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Friends and readers, I’ve returned home to Portland, Oregon just in time for Thanksgiving. I try to live a life of gratitude every day, so I don’t have much to say about the Thanksgiving holiday in general ...
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When I first started doing media interviews in 2008, I noticed that one question would almost always come up: “Why are you so obsessed with travel?” (I learned to call it the mountain-climbing question, because it's the same one climbers are asked about Everest and K2: “Why?”) The question bewildered me until I got used to it. For a long time, I didn't know how to answer; the quest to see the whole world was just something that made sense to me intuitively. I like travel, I like goal-setting, so why not put the two together?
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Today is Blog Action Day, where the blogging world (such as it is) unites to write about a single topic. I know, so conventional—but in this case, I don’t mind going with the flow. The theme this year is Climate Change, so I thought I’d contribute something about travel and its impact on the world ...
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Just say no. Assert your boundaries. You can't do it all. There's a time and a place for everything, sure, but is that always the best advice? Whenever I hear things like “Say no five times for every time you say yes,” I think... “Really?” I take the opposite approach, and it generally works out just fine.
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Friends in Portland, if you’ll be around on Friday, October 23rd, I’d like to invite you to a benefit dinner and auction for a cause I am proud to support. The Short Version:
What: Dinner and auction for Sisters of the Road, a local non-profit that serves the homeless population in Portland.
When: Friday, October 23rd, 6-10pm (includes dinner, drinks, auction, and something called a “hoedown”)
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Hi everyone. I’m high on life and writing in from the Cathay Pacific LAX-HKG flight. I’m fading fast, but with 13 hours to go until arrival, there should be plenty of time to a) sleep and b) write this note to you.
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At any given time, most of us have no shortage of challenges we’re trying to work through or overcome.
Entrepreneurs must create something out of nothing — a process that is both fun and tiring. Ambitious people who work in organizations have to work with colleagues in pursuit of collective goals. Sometimes the colleagues aren’t as ambitious or have other ideas.
Those of us who go it alone have plenty of issues, too. If someone ever implies it’s easy out there, put your skeptic hat on.
Thankfully, there is one challenge that is entirely optional. This challenge is the question of how to be yourself, otherwise known as authenticity.
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On Thursday night, about 50% of Portland, Oregon descended upon the Pied Cow, a local beer garden to talk about travel, entrepreneurship, blogging, and all kinds of other topics.
At one point a waitress came over to ask what our group was working on, and someone said "World Domination." Nice one. Later on, the same waitress told me we were "the most polite group of non-conformists" she had ever met, which I also appreciated.
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Congratulations to the great Lance Armstrong on his third-place victory in Paris yesterday.
I'm aware that third place is not a real victory. Lance knows this too, and said so himself in the post-race interviews. However, when you've been out of the tour for four years, you broke your collarbone a few months ago, and you're more than a decade older than the teammate who ended up winning, I think that third place is pretty good.
Lance is still a winner in my book. He's already planning to come back next year, and I'm pretty sure he won't settle for a mere third place out of 180 riders in 2010.
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To be truly awesome, you have to go above and beyond the efforts of those around you, look for alternative solutions, and refuse to back down from the truth. There's a whole article about it for those who are curious.
But it all starts with showing up. Or, as a friend of mine puts it:
"I'm sorry you feel bad about not meeting your goals -- what I would suggest is that you begin meeting your goals, in order to feel better." Read More
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I spent most of last week in and around Park City, Utah on a family vacation. I usually run in Portland, Oregon, where the elevation is about 230 feet (70 meters) above sea level. In Park City, the elevation is about 7000 feet (2134 meters) above sea level.
Among other things, the altitude adjustment makes for one tired runner. I felt like I had picked up a pack-a-day smoking habit just before setting out to run a 10k.
Read MoreWhenever a community experiences rapid growth, some people feel left out. New people come in and don't know the history. Meanwhile, the people who have been around for a while worry that they have been forgotten in all the excitement.
A good leader needs to be able to reach out to new people, expand the pie, while also "keeping it real" as much as possible.
This is my attempt to do so, live on location from the Dominican Republic.
Read MoreIn 279 Days, I included links to many of the people I respect and have learned from since I started this site. I did this because I wanted to give credit where credit is due – and each of these folks deserve a lot of credit for helping me.
Here they are again, with a quick synopsis on why I think they are awesome. If you’re looking for people to learn from (I always am), I encourage you to check out their work.
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Friends and readers, it’s been quite the journey over the past 12 months. The site recently celebrated its one-year birthday, and that got me thinking of a few other big milestones over the year.