Adventure

8 Reasons to Travel While You’re Young

Steve Bloom 5 Comments

Travel While You're Young
Shortly before I became a new parent, I heard a lot of people tell me how my traveling days were over. “Traveling with kids is too expensive,” they said, or “it’s too difficult to arrange.”

When my son was two months old, I got his first passport. He’s almost one year old now and he’s already traveled more than I did by the time I turned twenty (he’s a fantastic traveler, by the way). In just a month, my wife and I will be taking him to Prague for his first big international trip.

My goal is to travel regularly with him throughout his childhood, up until he’s in college and can travel by himself. Not only that, but I want to amass Frequent Flyer Miles for him so he can do it cheaply when he’s on his own.

It’s funny. I don’t hear people telling me that it can’t be done anymore. Now I hear people tell me that it’s a waste of time. “Why take your kid traveling?” they say, or “it doesn’t matter to him where you go so why spend the money?”

Yes, he won’t remember these trips. But he won’t remember anything from his first few years of life anyway – nothing. No one does. Yet, I still do things for his benefit. I read to him at night, hold him, talk to him and tell him I love him.

Because there are a lot of reasons to travel when you’re young – whether you’re a little child or freshly graduated from college, travel can be good for you.

Here’s why:

1. Travel can be a great supplement to education

With travel, comes language, culture, art, history, politics. There’s such a wide range of learning opportunities that can have a big impact on a young mind.

When my son reads Anne Frank’s diary in school, I want to take him to Amsterdam to see her house. If he studies French, it would be great for him to practice with real French speakers. I’d love to take him to Washington D.C. to see where our government works.

Travel makes what you learn come alive. Learning is often done through words or photos on a page. Travel makes it more real – a physical location where events actually happened and real people live.

2. You gain the ability to see life from different perspectives

Traveling broadens the mind to new ideas. The time you spend talking to a Buddhist monk might make you rethink your idea of a happy life. Or maybe a foreign culture sparked a new idea on how to live better.

Spending time somewhere new takes you out of your ordinary routine. It broadens your perspective by giving you a chance to step away from your everyday life and seeing it with new eyes for a while.

3. It stimulates imagination and creativity

Openness to experience is the most common character trait associated with creativity. It’s the willingness to try new things and engage in new experiences. That is the essence of travel.

Travel is about feeding the desire to discover and wonder about the world. We become curious about things and ask questions – which opens the mind even further.

4. It helps build empathy

Empathy – the ability to understand the feelings, situation and motives of another person.

There are plenty of opportunities to meet people while traveling – people with different views and customs. Travel provides a way to see that other people look at things differently and that others don’t always share the same opinions as we do. If we make the effort to understand them, we can get into their head for a while and see things from their point of view.

5. It teaches how to handle adversity

At times, travel can be tough. I’ve been stranded in airports or had to navigate through complicated train stations where no one spoke English. I’ve been lost once or twice while walking through a city.

But each time I go through something hard and come out safely on the other side, I learn more about how to handle adversity. This is a good lesson to learn. Life won’t always be easy, and when you can stare adversity right in the face with experience, you’ll feel better about tackling life’s challenges.

6. Going out of your comfort zone no longer freaks you out

Travel is about trying new things and going to new places. But in the end, all these steps outside your comfort zone helps you grow by breaking down the fear that keeps you inside that comfortable bubble. And eventually, reaching for something new and outside of your experiences doesn’t seem quite as scary.

7. It fights an entitled mindset and builds one of gratitude

It’s really easy to take for granted all the good things we have in the United States – things we don’t even think about such as clean water, access to food or free speech. In some parts of the world, these are things people still fight for.

Travel doesn’t just help you see how other people live, it informs us on how we live too. When you see all the things that other people don’t have it puts a spotlight onto all those things we’ve been taking for granted.

8. It shows the value of experiences over possessions

It’s hard to take a lot with you while traveling. You have to pick and choose what’s important and necessary. By doing this, you start to understand that it doesn’t take many possessions to be happy.

A big part of travel is about experiences – the places, people and ideas you encounter. These experiences will enrich a young mind for a lifetime and show that life is more than the sum of our possessions, but the memories we create.

Critics and Haters: How to Deal with People Who Unfairly Judge You

Steve Bloom 19 Comments

Critics and Haters

The simplest way to be criticized is this: be yourself. As Aristotle once said, “to avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.”

No matter what path your life takes, you’re bound to come across someone who dislikes your decision and openly expresses how unhappy they feel about it.

Just recently, my wife and I took some criticism over a decision we made.

At the start of the year, we took a trip to Turkey. We walked around Istanbul, saw Ephesus and stopped over at Pamukkale (absolutely gorgeous, by the way). The whole trip was beautiful and unforgettable.

It seems so uncontroversial, expect for one aspect – my wife was six months pregnant.

To be clear, we did our due diligence. We perused forums to read about experiences other pregnant women had in Turkey. Before we left, we researched hospitals to see what was available (they’re good there).

In addition, our doctor gave us the OK to go and we even got a clean bill of health two days before we left. And to top it all, we bought great travel insurance, just in case.

However, we were harshly judged for our actions. Many people lashed out at us and criticized our “reckless behavior”.

To be fair, our critics were coming from a source of love and concern, but it was still difficult to not take personally.

How to Take Criticism like a Pro

The trouble with criticism is in how our brains process it, putting a lot more focus and attention on negativity. According to a study, one negative comment carries the same weight in our minds as five positive ones.

This was true of our experience. Looking back before our trip, I can see that most people were either positive or neutral on the subject. There was just a select few vocal critics to make us feel bad about what we were doing.

And feelings are the real problem with criticism. It’s not that you’re being criticized or judged unfairly, it’s that those criticisms and judgements make you feel bad as a result.

According to the book User’s Manual for the Brain Volume I:

“The problems we often have in handling criticism constructively lie in dealing with our feelings about being criticized. If we could handle those immediate negative emotions, we could respond constructively to the criticism.”

Then the book gives a great technique to handle the negative emotions that come along with being criticized. They modeled this technique by studying people who handle criticism effectively.

“See yourself at some distance….You are watching yourself receiving criticism. Thus you see yourself “out there,” any negative feelings you had during that time will [also] seem “out there,” and you can feel curious about those feelings.”

In effect, you replay the criticism in your mind as if you’re looking at it from a third person perspective. You watch yourself receiving the criticism as if you’re another person entirely. This helps you disassociate from the critical comments so you can get past the hurt feelings.

This has been backed up in other research studies too. According to a study reported in Psychology Today:

“Participants reported feeling significantly less emotional pain when they envisioned the memory using a third-person perspective than when using a first-person perspective. Further, utilizing a psychologically distant vantage point also allowed them to reconstruct their understanding of their experiences and reach new insights and feelings of closure.”

I don’t know why exactly it works, but it does. After I replayed the criticism for our trip to Turkey using a third-person point of view, I felt a lot better about it. It allowed me to move away from the negative criticisms and get them out of my head.

Benjamin Franklin on Turning Critics into Friends

So that’s how you handle criticism. But what should you do about the critics and the haters themselves?

One big lesson I learned about haters comes from Benjamin Franklin.

As Benjamin Franklin went from success to success, he naturally gained a few enemies along the way. When he started running for the position of clerk in a club, they started bashing him. One person in particular critiqued him at every opportunity.

Rather than confront the person directly, Franklin decided to take a different tactic. He sent a letter to the hater asking to borrow a rare and curious book from his library.

Renowned as a discerning book collector and founder of a library, Franklin had a respectable reputation in the literary community. The man was so flattered that he immediately sent the book. A week later, Franklin sent it back with a thank you note.

The next time they met, the hater had changed his attitude completely. Eventually they developed a friendship which lasted all the way to his death.

How did this happen?

The thing that Franklin did right was that he directed his efforts at changing the person’s behavior, not his attitude.

Most people think attitude determines behavior, but it’s actually the other way around. Our behavior determines attitude.

When Franklin asked his biggest critic to lend him a valuable book, he was getting the person to do something nice for him. Since people generally only do favors for those they like, his attitude adjusted to fit the behavior.

In fact, the more nice things someone does for you, the nicer they’ll become. It may sound counter-intuitive, but if you get someone to do something nice for you, they’ll rationalize in their head that they must like you and their attitude will change as a result.

Clashing with haters about their attitude head-on will probably just bring on more hate. However, if you change their behavior, you’ll find that the person who was once a critic is now a friend.

To quote Franklin: “He that has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another than he whom you yourself have obliged.”
photo credit: Brandon Warren

Breaking Bland: The Poor Man’s Guide to Unforgettable Travels

Steve Bloom 13 Comments

Poor Man's Guide to Unforgettable Travels

*Note: This is a guest post by Peter Renegade from RichRenegade.com.

$80,000 of student loans and insatiable wanderlust don’t exactly mix.

Unfortunately, that’s where I found myself after college graduation.

While I always envisioned myself traveling during my 20’s, reality came crashing down in the form of $600 monthly loan payments.

Like any desperate college grad, I took the first cubicle job I could find to save myself from financial collapse.

In the office, I’d spend my days dreaming of exotic destinations as if they were light years away.

Days, months, and years passed by as my travel dreams slowly subsided.

Then one day, I took a hard look in the mirror only to find a shell of my past self.

I was older, but I didn’t feel wiser.

Instead, I felt less creative, less confident and less courageous than ever before.

The rinse-repeat 9-5 lifestyle had broken something in me.

I knew it was time to break the pattern – it might be now or never.

I decided to find a way to travel no matter what it takes.

The odds were not in my favor. At this point, I had:

  • $45,000 of student loan debt remaining
  • Only 10 days of vacation to use for the entire year
  • A measly $41,500 salary (before taxes)
  • An overpriced apartment in an overpriced city
  • Zero travel experience

Despite these conditions, I was able to pull off a 5 day Rocky Mountain retreat in Colorado for under $500.

For regular travelers, this might seem insignificant.

But for me, a boy who’d never been west of Iowa, this was a life changing experience.

I came back with clarity, focus and renewed vigor.

More importantly, I learned how to overcome the barriers to travel so I could repeat the experience.

Since then, I’ve been on three more amazing adventures and I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.

You don’t need to be a millionaire to enjoy travel.

You can embark on your own incredible journey without breaking the bank.

Simply follow the steps of my proven method below:

1. List your desired travel destinations

Start a running list of all the places you want to go, from the local spots to the far and exotic. Writing them down makes them real and solidified.

If you’re having trouble coming up with destinations, now is the time to do some research.

2. Leverage your network

Chances are, you have friends and family living in different parts of the country or the world.

Next to your list of destinations, list all your friends and family and where they live. If you can manage to lodge with someone for free, you can save some serious cash.

3. Set a budget

How much can you afford to spend on this trip? Your budget will be a big factor in where you go and how long you spend there.

For my Colorado trip, my budget was $500. I came up with this number by simply asking myself this: If I lost all this money tomorrow, could I still get by comfortably? I whittled the number down until the answer was a solid yes.

4. Choose time, place, and people

Using the information from the previous three steps, start deciding the where, when and who. It can help to travel with more people if you split costs, but it can also be more difficult to plan. Traveling alone is always an option, too.

Remember, your first trip doesn’t have to be huge – especially if you’re a novice traveler on a budget.

When you’re ready, write down the top 3 potential destinations with exact dates and names of any fellow travelers.

5. Estimate costs

Now it’s time to see if your destination fits in your budget. Here are some costs to consider:

  • Airfare
    • Use Southwest if possible and be sure to sign up for their rewards program
  • Gas (if you’re driving)
  • Rental Car
  • Lodging
    • Use your network
    • Use Airbnb – an amazing service where you can rent homes and apartments around the world which I used it to get a 6 person house in Michigan where we spent $25/night/person
    • Book in advance to get better rates
  • Food and drinks
    • Buy groceries to save money
    • Drink before you go out in major cities
  • Paid attractions
  • Souvenirs
  • Home-sitting/pet-sitting
  • Emergency costs (unforeseen medical or travel costs)

Note that travel rates vary, so consider seasons and holidays. Always estimate on the high side and leave a 15% buffer to absorb incorrect estimates.

If your top destination fits in the budget, great! If not, you have two options. You can either 1) shorten your trip until it fits the budget, or 2) jump down to the next destination on your list.

6. Set aside money

I buy as much as I can for the trip ahead of time. That way, I don’t get stuck at the last minute trying to come up with money.

For any remaining expenses, such as lodging and food, I take out physical cash and set it aside until the trip so I’m not tempted to spend it.

When you cover expenses ahead of time, you can stop worrying about money and start getting excited for the trip.

7. Make an itinerary

I like a good mix of planned activities and spontaneous wandering when I travel. I don’t have time to do either if I’m figuring out what to do the whole time – that’s where an itinerary helps.

List the attractions you want to hit and the activities you want to do. Plan a schedule for each day, but allow for some spontaneity too.

8. Enjoy the adventure!

When the long-awaited date finally arrives, these tips will help you get the most out of your adventure:

  • Unplug – leave the laptop at home and the phone in airplane mode. You can’t enjoy the scenery if you’re staring at a screen all day.
  • Don’t sweat the small stuff – you’ll probably forget something or get lost. Don’t freak out, it’s all part of the adventure.
  • Leave expectations behind – if you set high expectations before you even leave, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. Instead, go in with an open mind and you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

For all who are curious, here is a cost breakdown of my Colorado trip:

  • Travel
    • Southwest Airlines airfare (roundtrip): $296.00
    • Gas for my friend driving me: $40.00
    • Total: $336.00
  • Lodging
    • Stayed at friend’s apartment: $0
  • Food
    • Groceries: $27.22
    • Eating out/drinks: $87.07
    • Total: $114.29
  • Misc.
    • Souvenirs: $23.89
    • Vinyl Records: $22.56
    • Hiking at 6 different State and National Parks, Boulder SpringFest, people watching: $0
    • Total: $46.45
  • Total Trip Expense: $496.74

The trip of a lifetime might be closer than you think. Happy trails!

This is a guest post by Peter Renegade from RichRenegade.com.

photo credit: Ishrona

6 Tips to Do Crazy Things that Scare You

Steve Bloom 26 Comments

Do Something Crazy

“Do one thing every day that scares you.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

When I was a little boy, I was afraid of just about everything. Too shy to make many friends, I kept my social circle small. I shunned change and risk-taking; the thought of doing something crazy like traveling to another country didn’t appeal to me.

As I grew up, I started noticing all the opportunities I’d been missing. My own fear made me miss out on fun adventures and many potential friends.

So one day I decided I had to face down the things that scared me. If a great opportunity came along, I had to take it – no matter how scary it seemed.

Funnily enough, the more I did the things that scared me, the more I realized just how safe these things actually were. Instead of running away from crazy, scary things, I started to run towards them.

The little boy who was once afraid of travel started to visit exotic far-off locations. I did things that once seemed way too crazy to attempt like swimming with sharks in Belize or hanging out with locals in Vietnam.

I stretched my social skills too. Long ago, the thought of approaching a cute girl and starting up a conversation seemed terrifying. So I faced that fear and started striking up conversations whenever I wanted.

It didn’t feel like life was passing me by anymore. In fact, doing things that scared me made me feel more alive than I’d ever felt. Nothing seemed beyond my reach.

Here’s what I’ve learned along the way.

1. Minimize thinking once you’ve decided to do it

Fear is an expectation of what might happen in the future if we take a certain course of action.  Because we don’t know what will happen on the scary path, the uncertainty can feed our fears and make us envision all the potential bad things that might happen.  It’s easy to get lost in these thoughts and psych yourself out before you even take the first step.

Train your brain to ignore these thoughts. When you’re mind starts racing, calm it down and get back to reality. Many of the fears you’ll focus on will be nothing but your imagination going wild.  It’s good to be aware of all the potential dangers, but you can’t dwell on them.

2. Scary things=growth

Remind yourself that the biggest moments of growth happen when you do something scary. It’s always scariest the moment you move away from your comfort zone and try something completely different.

Sticking to the safe and familiar will assure that you continue to see the same results in your life.  By moving away from the norm and facing down those fears, you’ll get places you’ve never been before.  To get somewhere you’ve never been, you have to do things you’ve never done.

3. Get pumped up to do it

Fear isn’t the only feeling you’ll get when you think about trying something crazy; it can also feel thrilling and exciting.  But too often, the fear overrides those feelings keeping you from actually doing it.

Pump yourself up.  Get so excited that fear is crowded out and diminished in size.  When you feel that exciting energy surging inside you, you’ll get the inspiration and motivation to get yourself going and you’ll think less about the fears you might have.

4. Start small, aim big

Let’s say that you want to skydive. It might be too scary an idea to immediately hop on a plane, go to 16,000 feet and parachute out. You might be jumping the gun a little.

That’s why skydiving places have a period of preparation and training involved before you even step into a plane.  They know it’s important to build up to that big moment.

It’s okay to start off with small, steady steps to reach one big scary goal. By taking it in small, more manageable chunks, you’ll find it’s easier to keep pushing yourself to the end.  All that matters is that you’re moving forward to something that you ultimately want to do.

5. Distance yourself from how crazy you think it is

One mental trick that works well for me is to distance myself from the crazy thing I want to do. That can help prevent you from getting too into the moment and psyching yourself out.

Approach it as if you’re another person.  See yourself as an observer of the situation almost as if you’re watching yourself.  The main idea is to just get outside of your head and dissociate yourself from what’s going on.  By disengaging with the situation, it won’t seem as scary.

6. Change your attitude about fear

It’s not always best to examine our feelings of fear on an emotional level.  Rather than tackling them that way, we should take a closer look at our attitude towards it.

Think back to the last time you did something really scary.  It didn’t seem so scary after the fact, did it?

That situation goes for all fear – it goes away once you’ve actually done it.  It just drifts away because the reality isn’t as scary as the fantasy happening inside your head.

Whatever you’re thinking about doing will be exactly the same.  You’ll feel scared before doing it, but feel better once it’s over.  If you don’t do it, that fear will always be with you.  Imagining that fear vanishing away after the fact can be a good source of motivation.  All you have to do is just start.  Do it now and let the fear fall away later.
photo credit: Matthew Kenwrick

64 Amazing Quotes that Will Inspire You to Take that Risk

Steve Bloom 23 Comments

Take that Risk

There’s more than one way to take a risk. To some people it means dropping everything to travel around the world. To others it means tackling a big project in the workplace.

But If you looked up the word “risk” in the dictionary, it would say something like this: To expose oneself to the chance of injury or loss; put oneself in danger; hazard; venture.

That’s hardly inspiring. It doesn’t encompass all the different ways you can put yourself out there. There are so many extraordinary paths we can take in life and each one involves risk in one form or another.

That’s why I find quotes on risk-taking so valuable. Life is so wide open and you never know where the journey will take you next. These quotes can open your mind to all the hidden possibilities around you.

So I want to share some of my favorite quotes about risk-taking. I hope you find them as helpful and inspirational as I do.

“If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat! Just get on.” – Sheryl Sandberg

“I always did something I was a little not ready to do. I think that’s how you grow. When there’s that moment of ‘Wow, I’m not really sure I can do this,’ and you push through those moments, that’s when you have a breakthrough.” –  Marissa Mayer

“Pearls don’t lie on the seashore. If you want one, you must dive for it.” – Chinese proverb

“If you dare nothing, then when the day is over, nothing is all you will have gained.” – Neil Gaiman

“If things seem under control, you are just not going fast enough.” – Mario Andretti

“Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire. This is your moment. Own it.” – Oprah Winfrey

“Life is inherently risky. There is only one big risk you should avoid at all costs, and that is the risk of doing nothing.” – Denis Waitley

“Go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is.” – Jimmy Carter

“Do one thing every day that scares you.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

“In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.” – Bill Cosby

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” – Steve Jobs

“If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.” – Jim Rohn

“There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.” – Aristotle

“If you don’t build your dream, someone else will hire you to help them build theirs.” – Dhirubhai Ambani

“Always go with your passions. Never ask yourself if it’s realistic or not.” – Deepak Chopra

“Leap and the net will appear.” – Zen Saying

“Think big and don’t listen to people who tell you it can’t be done. Life’s too short to think small.” – Tim Ferriss

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan

“The reward is in the risk.” – Rachel Cohn

“When you take risks you learn that there will be times when you succeed and there will be times when you fail, and both are equally important.” – Ellen DeGeneres

“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” – Lao Tzu

“Don’t be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

“Often the difference between a successful person and a failure is not one has better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on one’s ideas, to take a calculated risk – and to act.” – Andre Malraux

“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might has well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.” – J.K. Rowling

“Don’t worry about failures, worry about the chances you miss when you don’t even try.” – Jack Canfield

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover.” – Mark Twain

“Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” – George Addair

“Screw it, Let’s do it!” – Richard Branson

“I am thankful for all of those who said NO to me. It’s because of them I’m doing it myself.” – Albert Einstein

“Only those who play win. Only those who risk win. History favors risk-takers. Forgets the timid. Everything else is commentary.” – Iveta Cherneva

“No man is worth his salt who is not ready at all times to risk his well-being, to risk his body, to risk his life in a great cause.” – Theodore Roosevelt

“Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit.” – e. e. cummings

“You can measure opportunity with the same yardstick that measures the risk involved. They go together.” – Earl Nightingale

“It is better to risk starving to death then surrender. If you give up on your dreams, what’s left?” – Jim Carrey

“It is better by noble boldness to run the risk of being subject to half the evils we anticipate than to remain in cowardly listlessness for fear of what might happen.” – Herodotus

“You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition.You can’t get there by bus, only by hard work and risk and by not quite knowing what you’re doing. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover will be yourself.” – Alan Alda

“Our lives improve only when we take chances, and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves.” – Walter Anderson

“Many a man is praised for his reserve and so-called shyness when he is simply too proud to risk making a fool of himself.” – J. B. Priestley

“Death is not the biggest fear we have; our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive—the risk to be alive and express what we really are.” – Miguel Angel Ruiz

“When you play it too safe, you’re taking the biggest risk of your life. Time is the only wealth we’re given.” – Barbara Sher

“Everyone has a ‘risk muscle.’ You keep it in shape by trying new things. If you don’t, it atrophies. Make a point of using it at least once a day.” – Roger von Oech

“You have to be able to risk your identity for a bigger future than the present you are living.” – Fernando Flores

“It seems to me that people have vast potential. Most people can do extraordinary things if they have the confidence or take the risks. Yet most people don’t. They sit in front of the telly and treat life as if it goes on forever.” – Philip Adams

“It’s not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It’s because we dare not venture that they are difficult.” – Seneca

“If a man isn’t willing to take some risk for his opinions, either his opinions are no good or he’s no good.” – Ezra Pound

“I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.” – Pablo Picasso

“Don’t be afraid to take a big step. You can’t cross a chasm in two small jumps. – David Lloyd George

“The dangers of life are infinite, and among them is safety. – Goethe

“A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one would find fault with what he has done. – Cardinal Newman

“To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself. – Soren Kierkegaard

“When in doubt, make a fool of yourself. There is a microscopically thin line between being brilliantly creative and acting like the most gigantic idiot on earth. So what the hell, leap. – Cynthia Heimel

“I believe in getting into hot water; it keeps you clean. – G.K. Chesterton

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I… I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. – Robert Frost

“The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore. – Vincent van Gogh

“The most important thing to remember is this: to be ready at any moment to give up what you are for what you might become. – W. E. B. Du Bois

“The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible—and achieve it, generation after generation. – Pearl S. Buck

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go. – T. S. Eliot

“If you never budge, don’t expect a push. – Malcolm S. Forbes

“Risk more than others think is safe. Care more than others think is wise. Dream more than others think is practical. Expect more than others think is possible. – Cadet Maxim

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better. – Samuel Beckett

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky

“Anything I’ve ever done that ultimately was worthwhile…initially scared me to death.” – Betty Bender

“The function of man is to live, not to exist.” – Jack London
photo credit: A Syn

A Simple Mindshift for Explosive Change

Steve Bloom 17 Comments

Costa Rica

*Note: This is a guest post by Razwana Wahid.

The suspense was killing me.

The build up had been happening for weeks.

This was marketing genius.

Feverishly salivating over every email I opened leading up to the big day, I’d made my decision before the offer had even landed in my inbox.

I’d be flying to Costa Rica to play hooky from life.

It sounded magical. A 4 star hotel with panoramic views of the ocean, the promise of rainforest treks, and catamaran rides. I didn’t care that I’d never met anyone associated with the trip. The anticipation of meeting new people excited me. And most of all? It was THE thing I needed on the horizon to know that life itself was about to transform.

Finally, the email arrived. I was on a flight from Paris to Bucharest. I’d wanted to be the first in line to book my place. That wish was desperately under threat.

As I landed and made a crazy dash to the hotel, I uttered a silent prayer that the wifi there was up to speed. Technology needed to be on my side. I didn’t want to miss out on my place. There were only 20 up for grabs. I had to get mine.

I arrived at the hotel, hurriedly opened my laptop and logged in. The homepage of the Life Hooky site loaded. I momentarily marveled at the images of Manuel Antonio before switching to the sales page. Scrolling down to the bottom, I hit the ‘buy’ button…..

And then it hit me.

The price. It was much higher than I’d anticipated. The questions started whirling round and round in my head.

– What if I don’t get along with anyone there?
– What if it isn’t worth the money?
– What if something happens before the event and I can’t actually go?

And on and on and on…The confusion of questions wouldn’t stop.

But amidst them all, in the back of my mind, in the core of my gut, the only answer I had kept presenting itself repeatedly:

Don’t think about the what if…Consider: why not?

Why not take a chance to see a new beautiful country you’ve always wanted to see?

Why not do something different to pull you out of the routine of everyday life?

Why not make connections. Real connections. With people who have the same life philosophy as me – to live with freedom at all cost.

And so I did. I bought my place (I was the first after all), got my flights, sorted my insurance. I was going to Costa Rica, baby!

And that decision right there? It’s been the philosophy I live by. It’s the philosophy my friends live by. And I’m certain, since you’re part of this community, that it’s the philosophy you live by too.

Which is why today is the start of a movement. It’s been built to rally the troops, gather the pioneers and unite the renegades to drive a stake in the ground and declare:

Stop simply dreaming about what if…and start living with why not?

Because when you stop dreaming and start consciously living, your dream life starts to unfold.

When I became a raving fan of The Middle Finger Project, I had no idea that I’d eventually take a flight to an entirely different continent to meet 20 strangers and take a chance on something that excited me. Would there be laughter? Would there be rain?. Who knew. But I was 100% certain there would be wine.

I took a tiny chance on something big. And it transformed into the philosophy of my life.

And now it’s your turn. In the comments, share your story of when you took a chance on something that excited and scared you? Something small or something monumental. When did you stop thinking what if…and went wholeheartedly with why not? How did it impact your life?

Share your story with us.

We can’t wait to hear it.

Razwana Wahid is the founder of Your Work is Your Life. A copywriting and online business strategy service dedicated to coaches, consultants, healers and service providers. The ‘what if …. why not?’ movement has started. Are you in? Join us. Right here.

photo credit: Armando Maynez

Spend Less, Travel More eBook is Released!

Steve Bloom 8 Comments

Spend Less, Travel More - High ResolutionWhat do you think of when you hear the word “travel”? Perhaps you see yourself lying on a beach in the Caribbean or admiring the Pyramids of Egypt. When you let your mind wander, you can imagine yourself having dream vacations all over the world.

But when you come back to reality, you realize that traveling takes money – and lots of it. Plane tickets alone can be $1000 or more. How are you supposed to pay for it?

My new eBook, Spend Less, Travel More: The Guide to Financing Your Travel Plans has all the information I would have wanted when I first asked that question. It goes step-by-step through exactly what I’ve done to make travel a lot more frequent and affordable.

I’m excited to announce that Spend Less, Travel More is finally available now on Amazon and Smashwords.

This book will change the way you think about travel. Rather than seeing it as an expensive luxury, you will understand it for what it is: an incredible life-changing experience that anyone can afford.

This book is for anyone with a passion to see the world. It includes:

  • Cutting costs so you save more for travel
  • Everything you need to know about frequent flyer programs
  • Best places to get frequent flyer miles
  • How to save enormous amounts of money on plane tickets
  • The best ways to save money while traveling
  • Where to find affordable places to stay
  • The best credit cards for travelers
  • 3 examples of international travel plans that total $1000 or less (airfare included)
  • Tons more…

Here’s an Excerpt from the Book

In an informal survey, I asked people to list out reasons they don’t travel as often as they want to. Money was at the top of everyone’s list.   It beat out other notable obstacles such as lack of time or fear of being attacked or robbed.

Most people I know only travel abroad once every few years, if at all. Many of those people would love to travel more, but simply can’t afford to do it. It can be frustrating.

It’s no secret that you need to have money to travel. Plane tickets alone can cost over $1000 just to get you to the other side of the Atlantic.

And once you arrive, you have to pay for food, a place to stay, transportation and a long list of other expenses.

When you add it all up, it’s a price some people are unwilling or unable to pay. Even if you do have the money, it’s hard to justify the amount you’ll spend doing it.

Clearly money is a big hindrance to people’s ability to see the world. But it doesn’t have to be.

This book is intended to eliminate money as an obstacle to traveling. By implementing the steps in this book, you can make it so money is never an issue for traveling again.

What You’ll Find When You Read More

This book is simple and easy to follow. There’s no fluff or filler; it’s all actionable, relevant advice that you can start doing right away.  The techniques in the book will pay off after just one flight.

Click Here to Buy on Amazon!

Click Here for Smashwords!

If you buy it or have already read it, please leave a review on Amazon. This helps future readers figure out if it’s a good book for them or not.