Like most people, I had been dreaming about travel my whole life. From Safari in Africa, Carnival in Brazil, right through to wandering Roman streets. I’d spend hours looking at photos and reading other peoples travelogues, or talking to those who had been, but never really gone anywhere myself.

Sure, I’d taken small vacations with my annual leave before; I’d travelled nearby to other cities in Australia, and places like New Zealand and Thailand. But besides the student exchange program I did in High School, I had never really travelled beyond a couple of weeks; and certainly never anywhere by myself.

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.” – George Eliot

At 28 (yes, a late bloomer) I learnt about the likes of Chris Guillebeau, Matt Kempes and others who had created a locationless lifestyle and started chasing their travel dreams, all by themselves. It was at that point I decided to sit down and work out a plan for my own travels before I turned 30. I wanted to give my dreams a shot before I started to get too bogged down with finances and family. As the saying goes “Make your life a story worth telling”.

I came up with a long bucket list, over 200 things I wanted to try, or places I wanted to visit.

“The most important thing about goals is having one.” – Geoffry F. Abert

My life was already pretty good, but I was a weekend warrior: living in corporate land between 9 and 5, working out all week, and getting off to do micro adventures on the weekend. Some weeks it was something as easy as a new bar or popup restaurant, others it was a music festival, a weekend away, or something active like a charity run.

There was a theme with everything I did. Anytime I caught up with people I hadn’t seen in a while, my favourite part was retelling the (non-fiction) story of all the antics I got up to.

“The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.” – Muriel Rukeyser

Whether it is with travel, health, fitness, dating, or drinking (stories that start with “we were at this bar, when…”). The retelling of stories became my favourite part. From there, it wasn’t a huge jump to deciding to keep a blog; an easier way to track where I was and what I got up to, and gain a wider audience.

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”
- Annie Dillard

I also decided I was sick of waiting for friends and family to join me. Everyone knew about my ideas for total world domination, but they were always giving me the “maybe next year”, or “I don’t have money” excuses.

You’ve heard it before right?

One day when I was feeling extra courageous, I decided to see how I could handle the solo travel life. I bought a ticket to a city (in Australia) I had never been before, and knew no one, and went there for a few weeks. I stayed in hostels and did the touristy thing.

In doing so, I discovered it wasn’t that hard to meet new people or just enjoy my own company.

After that, it was just a matter of making a few sacrifices, saving some money together, and coming up with a vague plan of where on my list I was going to start.

And the rest is history!

Now besides ticking off my own list of things I want to do (while I have that freedom), I bring you interesting travellers, adventurers, and awesome folk doing the same thing. Inspiration all in one place.

“I challenge you to make your life a masterpiece. I challenge you to join the ranks of those people who live what they teach, who walk their talk.”
- Tony Robbins

My mom tells me that when I was 3 years old she used to get on random public buses and ride around the city to entertain me. I loved it!

She remembers me standing up on the seat of the bus, with my hands and face pressed against the window, keenly watching the new places go by. 

One of my oldest memories is from around 6 years old. My mom is driving us home and I am telling her to turn left or right at each intersection, just to see a new random place. It was my favorite game, to get lost. Now thinking back she must have had a lot of patience.

Time passed by. When I was in high school, I was allowed to travel with a close friend’s family. Nothing would stop me from going on a trip when I was invited. If money was the problem, I would sell pastries and chocolates I made myself, or work odd jobs to save money.

 It is all about determination. 

In college, a new exchange program began with the University of Salamanca, Spain. I was the first class to take advantage of it, and as I met people from all over the world in Salamanca, I became even more curious. I wanted to go to ALL of those places! I wanted to travel the world.

I grew up in a border town in northern Mexico; San Diego, California was our summer shopping destination. I remember thinking, “What a wonderful place!” It had the perfect weather, beach and diversity… everything that my hometown was missing.

By the end of college, I was already sponsored to live and work in the U.S. and I moved to San Diego the day after my graduation. I owe my mother many thanks for thinking ahead. Fifteen years prior she had applied for a visa and sponsored me, with the idea of giving me as many options as possible when I grew older.

It was luck, it was chance, and it was my mom intelligently thinking ahead about giving me options in the future.

I remained in San Diego for eight years and had never been happier! It is a wonderful place to live. I had relationships, matured, learned English, struggled with jobs I didn’t like, and contemplated the future. I was starting to get bored at work, often thought back to Spain, and tried to come up with a way to travel again. Shortly thereafter, I met Adam.

Image from Myphotoquotes.tumblr

Adam also had the travel bug. He had explored every corner of the U.S. and lived in Jamaica. He also yearned to explore new and distant places.

My dream of traveling the world was still there. I knew I was going to do it one day, I just knew. But the idea of doing it with my partner… that was beyond perfection.

We started to put our thoughts together and it soon became OUR dream. We explored new places on road trips, organized two three week trips together: southern Mexico and then to India, but we wanted more. After more than two years of fantasizing and talking about it, we started to take action.

First we started planning and brainstorming where we wanted to go. Initially, we were going to travel for three months on a work sabbatical. Then we switched it up and thought of moving to various places for a year, settling on Spain. Adam would look for a job and learn Spanish and I would apply to study for a Master’s degree. In between work and study we would explore the whole of Europe. The job research began, I studied for and passed my English fluency exams and we started to save money.

With this in motion, everything started to fall into place. 

Through a turn of unexpected events, Adam saw the opportunity to work independently and remotely! This would give him the flexibility to work abroad (he is a software developer). With this our plans changed yet again…

We decided to go around the world indefinitely!

We put together a financial and savings plan. Our goal was to leave in six months. Fortunately, we had little debt and used a couple of credit cards for our flights and any emergencies on the road. With much help from our friends and family, we saved as much as we could, sold our cars and belongings, I quit my job and off we went!

So far I have been traveling with my best friend for one year. No coincidence that it has also been the best one of my entire life!

I have to admit that we have been lucky for having such a supportive family and friends, along with the opportunities that were presented to us. However, we also worked hard and took the risk when it came along. With the right combination of events, determination and effort, you can also make your dreams come true.

Well, as for me, I wanted to go everywhere. I had always dreamed about traveling the world. I think part of it was growing up in small town America where diversity was almost nonexistent. I still remember the first time I heard or saw a “foreigner.” I was on a class trip to the Grand Canyon and my hat blew away. This sweet Japanese woman ran to catch it for me and returned it with a smile. There was an obvious language barrier and we never really communicated but I felt as if I had been introduced to a wider world. Arizona wasn’t the center of the universe. This woman grew up just like me, going on class trips, but instead of the Grand Canyon she was visiting Hiroshima or Mt. Fuji. She had ventured all the way to my corner of the globe and I couldn’t wait to visit hers.

Well I got my wish… 4 continents, 22 countries, and still counting. When people “back home” hear about my travels I get one of two responses – outright jealously and bitterness or subtle jealously and congratulations. People in either case think that somehow I am lucky or special to have traveled. That is not true. I made travel a priority in my life and have made sacrifices to live out my dreams. Luck had very little to do with it.

Traveling With Scholarships

The first real taste of international travel that I got was as a university student. I wanted to travel before college but money and parents cut those plans out. So off I went to school but from day one I was determined to study abroad. But where did I want to go?!
The question drove me crazy and from one possible study abroad program to another. Finally I found my answer – Semester at Sea. What could be better than sailing around the world visiting 10+ countries?! The bad news though… the program was going to cost close to $20,000 for a semester!

Now if I had gone to some fancy school this would have been close to a normal semester of classes, books, room and board. Considering the adventure, the amazing academic classes and professors, and the all-inclusive price – it wasn’t half bad. But then again, I was a very very broke college student. When I first told my friends and family about the program I was encouraged to “keep looking.” The program was too expensive and I couldn’t/wouldn’t be able to go was what they were saying.

Don’t always listen to the doubters! I was not going to let this opportunity pass me by. For a solid 5 months I worked part time after classes and then another few hours daily on scholarship applications. By the time the voyage on Semester at Sea rolled around I had covered all by about $3-5,000 of the program cost – with scholarships! I took out a small student loan (totally worth it!) to cover the rest of the trip and had the adventure of a lifetime.

If you are a student, look for scholarships and travel with school. Many study abroad scholarships are merit based meaning anyone can get them. Give it the ol’ college try and I promise you’ll find some amazing travel experience to enjoy.

Traveling Cheap

A year after my study abroad experience I was sick once again with the travel bug. This time though I didn’t have any scholarship money to help me out though. Not one to let things stand in my way, I decided that no matter what I was spending the summer abroad.

Most people would look to Europe and give up when they saw the crazy high prices. I knew better. See the reason I have been able to travel so much is that I travel cheap and to cheap places. I have yet to go to anywhere in Europe and that decision has saved me thousands in travel costs.

So how did I make my travel dreams happen? I went to South East Asia! Ok, the plane ticket set me back $1k but after that I was living large on $5-8/day. I literally saved two months of part-time work paychecks to pay for 3 full months traveling in Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos.

Learn to travel cheap and you will find that going abroad might be even cheaper than staying at home!

Making it My Life

Eventually I realized that the travel bud was not going to let me rest. I could keep jetting off to have fun adventures but coming home to a job was unlikely… especially as the economy started to crumble. I turned to the internet, and all the travel bloggers I loved, for answers and I found them. Today travel is no longer something I look forward too. Now, it is my life.

After graduating college in 2010 I sold everything and bought a plane ticket south. With a combination of online writing and web design work, I have managed to live in South America for the last 2 years on an average of $500/month. I can work a few hours per day or lock myself in a hostel room for a day or two to earn the small amount of income I need each week. After that I am free to travel until the bank account gets a little too low again.

So you see, travel is not some privilege saved for the rich or elite. A ordinary, grew up poor, gal from middle of nowhere America can travel and so can you. You just need to decide that it is a priority for you and then do the work and research necessary to make it a reality. I know you can do it if you try.

Check out our “Traveling the World Guide” for more concrete tips to help make your travel dreams a reality.

 

On Your Bucket List Too?

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Dreams of Traveling the World

How many of you have a Bucket List filled with travel goals and dreams? It is one of the most common Bucket List dreams – to travel. Whether you want to travel anywhere and everywhere or you have a specific goal like China, travel is one of those dreams that far too many people put off.

Statistics say that less than 20% of United States citizens have passports and few of those that do ever travel beyond a few highly touristic spots like Cancun or the Bahamas.

The world is such a big place and it is a true shame that more people don’t travel and see it. Travel opens the mind and shows you how the world really works. Getting out of your own backyard will teach you more about life than almost anything.

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” – Mark Twain

So why is it that so many of us have Bucket Lists packed with travel dreams and yet so few of us actually get out there and see the world? Oh boy, there are enough excuses to write a book! But guess what… 90% of those things that are “holding you back” are simply excuses, copouts, and fake barriers that you keep up to keep you save and comfortable at home. If you are ready to take serious action, and make your travel goals a reality, it’s time to listen up!

“It’s too expensive” — “I don’t have the time” — “No one will travel with me” — “I have kids!”

Stop telling yourself it can’t be done. Thousands of people are out there traveling right now, with kids or by themselves, traveling for less than the living cost of staying at home.

Don’t believe me?! Download out guide right now and make a commitment that this next year you WILL take that trip abroad!

Living to Work or Working to Live – Photo by Sean MacEntee

This post may be a bit controversial. It’s a bad time in America with unemployment high and plenty of good people are out of work. Jobs are hard to come by and for anyone out of work, a job, any job seems like a blessing. With that being said, this week I was offered a minimum wage job and I happily turned it down.

Now, don’t go thinking I’m privileged enough not to need a job. I need a job like NOW. As a college grad I have the typical student loan payments and like most of America, I have a few hundred dollars on credit cards (which I’d determined to get rid of immediately). I’m broke but not to the point of living on the streets, thankfully. Anyways, last week I was offered a job from a family friend at my local hometown movie theater. It was a good job, minimum wage, about 30 hours per week. I gave it a try – one long, long day and then I turned it down.

Oh, you would have thought I had declared myself the anti-christ. People were furious with me. How could I, in this economy, turn down a job? “You should be grateful for any job,” they said.

Just Be Grateful!

I’m not too good for minimum wage and that is not what this is about. Not at all. What this is about is living to my full potential. I want to change the world and leave a meaningful impact during my short time on this earth.

Your Job Should Reflect Your Life Goals

You spent 8+ hours everyday at work. It takes up a bigger portion of your life than anything, other than maybe sleeping. Your job is your life – whether you like it or not. Now I know we all need to work; bills need to be paid. Sometimes you just need a job, any job. Fair enough and if you have a family to support or a mortgage to pay, go find whatever job you need.

But I want to remind you that you are trading away your life for that money. Isn’t your life worth more to you? And it’s not about the money. I’m talking about more than that.

While living abroad I volunteered for hours a day, doing manual hard labor for absolutely nothing – $0/hour. This time was far from wasted. I was changing lives and making a difference in the community.

I want to spend my time in the most valuable way possible – I have far less time than I would like and I don’t want to waste even a minute of it. Working in a dead-end job that pays well and allows me to save is worth it. Once I have enough money, I can quit and go live the life I want. A less than minimum wage job that allows me to make a real impact on the world and help people is worth it.

A dead-end job that barely pays my living expenses is a black hole. I have no escape. So many people are stuck in this place and my heart goes out to them. My own family was this way as I grew up – living paycheck to paycheck. It is crushing to the soul and difficult on the mind. Never let anyone guilt you into this place.

If you are fortunate enough to be free from many obligations (mortgage, family to support, etc.) I beg and plead with you not to tie yourself down. You don’t have to be grateful for that minimum wage job. If you must take it, accept that fact, and see it as a stepping stone to something greater. Make it a stepping stone and work hard to take the next step up!

Think I’m crazy?Consider Albert Einstein. He was reportedly horrible at school and had been told that he would amount to nothing more than an average factory worker. He could have believed this – believe that he should be grateful for a basic, nothing more than minimum wage, stable job. Be grateful for mediocracy is what they were really saying. This great man could have believed this and just think of all that our world would have lost.

RIP American Dream – Photo by Jerome T

The American Dream Lie

We are told to work hard, be grateful, and eventually things will work out for us. How about you stop settling, work even harder, and make your own future great?!

I turned down a minimum wage job that would have left be exhausted, worn out, and mentally numb. Instead I bumped up my efforts at job hunting and started freelancing on the side. The result – more money, less time until I’m back on my path to my goals, and instead of mind-numbing boredom I’m working on projects I find fun and exciting.

Photo by erix

I bet your world is a pretty busy place. You have work or school, friend and family obligations; you’re suppose to be heading to the gym today too aren’t you?! It’s the very rare person who doesn’t have too much to do.

So in all your busyness, how much time do you think you spend on your bucket list? An hour a day? 5 minutes a day? If you are lucky, 10 minutes a month? These are your dreams and hopes for life but are they just that… dreams? Someday you’ll have time for them. Someday you’ll actually travel/learn a second language/pay off your debt/go back to college. Someday you wont be so busy and you’ll have time to tackle your bucket list.

Really? You can’t be serious. Here’s the thing about life. As you age, it only gets more busy. School turns into work; kids pop up; you have a house to clean and fix. There goes every Saturday between now and retirement. And sure, someday you might retire and finally have free time but not until then. And do you really want to wait until retirement to live your dreams? Here is some sad news – you’re not always given the chance to follow your dreams when you are older. You think you’ll be heathy enough to hike around Europe in your 60s but you can’t even guarantee you’ll live that long. Today is as young as you will ever be.

Take Action Now

We must act now. Stop dreaming, stop thinking you’ll get to your dreams someday. You need to find time NOW to work on your Bucket List or else you might find it still horribly full when you do finally kick the bucket.

Stop being so busy? I know, easier said the done. But here is the thing though, all that stands between you and the time you need to work on your Bucket List dreams is one of the smallest words in the English language – NO! It’s time to start using it.

Need More Time? Try This!

Get a notebook and a timer (your cell phone probably has one). Take these with you everywhere for a week (or even just a day). Have the timer set to go off every 30 minutes. When the timer goes off take just a moment to write down what you are doing in the notebook. Trust me, this exercise will shock the socks off you.

Do you know how much wasted time there is in your day?! Hours upon hours. Don’t believe me? What are you doing right now? Reading this site. Thank you so much for taking the time do that BUT I’ll be honest, I would rather you were spending time working on your Bucket Lists.

There are hundreds of activities you can say NO to and probably another hundred that you can agree to cut back on. Go through the tracking exercise you did. How many items can you cross off? Look for things that are not fulfilling. Look for “obligations” that really aren’t or that can be passed on to someone else. What can you give up?

Say Yes to Your Dreams

It all starts with the first step and if you are willing to say NO to all the “clutter” in your life, you’re going to find that first step much, much easier. It’s worth giving things up, like reading blog posts for an hour every day or sinking into the time suck that is Pinterest. It’s worth it because instead of all that “stuff” you get a much bigger reward – the time and energy you’ll need to make your Bucket List dreams a reality.Once you have said NO, remember to stick with that. Don’t let you extra hours of the day fill up with more useless “busy work.” A good habit is to schedule time for working on your dreams.

Yep, put it in your planner just like going to the store or picking the kids up from school. The first time you have a “dream session” spend it making a list of all the things you would have to do to get to your dream. It can be overwhelming the first time you sit down and focus on your dream. Break down the dream or goal into small pieces. If it helps, only focus on the next few months, the next 5 steps you would need to take to get you on the path to your dreams.

So Happy Dreaming but more importantly, Happy Doing! Now get to work!

Sometime it’s hard to keep your spirits up. The world around you is telling you to give up, get real, choose mediocracy, and be grateful for that. I look around at my life and I’m not where I want to be. I think I’m on the right path but every so often the path gets dark, I get confused, and turning back or giving up sure looks nice.

This is what life does – it overwhelms. If you have never been overwhelmed in your life, by school, work, family, friends, then I’m afraid you haven’t done much living. It isn’t fun to be in the middle of one of these times and it can feel like you are in quicksand. Stay there long enough and depression kicks in. It’s a dangerous, slipper slope. One minute your overwhelmed and questioning the path you are one; the next minute you have sunk in to the deep depression that comes from an unfulfilled life.

Depression is a serious issue and I wont suggest I have the cure. I will say though that the quicker and earlier you get off that path of self destruction and self doubt, the better. Sometimes all it take is a little distraction. The best distraction I know of?

Laughter

Laughter has been prove time and time again to be seriously good for the mind, body, and soul. It lowers blood pressure, helps you relax and sleep, boosts your immune system, can help relieve pain, lowers stress levels, and it can even help you loose wait. There is actually an international “Laughing Club” where members meet to laugh and have fun in the hopes of fighting depression and other health issues.

It’s always good to have a little giggle now-and-then, but if you are feeling less than your best, it is time to up your dose of the best free medicine out there.

Find Your Funny Friends

A good friend is there for the tears and the laughs. Spending time with friends can immediately boost your mood and social people have been found to have less heart related health problems. Your friends literally make you a better, healthier person.

If you’re feeling down, it can be natural to turn to your friends for support. Take the time to tell them your troubles but don’t stop there. Getting everything off your chest is good but you also need to get away from all that drama and stress as well. Discussing it over and over again might help but turning the conversation to something more fun might be the better strategy.

Plan a night out with your friends… something super fun, random, different, exciting, whatever you can think of that might produce a few laughs. Set a “no talking about drama or stress” rule and aim to just have a good ol’ time. Some suggestions: go play mini golf, visit an amusement park, see the newest comedy at the local theater, buy tickets to see your favorite comedian. Even just grabbing drinks or having a lunch date can help. Enjoy yourself, laugh, and remember that no matter how lousy things get in life, you’ll always need your closest friends to make you laugh.

Be Goofy With the Family

Let’s be honest, a lot of the time it is your family driving you crazy, overwhelming you, or making you feel lousy. Family is there to give you a hard time but also to love you unconditionally. The best part about them is that they see you at your best and worst and have to keep loving you.

Sometimes it can be hard to loosen up around friends. Sure, you can share a few laughs but the rolling on the ground, can’t breath laughing is more likely to happen with family. You let your guard down and just have fun. Ever dance like a goof with your kids to Disney music? How about all the ridiculously funny things you have done with your partner or spouse? Even the memories can make you laugh.

Plan a day out with your partner, your favorite aunt, or even your parents. Make it something fun (examples above) and remember that your family doesn’t care if you make a fool of yourself (ok, teenagers might care… no one wants a crazy mom, haha). But seriously, let you hair down, forget your worries, and live in the moment. These are the people you live for – your family. Enjoy the moments you can laugh and play together. You never know how long it will last.

If All Else Fails, Put on AFV

Sometimes you don’t have the time or energy to put together a fun night out. Maybe everyone is busy or you have already sunk deep enough into the quick sand of defeat that you just don’t feel like going out. Fair enough but laughing is still going to make you feel better.

Tonight was one of those nights for me. I just needed a pick-me-up to get me going again and out of my sad little hole. No friends were available and the family was MIA. What’s a girl gonna do? Well, simple… grab some ice cream, curl up with the cat, and put on the world’s greatest laugh generator – America’s Funniest Home Videos. I laughed until I cried and until I could barely breath. One short hour long show was all I needed to jump start my attitude.

The world can look dark, confusing, unfair and cruel. It can also look amazing, filled with adventure and opportunity. Sometimes all you need to switch from one setting to the other is a good, belly aching laugh.

Here is a news flash… no one cares more about your dreams than you do. No one out there understands them, where they come from, and what it would mean to see them completed better than you.

You trade away hours and hours of your day for other people’s dreams and in return you get a paycheck. We all need to work and your job isn’t going anywhere but don’t you think your dreams deserve at least part-time job status?

Hire yourself – Part Time Manger of your Bucket List. Be a tough love boss and don’t let your dreams turn into little more than a list of what you’d do if you could, someday, maybe.

Give yourself “office hours” and deadlines. Make plans and presentations. When your reach your goals, reward yourself and when you fail, don’t be afraid to demote yourself.

Think of your dreams as a second job and give them the time, attention, and recognition they deserve.

Photo by Eneas

In your “real” job you might get frustrated, mad, you might even want to quit. The Bucket List job is going to feel just the same at times. But why do you stick it out at the “real” job? For the paycheck? Guess what the Bucket List job gets you? Your Dreams! Seems like an even better reward.

So if you can stick through the crappy bosses, major setbacks, and office drama of a 9-5 job, you sure as hell better be able to stick with your Bucket List. No more excuses. Stop it or your gonna get fired and instead of loosing a paycheck, you’ll be loosing the life you deserve.

One Big Idea at a Time — Photo By Mrs Logic

Creating a Bucket List is about tapping into your inner child… your optimistic, “I can do anything!” half. The point is to generate tons of ideas; things that seem crazy but for some reason call to your soul. With all these great ideas it can be easy to get excited. You should be excited – just look at all the amazing things you are capable of.  All these great ideas could be the story of your life!

Excitement, I think, is one of the most powerful forces of nature. When people get excited about their ideas, that is when they go beyond the possible. They start to think grandiose thoughts and with the energy of their enthusiasm, they actually start taking action! Your Bucket List should excite you! By the time you are done writing it down, you should be jumping up and down, just dying to get started.

The Burn Out

I have see many, many people with this excitement in their eyes. Their Bucket List is complete and they jump right in. Unfortunately, there is a pattern that usually follows this start.

First people are excited – they can’t sleep, can’t eat, and spend every free moment working on their dreams and goals. A week passes, a month passes, sometimes even a year passes. Their dreams are still there but suddenly they realize how much work it is actually going to take. With countless dreams on their plate and no end in sight, the work starts to seem not worth it.

If a few months pass and they still can’t cross off a Bucket List item, most people hit the wall of burn out and demotivation. The “Can Do” attitude is chipped away by the “real world” and all those people telling us all to give up and live a normal, unexciting life. Unexciting is easy and when all the work of the previous months seem wasted, it can look like the right choice to give up.

Believe in the Power of Your List

This is why so many of us have hidden Bucket Lists. We tried once, got knocked down, and don’t want to expose our dreams to that failure again. Our dreams are nice and cosy and safe on our Bucket List. If we put them in the real world, try and take action, we might fail.

The problem is that most people don’t understand the real power and beauty of a Bucket List. Your Bucket List is NOT a contract but it is a promise. It’s a promise to yourself that you will remember your dreams and give them a place in your heart and life. Your Bucket List is a safe place for all your dreams and hopes. They are there; they wont disappear.

So how can you use this fact to achieve your Bucket List? By stopping and focusing on ONE BIG IDEA at a time.

People get overwhelmed when they try and tackle and achieve all their dreams at once. You feel like if you ignore one of your dreams you are giving up on it. Not true! Each of your dreams is written down right there on your list. You haven’t given up on any of them until you cross them off.

Focus on One Big Idea

Here is the truth when it comes to “busy people.” Far, far too many of them are actually avoiding the hard stuff. By focusing on 10 dreams or goals or deadlines at a time, these people can switch back and forth between projects… always avoiding the “hard parts.” Think about it; when you hit a wall, what do you do?  If you are like most people, you look for another project to work on.  You hope the wall will disappear while you’re busy with other things and you can come back to the project or goal once the wall is easier to tackle.
A very wise man once said, “The brick walls are not there to keep us out… [The walls] are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough.” By focusing on ONE Bucket List goal, you can use all your energy and enthusiasm to tackle one, huge, insurmountable-looking wall. This is called “the power of quick wins.” When you cross that first wall and see your Bucket List dream come true, you are more motivated and have even more energy to tackle the next one.

 
Make the commitment today to spend your free time on ONE Bucket List dream. I’d suggest picking a dream that isn’t too large and you can achieve with a reasonable amount of work in a month or less. Once that dream is achieved, you can think about a bigger goal.

What is your ONE Bucket List goal for this month? Let us know in the comments below and come back at the end of the month to tell us how it went. Good Luck!

I don’t just believe in dreaming big… I believe in dreaming SUPER Big! Studying abroad in college was always on my Bucket List but when it came time to make the decision of where to go, I just couldn’t choose. The world is a big place and I want to see every inch of it. Sure, a semester in Italy or even India would be amazing but I couldn’t get it out of my head that I wanted to do something even more epic.

I also believe in the power of our thoughts – in this case, dreaming about an epic study abroad experience that I wasn’t even sure was possible. I didn’t know the what, where, or how but I knew if I just kept believing, I would find something that fit the bill.

Semester at Sea

If you had asked me my Sophomore year of college to describe the perfect study abroad program, I wouldn’t have been able to. But sometime that year, I came across Semester at Sea and I knew the minute I saw it, it was the life changing, perfect program for me.

Semester at Sea is a epic “voyage of discovery” that takes place on an old, retrofitted cruise ship. Rather than picking one study abroad destination, you and a couple hundred other students get the semester of a lifetime as you sail literally around the world to a dozen or so ports or call. With world class professors from around the world teaching aboard the ship, you get to step out of the lesson and right into the cultures and places you are studying.

Imagine taking a class on apartheid and instead of a required reading, you sail into South Africa, visit a township, and witness the long term effects of apartheid yourself, firsthand. Or what about a class on the ethics of outsourcing the the issues of child labor — imagine waking up the next day after class and visiting an actual factory in China or interviewing child laborers in India.

This is what Semester at Sea offers – the chance to explore the world, to learn from world class professors, and to learn from actually experiencing the world.

Semester at Sea – Fall 2008 Voyage Ports of Call

Good Luck Paying For It!

When I discovered Semester at Sea, it was like it took over my mind, my body; the trip flowed through my veins. There wasn’t a question in my mind that I was going.

Imagine my surprise then, when after telling friends and family of my epic plans, the only response I got was a raised eyebrow, a small laugh, and a “Ha, good luck paying for it” response.

Ok, to be honest, before Semester at Sea I had been exactly one hour south of the US border – my one and only “international” experience. I was also a broke college student thankfully surviving on scholarships. The trip on Semester at Sea for the voyage and semester of a lifetime? $20,000

You know what though? That is just a number and numbers should never dictate your dreams. Sure, it was a crazy out there number but I believed in my dreams and I wasn’t going to let anyone talk me out of it. I worked my ass off for months, got a job, applied for more scholarships, and even took out a small student loan ($3,000 – hey, for a trip literally around the world that is pretty damn good). In the end, I raised, saved, or scholarship-ed my way into over $22,000.

TheTaj Mahal – An Africa sunrise – The ruins of Angkor Wat

Don’t let people tell you your dreams are too expensive. Don’t let yourself believe you’ll never have that kind of money. I’m a small town gal who grew up on food-stamps and I have officially circumnavigated the globe. Anything is possible.

Want to Win a Trip?

Here is a tip – travel while you are in college and find a way to get other people to pay for it. Ha, no seriously! Scholarships are available for anyone (rich, poor, athletes, etc.) and this is about the only time in your life you will be able to see the world and have someone else cover the bill.

For those of you not in college, I have some good news. An awesome travel blogger – Kristin Luna over at Camels & Chocolate – is offering up a FREE trip on the beautiful MV Explorer. When the Semester at Sea ship isn’t filled with college students exploring the world, it takes “Enrichment Voyages” around smaller regions of the world. These trips are open to anyone and everyone.

This December the MV Explorer Enrichment Voyage is heading to Central and South America. Imagine 25 days, sailing to 11 countries, learning from amazing lecturers, and experiencing true adventure. The retail cost of this trip – $10,000 – but you could win it and go for free!

You only have until August 31st to enter her contest on Camels & Chocolate, so don’t wait.

Only one person is going to win but I want to encourage you to keep the dreams alive. Whether you want to sail around the world or do something closer to home, forget the price, ignore the doubters, and do it! Make a plan, fight for it, believe in yourself. Your dreams are possible; trust me!