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Last week I headed out for the Sunday morning long run, and my legs decided not to cooperate. After four miles, it was time to pack it in. Bummer—so I tried again a few days ago. The same thing happened ... almost. At mile four I was ready to quit. Through an act of God and the new Josh Ritter album, I managed to pull it out and keep going. At mile six I was feeling great, and as I headed home, I was glad I didn't quit. Eleven miles for the win!
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Thanks again for all your input on the four burners theory. That was fun. I should say first that all is well in my life—I'm not concerned about falling off the edge or anything. I sometimes say that I'm going to start a “maximalist” movement because I don't believe in limits or shutting ourselves off from the world. So it's all good. But nevertheless, I wonder about things sometimes, and the Sedaris quote was an interesting way to look at the issues of balance and focus. As a couple of people wisely said, the point is that we all have the same 24 hours every day.
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This week's featured postcard comes to us from S in Panmunjeom, South Korea. Here's what it's all about.
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When I haven't been contemplating the puzzle of how to do everything, I've been planning my final international trip of the year. Yes, it's only July, but come September, I hit the road to meet readers in 63 cities for the Unconventional Book Tour. Therefore, next month's trip is my final chance to get in a couple of new countries before putting my Frequent Flyer cards back in the drawer for a long four months.
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Greetings, friends and readers. A Brief Guide to World Domination is now available in Japanese. --> Download it here for free
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I did an interview for the nice people at The 99 Percent last month, and Jocelyn shared an idea that has stayed with me ever since. Here's the idea:
I like this quote from a David Sedaris article. Sort of an adapted 'carpenter's triangle': "One burner represents your family, one is your friends, the third is your health, and the fourth is your work.” The gist is that in order to be successful you have to cut off one of your burners. And in order to be really successful you have to cut off two.Read More
I made it home to Portland after walking around Almaty, Kazakhstan for several days. For some reason I didn't have high hopes for Kazakhstan, but I actually enjoyed it... and no one really acts like Borat.
This is the Sunday Store Update, where I share some brief news about the business side of AONC.
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This week's featured postcard comes to us from Feng in Malaysia. Here's what it's all about.
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Sometimes I find out about people who read AONC and I think, "Really? They care about what I have to say?" I think it should be the other way around. Dr. Sarah England is one of those people. She wrote in to thank me for the World Domination manifesto and I thought, "Hold on a minute! I should be thanking you for being awesome." After stints in Vietnam, Switzerland, and elsewhere, Sarah moved to China with her family to work against the tobacco industry. As she mentions below, attitudes toward smoking in Asia are slowly changing, but there's still much less awareness than in the western world.
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I didn't write an Independence Day post last week partly because I've been on the road. Burkina Faso is a fun enough place to visit, but there were no fireworks displays at night to celebrate America's intent to withdraw from King George's Britain. But the other reason is that I think of a celebration of independence much like the Thanksgiving holiday. The holiday later in the year is all about eating pie and being grateful. I like both of those things; I just think that being grateful (or eating pie!) shouldn't be reserved for one special day.
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This week's featured postcard comes to us from Saben and Lin in Vietnam. Here's what it's all about.
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Greetings from Ouagoudougou, winner of the “most awesome city name” contest and also my current stop on the week-long West Africa tour. I came in via Lufthansa, Royal Air Maroc, and Ethiopian Airlines... but more on that in a moment. I wanted to write a lengthy post outlining a few principles of what I call travel hacking. In short, travel hacking is all about seeing experiencing the world on a limited budget. I've been able to visit so many countries over the past decade not by being independently wealthy, but by learning to be creative.
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Many of us are on quests, either real or representative. Since my quest is real, I like the metaphor of journeying.
Going on a journey involves unexpected surprises, challenges, setbacks, and rewards. And I tend to think that any good journey is as much about the process as the destination ...
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This week's featured postcard comes to us from Michael in Frankfurt, Germany. Here's what it's all about.
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Of all the 192 countries in the world, Burkina Faso gets my vote for "most awesome capital city name."
If you're ever on Jeopardy! or otherwise need to know, the answer is "What is Ouagadougou?" Hopefully you won't have to spell it for the final round.
Tomorrow I'm headed out on the early-early flight to Denver, over to Frankfurt in the afternoon (just a short transit in both cities), and finally down to West Africa via Morocco over the weekend.
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