Mission 6: Traveling the Globe
Hello my fellow seekers of wisdom,
This week we dive into quite an unusual subject: Traveling — aka discovering this beautiful little planet of ours.
But uhmm…
“I thought we were talking about productivity, creativity, technology… I thought were trying to get a grasp on potentially life-changing subjects… Now traveling? How does this fit in?”
Allow me to explain
First off, it’s shamelessly egocentric: I love to travel, and I’ve been thinking about traveling A LOT lately. But we’ll get to that.
Secondly, I believe in the benefits of travel, and taking time off in general. Every now and then, you have to be able to shut down the frenetic pace of everyday life. Exploring new places is an awesome way to do that.
Lastly — if you think traveling is for lazy people — Think again motherfucker. Personally, I return from these trips more motivated than ever. Somehow, the fresh air of a new country always gives me new ideas, new goals, and a renewed motivation to work on older ambitions.
So, whether it’s 3 weeks through some odd country, or a 6 month “mini-retirement”… I believe adventures like these have many underappreciated joys & rewards.
Yup, it’s on my Bucket list
Now, about that 6-month thing… I can only speak for myself, but that has been on my bucket list for a while. Ever since watching Into the Wild (rue the day!) or reading On the Road, this idea has been sitting in the back of mind: why not pack up my stuff and travel from tip to toe through South America?
So if I’m serious about this… And it’s not just vague romantic escape thoughts…
Now is the time right?
Not when I have two little bastards running around depending on me? Not when I’m retired and somebody has to push my wheelchair off the plane in Nicaragua, right??
I know people who have done it. I know people who are doing it right now. I know I’m perfectly capable of doing it. So what’s holding me back?
BUT — Fears and bad thoughts
As per usual — a couple of nasty convictions are stopping me from turning an idea into ACTION.
- Career Fears
“What about my career? How will I explain that gap year to a recruiter?? Will I become an unemployed loser? Omg, everybody is going to get so far ahead of me in life…” - Money Fears.
“What about money? How will I survive? I can’t even control my budget at home!” - Safety fears
“Is it even safe to go to Panama? Where will I be staying?
Why am I going through all this hassle anyway??”
Those are just mine… Fill in the blanks for yourself!
BUT² — What does the Timeless research say?
So my friends.. As you may have guessed already… I decided to dive into the web and do some good old-fashioned RESEARCH to counter my fears. It’s the only thing I know how to do!
Two quick notes before we get started.
- Firstly, there is a massive oversupply of travel blogs, journals, websites, … It seems like most people who hit the road feel the need to share it somehow — and they all do. Only a few of them are winners — and even those have a bunch of lame articles on their site.
Timeless is about picking the absolute winning pieces: the 5-minute game-changers. That was my goal here. - Secondly, I realize that this topic is not for everyone. However, I do believe the advice here can be applied elsewhere — even if you are not planning on traveling. We all have dreams, we all have goals, and we all have a number of factors blocking us from getting there.
Timeless is about connecting the dots, and looking for principles that can be applied in any circumstance. That was my goal here.
Now for those two reasons exactly… I WOULD LOVE YOUR INPUT. Are there pieces that have inspired you in the past? What is your go-to website for wanderlust stimulation?
TO DO:
- Check out the pieces on the Travel page. (Spoiler: It’s not much!)
- Visit the Upload page and add your own favorite gem.
Without further ado:
5 pieces that changed my view on Travel
[Combined less than 36min of your life! Low-risk, possibly high-reward…]
- Vagabonding
Rolf Potts (2002), 5min listen
This is actually the first chapter of the book Vagabonding (“An uncommon guide to the art of long-term travel”).This book planted the definite seed in my mind — that I wanted to see the world and experience life in a different way. Rolf’s definition of the “time-poor” was a super lightbulb moment for me. Time really is the only non-renewable resource in life. - How to Travel to 20+ Countries… While Building a Massive Business in the Process
Breanden Beneschott (2014), 7min read
Combining travel & being a badass entrepreneur — Mr. Beneschott has done it. In this post, he goes pretty deep into how he travels around in 3-month episodes, while building a massive online community. A bunch of very practical tips here, as well as some philosophical bits. - 42 Ways You Can Make Money and Travel the World
Wandering Earl (2013), 10min read
A cool list of activities to maintain some level of income while traveling. There’s much more than you think & they don’t actually sound that bad… Surfing instructor — what up? - Everyone says I’m running away
Nomadic Matt (2009), 5min read
This is the guy who made the brilliant movie “Where the hell is Matt?” — Google it if you don’t remember. He’s running a really decent travel blog — this piece is about why he’s not running away from anything… but running towards life! It resonated with me. - Why Taking a Sabbatical Was The Best Money I Ever Spent
Lisa Hoashi (2016), 9min read
Yup, here is a 34-year talking openly about why she took a year off — and most importantly, how she did it. Planning the details, Financial worrires, … All can be overcome. Spoiler alert: it totally changed her life. ;) It’s good to hear some real-life stories though!
Up to you now…
Yup, inspiration levels have risen while writing this post. But it’s not good enough. Our list needs some work.
So I’m calling on you guys again. Have you thought about traveling long-term? Relocating somewhere else? Doing something adventurous? What resources have inspired you, or helped you take the leap?
- The Upload page is waiting for ya!
Adios??
Maybe… But hey, there seems to be internet in Panama after all, so you’ll probably hear from me. ;-)
Have an adventurous week -
Gilles & Thomas
Why Timeless?
As you may know, we’re trying to find and preserve truly valuable content on the web. The first blog post gives some more context on the idea of an open database of “wisdom”. In short: we’re trying to separate the signal from the noise on the web. We’re not looking for the next hype or trend; we’re looking for principles that can be applied in many different circumstances.
Gameplan
First and most crucial step: find the wisdom. On today’s over-crowded internet, ruled by the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and other hype-machines… this could prove hard enough.
Here’s the plan:
- Every week, I start things off with my 5 all-time classics on a certain theme.
- Productivity, Decision Making, Health, Creativity, Entrepreneurship, Relationships, … y mucho más!
- If you have great material on this subject, you can upload it into the database. Sharing is caring!
- We check out each other’s favorites and rate them on their timeless value.
- Subject by subject, we build up “hit-lists” of wisdom to preserve and expand.
- Maybe most importantly, we all learn a shit ton of each other in the process.
