Et Cetera : The Art of Non-Conformity

Et Cetera

A New Journey Begins: “Born for This” Is Now Available!

Link: BornforThisBook.com

More than eight years ago (whoa) I started writing this blog, The Art of Non-Conformity. I wanted to chronicle my adventures around the world and support other people with big dreams.

But the journey actually begin more than ten years before that, when I first started working for myself. I wasn’t a good employee, having been fired from just about every job that I didn’t walk away from after a few weeks. My motivations at the time weren’t very high-level: I simply wanted to earn money to support my lifestyle.

As the years went by, I learned more about entrepreneurship as a way to change the world. I spent a few years living on a hospital ship deployed to West Africa. I started a quest to visit every country on the planet. And as I wrote, and then as I began hosting events and supporting offline communities, I gradually grew into the work I felt born to do. So I wrote a book about how you can find or create the same for yourself.

Born for This, just released today and available wherever books are sold, provides the answer.

You’ll learn how to:

Hack the job of your dreams within a company or organization by making it work for you
Find your ideal work and your ideal working conditions
Create plans that will allow you to take smarter career risks and “beat the house” every time
Start a profitable “side hustle” and earn extra cash on top of your primary stream of income
Escape the prison of working for someone else and build a mini-empire as an entrepreneur
Become a rock star at any creative endeavor by creating a loyal base of fans and followers

Et Cetera

The Impact of Age on Happiness, Especially In Times of Crisis

New research reveals that situational happiness or sadness may relate partly to age.

"Long ago, when I was 30 and he was 66, the late Donald Richie, the greatest writer I have known, told me: 'Midlife crisis begins sometime in your 40s, when you look at your life and think, Is this all? And it ends about 10 years later, when you look at your life again and think, Actually, this is pretty good.'
In my 50s, thinking back, his words strike me as exactly right. To no one’s surprise as much as my own, I have begun to feel again the sense of adventure that I recall from my 20s and 30s. I wake up thinking about the day ahead rather than the five decades past. Gratitude has returned."

Et Cetera

A Moment You Experience for Its Own Sake

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows chronicles words that don’t exist but should.

For example:

Onism "the awareness of how little of the world you’ll experience"

Klexos: “the art of dwelling on the past"

Zenosyne: "the sense that time keeps going faster"

Et Cetera

Scholarships for Real Life: Now Accepting Applications!

Link: Scholarships for Real Life 2016 Applications

The WDS Foundation seeks to put the right resources in the hands of amazing people who are acting on the three core values of WDS—community, adventure, and service. We do this by providing what we call "Scholarships For Real Life."

The goal of these scholarships is to empower individuals to pursue their dreams and positively impact a community.

Et Cetera

Online Business Training Returns, More Focused and Better than Ever

Link: Online Business Training

Yesterday I published a long, controversial essay that’s currently making the rounds. In the essay I basically said that it’s no longer business as usual in the world of online publishing, and that what once worked doesn’t work anymore, at least not as well.

Here’s something that’s a clear exception to that. Last year I shared Marie Forleo’s incredibly popular course with many of you. The course is now back in action, or at least it will be soon—and you can follow along with the free video series by joining the email list featured at the link above.

So, what’s up? Well, there are at least three good reasons why this matters.

Et Cetera

Aerial Photos of New York City from a Helicopter Flying at 7,500 Feet

Filmmaker Vincent Laforet describes his recent mission of capturing nighttime aerial photos of New York City as both “the scariest” and “the most beautiful” of his entire eclectic career.

I loved seeing what he captured!

Et Cetera

Born For This: Join Me on the Spring 2016 Tour!

Link: Register for the "Born for This" Spring Tour

One of the things I love about writing books is the chance to connect directly with readers. I always include my email address in each manuscript, and every day I hear from readers all over the world.

I also love going on tour. Ever since I published my first book, where I went to every U.S. state and every Canadian province, I’ve headed out on the road every year for a series of conversations in bookstores, co-working spaces, and many other locations.

My new book, Born for This, comes out in April... and of course I’ll be going to as many places as possible!

Et Cetera

“Level Up Your Life” with a Great New Book (Not Mine!)

Link: Level Up Your Life (Awesome New Book!)

A couple months ago, I was flying through Doha and spending the night before going on to London. I got an email from Steve Kamb just as I was settling into a light meal before bed.

I’ve known Steve for years. He introduced me at a book event in San Francisco once. One time he went around the world using miles he earned after reading something from Unconventional Guides. He led a popular Academy (twice!) at WDS. And well beyond the professional stuff, we’ve also been friends on a similar journey.

Anyway, there I was in Qatar, enjoying my hummus, and Steve’s note popped up. He wanted me to review his new book for a possible endorsement.

Et Cetera

Our Team Is Growing! Join Us to Help Make Fun Stuff

Greetings, readers! Our small-but-mighty team is growing and we're looking for at least one person (maybe two) to join us.

This is a part-time, paid administrative position. The weekly commitment will range from 5-20 hours a week, with a guaranteed minimum number of hours each week. We believe in fair wages and FREE ICE CREAM as often as possible.

Action: If you'd like to be considered, please fill out this short form before Friday, December 18th.

Et Cetera

The More You Improve, The Harder It Gets

I always love a good quest. While flying Southwest Airlines recently (it’s a long story) I happened to pick up the in-flight magazine and read about a guy who’s trying to become a professional golfer.

The whole article is interesting but isn’t the easiest to read in online format. The short version is that Dan, an ordinary guy from my hometown of Portland, Oregon, is trying to become a professional golfer despite never having much of an aptitude for playing golf before.

Dan pursues the quest partly because he wants to see if it's possible. Does talent come about entirely through "putting in the hours"? Here's a real-life case study to find out.

Et Cetera

52-Week Art Project Creates Illustrative Postcards About Life

Who doesn't like getting hand-written postcards?

Designers Giorgia Lupi + Stefanie Posavec were living parallel lives as expats in London and Brooklyn when they decided to start a year-long postcard project.

Each week, they sent each other a postcard—but not just any postcards. As artists who work with data, each postcard illustrates a particular type of data about their lives.

After all 52 weeks, the project recently ended. You can see a few of the postcards below, or more on their site.

Et Cetera

What to Do When You Have No Idea What to Do

What's it like to quit your job with no backup plan—and not just any job, but a nationally-known, prestigious position as the host for NPR's Marketplace show

That's what Tess Vigeland did recently, and her brand-new book Leap tells the whole story.

I really like this book, and it was fun to learn that several people in our community were part of its development. It's partly a memoir, but more importantly it puts forward a message on how success can be measured by happiness and fulfillment, not by how far you travel on a traditional career path.

If you want to leave your job—whether you love it, hate it, or are somewhere in between—this book should be at the top of your reading list.

Et Cetera

100 Days Without Fear: A Daily Video Experiment

A few months ago, Michelle Poler moved from Venezuela to New York to pursue a Master's Degree. While she was there, she started a project called 100 Days Without Fear to systematically combat the things that she was afraid of.

This fun project recently wrapped up with daily videos of her teaching a Zumba class, crowd surfing, posing nude for a drawing class, interviewing strangers, and attempting dozens of other interesting tasks.

Et Cetera

How to Start a College: Introducing The Wayfinding Academy

Link: The Wayfinding Academy

Most of us know that traditional higher education, especially in North America, doesn't work for everyone. Far too many students struggle, wander aimlessly, go into debt, or do all of these things.

The Wayfinding Academy is a new answer to the age-old problem of "What should I do with my life?"

Et Cetera

What Happened at WDS 2015? Unfiltered Attendee Reviews, Round II

Here's Round I.

After spending hundreds of hours in preparation and then hosting a week-long adventure for thousands of awesome people, I don’t usually say much about it afterward, at least not on the blog. I’m a writer who doesn’t do a writeup.

Thankfully, our attendees do a much more thorough job—and wouldn’t you want to read the unfiltered reviews anyway?

Every year we see hundreds of blog posts from attendees. Here’s the ~~first~~ second round of unfiltered reviews and opinions on a variety of topics related to WDS.

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