Your answers will probably differ; the point is to find what’s true for you.

Today’s topic is taking risks. Here are three things I know are true.

1. Most risk is perceived.

For example, it’s not any riskier to work for yourself than it is to work for a company, and it may actually be less risky. Why would you trust someone else with your well-being? Self-employment is actually a very safe and conservative choice for many of us.

Therefore, it’s very important to rethink the role of risk in your life.

« Previous 1 … 5 6 7 8 9 … 18 Next »