Why I make you jealous with traveling (and why it’s not a vacation)
First of all, I’m not trying to make you jealous, I want to inspire you to try and do the same. Personally, traveling, hosting travelers and talking with people from new cultures is of the most enriching and intensely memorable experiences.
“People should travel more often, for the simple reason of better understanding mankind. Learning this makes wars dissolve, ideas thrive and poverty vanish.”
Bold statement alert! Haha sorry this is my naive way of thinking, but please bare with me because I can explain how to
get the perspective of an innocent 12 year old in the following three steps:
1. Get out of your comfort zone, for real!
Riding a different route to work, brushing your teeth with your other arm, that’s not going to cut it, getting total strangers in your house is.
Couchsurfing is dead, long live Couchsurfing
What I often did was Couchsurfing! “What’s that you ask?” I offer being a host for likeminded people-that-happened-to-travel-in-your-home-town, to stay on my couch for a short period. This way we can share our lives together. It’s not a full time job, showing travelers around, you can keep working in your home town because travelers often have enough stuff to see and visit.
A disparate combination of AirBnB and venture capital(ism) systematically dismantled the whole Couchsurfing movement. Some things just can’t by sustained forever. It was once a thriving ‘gift economy’, powered by a non-profit team, where hosts kept on giving travelers a great experience in their home town. AirBnB made hosting very lucrative, so many stopped hosting for free, and venture capital invested in CS that forced the once passionated altruistic people behind the community to push for more users (read: abusers). More on that here.
“Hosting and helping people in your home town, sharing a great experience in the form of some coffee or beers, time and a couch, often get returned the favor by a simple invite the other travelers home country.”
Lucky for me that invitation was often tropical haha. Surfers more or less adopt the lifestyle of the host. In the Caribbean United States Virgin Islands (where I was for 3 weeks, in 2014, working on SellanApp) I could adopt Mary and Allison’s lifestyle half the time because they did sailing charters for tourists and worked in bars and restaurants… I guess I adapted that completely because I planned and succeeded to not stop working. You’d be surprised what an early morning rise can do for your productivity and how much time you have left to do fun things in the sun during the day…
Basically I’m making the same hours as anywhere, but then in another place and if bit sized chunks spread of the day.
2. Take time off to work
You, my friends and colleagues often ask me why I go on a holiday or vacation all the time. To be totally clear, I’m not taking weeks off, I travel to another place and keep working every day because for me…
“There’s no work life balance, there’s only life… life consisting of feeling at home anywhere and working anywhere you want.”
Yes I sort of stole that quote, but it’s so true. There used to be a time where you would enslave yourself with work you did not believe in, it paid the bill, when you came home your ‘normal life’ started. At home you believed and voted for other things than at your daily job. Fortunately we don’t live in those times anymore, those almost schizophrenic times.
“Yeah Milan, that’s easy for you to say because you run your own business…” For anyone it’s easy to say, to put it in action is possible for anyone (even employees), it’s still a challenge, but not impossible.
I think if you’re reading this there’s a high chance you being a knowledge worker, that means you sit at a desk all day with some people around you that interrupt you all the time. Here’s another bold statement:
“At least half of the people reading this could manage their work completely online.”
For example do this 4 times a year for 3 weeks, maybe even 6 times! Whoo now I’m pushing it! Meaning go away for 3 weeks while working and managing only online and creative stuff. Think about it, you probably do all your work answering emails and working with other communication tools, you could do that from ANYWHERE, seriously! If not, you can do it temporarily, and it will really fresh up your mindset and attitude towards the world.
Just look at one my connections Liza Jansen doing this exactly: taking time off to work. and she got a whole new perspective.
If you’re reading this and you still think you can’t work online from anywhere. “Fair enough you, pessimist.” Then try to take more time off (suggest for example an unpaid leave to your boss) to travel more. Because traveling is not as expensive as you think if you’re clever. For example save money by buying less stuff you don’t need haha. “There I said it, you buy too much stuff!”
If you’re thinking of a career switch, read this one:
3. Money is not the reason not to go
“I was not able to not write a dubbel negative here haha.” Try to think in sharing and exchange instead of money being the engine for your holiday, because money is often the reason what’s stopping you from going.
With for example Couchsurfing you can actually travel way cheaper because accommodation is cheaper or even free. Travel cheaper so you can do it longer, makes sense but often people forget this.
I stay with friends that I mostly met through Couchsurfing, hosting them in Amsterdam or while traveling. Also from the Ultimate Frisbee community, which is a unified feeling of like-mindness. Or on Twitter, where you intellectually connect with people you’ve never met.
Find where your people are, the people you can share knowledge and experiences with.
By sharing my life, helping people in your home town that sort of have the same mindset, you meet new people that can become your friends… They can come from anywhere in the world and if they had a great time with you, they invite you over, simple as that.
If I had a house, and I will in the future, keep on dreaming, I would love to host people again, I just want to ask or push you to try the same right now. Just before total strangers enter house, do a little due diligence, getting a good sense of who these people are, find out where’s the potential connection. It can never hurt to try and experiment, I’m sure you hosted many of your friends already, if you live in an interesting city, so why not host a potential friend.
In 2014 I still had a home to host people from and get karma, now I’m using AirBnB and my social networks to travel, get around and stay in lovely places, which are not cheap but not at all expensive relative to what you’re paying in cities like London, Amsterdam and New York.
How I attempt to continuously travel the world
Currently I am repeatedly TECH ⚙⥅ NOMAD⌇⤴ ING ⌘! “See what I do there?” Blogging about the why and how of leveraging technology to nomad the world. Earning nothing but feedback and love (read: Karma) from it. I can endlessly explain and talk about this but you can just also check out the blog and find out.
The bonus tip!
To share these travel adventures with someone is one of my dreams come true. Not only is a travel companion so incredibly indescribably great. Other friends of mine doing the same in New Zealand, Mexico anywhere can acknowledge that;
When you share in the costs, the investment of traveling plummets down like a sailboat at the end of our flat earth (?)!
To quickly recap
1. Get out of your comfort zone. For real! Do stuff you’re afraid of and you have more empathy for the other people doing that.
2. Take time off to work. Working in other places than offices did not hurt anyone, ever. Do that more often and you’ll learn more about everything.
3. Money is stopping you from doing this. If you decide to not have your stuff and money control you, you feel so much more free and that makes the world more happy.
Bonus: Do it together with someone you love and respect. Sharing this with any person make you and the other person indescribably happy. Experience together, communicate, and learn together.
Do you now agree with my first ‘not so bold’ statement?
Change the world and start with yourself lol haha. Let me know sending me a tweet, sharing this post by pressing the ♥️ below, or retweet the below tweet:
This is the part I make you jealous
Being on the Virgin Island, it’s better to show the exciting stuff like sailing, driving, (hitch)hiking and what not. Since sitting behind my macbook is not exciting to film, I left that out and only put in the fun parts:
The diverse fun stuff I get to do because my lifestyle enables me to work and live anywhere! What a life!
Full disclosure:
Online and Kicking was the name of my blog since 2006 (started with wordpress, then blogger and now Tumblr), now it’s my location independent studio, because it makes more sense haha. Download Wildcard for free to get opportunities and conversations on demand, which is the main project. Hire me to do your whatever work, check the site for my own ventures, and adventures with companies like Linda, Philips, Professional Rebel, Strangelove and Festina.
Technomading… It’s how I call my lifestyle. It’s about being alive in every part of the world leveraging nifty tools that extend your arms and brain for miles on end. I want to inspire others to do the same! Or either to travel more and learn more about different cultures. Share your experience with #technomading.
This is a revisited post of march 2014, to fit medium and extend the story of my current technomading adventures.
