Remember to click the pictures to see the full size image.

After we had seen the beautiful Croatian coast it was time to head to Mostar, which is the fifth-largest city in Bosnia & Herzegovina, and famous for its old bridge “Stari Most” that was built in the 16^th century during the Ottoman era.

Strolling around in the city

All the people were really polite, and the bridge looked really beautiful from every angle (of course we headed right there when we arrived to the city). There was also a funny big group of Italian tourists that seemed to be on our way all the time, not to mention the German father that had obviously forced his wife and two children to wear same kind of silly looking beige sun hat as he wore, while they strolled in the narrow streets of Mostar. The old town had to be quite small because we bumped into this family like six times.

I bought a local badge (like the flag of Bosnia & Herzegovina), which I attached to my back pack – I try to find one in every interesting country I visit, and I still have a lot of space to cover in my back pack – and enjoyed the different atmospheres as we walked around the city.

Where’s the history book when you need it?

There are a lot of mosques in Mostar, and to be honest, I didn’t know everything about the history of Balkan and former Yugoslavia, or about how many different religions are trying to live there, before the trip, but during and after the visit I felt a huge urge to find out what kind of history that area holds. It’s very interesting, to say the least, and not very nice read because it sometimes makes you wonder what’s wrong with human beings.

The beautiful bridge had just been reconstructed a few years ago, because in the Balkan war the Serbs bombed the historic monument into the river. There were signs telling “never forget ‘93” almost everywhere, and it’s not difficult to sympathize the locals who have witnessed the madness with their own eyes.

It would be very interesting to talk with some locals who experienced the war to see their point of view about what happened back then, but during the trip we didn’t unfortunately have time for that.

It seems like the city is quite strongly divided in two parts – Bosniaks (muslims) living on the other side of the river, and Croats on the other side. Because of the bloody history, Serbs Cyrillic texts in the traffic signs had been sprayed over, but we didn’t know that when we saw them for the first time. Only later I found out that Bosnia & Herzegovina is actually kind of divided into two areas: Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Sprska, which constitutes mostly of Serbs (about 88%).

Damn. Facebook would say that it’s complicated, and it really is.

Anyway, I took a lot of photos in Mostar because I found the controversies amusing. There were signs of the bombings everywhere and often they had renovated only one part of the building, leaving the other side just like it was left after the war. It’s almost heartbreaking to see, but at the same time it’s a great way of not forgetting what has happened. I think the best way to avoid war is to remember the horrors of last wars.

There was also a big cemetery which once again made me quiet as I saw that all the people had died during the same two years. It’s so sad that innocent people always suffer the most when big leaders get mad.

Mostar is really beautiful where everything has been reconstructed, but I just could not focus on anything else but the history because you can just feel it while you walk there.

Watching the sun go down behind the mountains

We drank a glass of local red wine in a nice balcony where you could see the whole river and the bridge while the sun was setting, and later ate local cepapi, which is some sort of kebab (and sometimes sausages) with bread. It was really good – try it if you go there.

Our initial plan was to spend one night in Mostar, but because we had seen the old town very well already and were really curious about Sarajevo, we decided to change our plans and book a hostel from Sarajevo for the same night and start driving there already in the evening.

I’m not sure if it’s wise to drive there during the night because it was partly really dark, but hey, we only live once and it wouldn’t have been the worst possible way to end one’s life anyway. If I could choose, I would probably want to die while I’m in a really happy state – just like when I’m traveling.

I was supposed to write about Sarajevo in this same post, but this is already kind of long post, so I’ll leave Sarajevo for the next time.

Here are some photos I took in Mostar:

Don't forget the war

Flowers on the wall

I wasn't even born in 1981 and I'm still not sure what happened back then.

You can see the both sides

:I

Windows

More ruins

Stari Most bridge viewed from the small bar we drank red wine in

Birds in Mostar

Once again, never forget '93

If you liked the little story or the photos, you can thank me by telling your friends about this post as well. Thanks!

The Old Town of Dubrovnik

First, I want to thank one of the most amazing persons I know online – Lori from Jane Be Nimble – for the support and motivating words by dedicating this little travel story for her. Hearing positive feedback from nice people is what keeps me writing, and she’s such an awesome person that I suggest you check out her blog right away. The welcome will be warm. Thanks again, Lori.

Now back to the road trip (click on the photos to see them in full size).

When we left Venice, it was still early noon, so we had plenty of time to drive before dark, which was a good thing because we had decided to drive quite long way that day. We had heard that the coolest places in the coastal Croatia were Split and Dubrovnik, that are located in the Southern part of the country, so we decided to head there as soon as we could, keeping in mind that we had only two weeks time and so many beautiful places to see.

It would be impossible to drive directly to Split from Venice, so we just figured out that the best option would be to drive as long as we could and then choose a nice little town with a little help from our Lonely Planet book to stop for one night.

Driving from Venice on the highway was a little bit easier this time because now I knew how to use the pay toll, so we didn’t end up arguing with the pay toll workers this time.

The Moment We Almost Ended Up Hitch-Hiking

I want to send my sincere thanks for the Japanese engineers that had been proactive and realized that this kind of thing can happen to dumb people who postpone filling the tank without any good reasons – we actually got to the gas station just a moment before it would have been too late.

Another funny incident was that we couldn’t find our way out of Italy when we got to the border city Trieste. When you come from Slovenia to Italy, it’s very easy to just drive straight in order to get to Venice, but the other way around we couldn’t find any signs that say “to Slovenia”, so we ended up in the Trieste city center two times before finding out what the right road was by asking one kind local how to get out of the country.

Finally in Croatia

After we finally got inside the Croatian borders, the sceneries were again incredibly beautiful (I’m starting to run out of superlatives), although again a little bit different from what we had seen so far.

It was green everywhere and the small curly road that we were driving along had planted trees on both sides of the road, very close to the actual driving lane. I wondered how safe that could be though – it didn’t leave any slack for mistakes, so I had to focus on my driving to keep us alive.

The road safety is at a quite high level in Finland, so we joked that whenever someone dies in this Croatian road, they probably only remove that particular tree that was hit by a car so that no one will drive on it ever again.

After driving in that planted forest for some time we arrived to the actual coast, and the breathtaking views from the hills to the seashore were really beautiful once again. It was almost too beautiful because it’s kind of difficult to watch the post card views when you are trying not to crash with a truck at the same time.

We had chosen a few potential relatively unknown towns to spend one night at, and around 9 PM we decided to stop in a small town called Crikvenica, because it seemed to have a very relaxed atmosphere and looked like a potential place to find accommodation even though it was pretty late once again.

This time we found a nice room quite close to the town center, thank god, and didn’t have to sleep in a car.

We spent the night eating nice local food and strolling around enjoying the peaceful atmosphere, finding out that it was sort of a small tourist destination for Croatians. There was a pebble beach that we also tested quickly the next morning before continuing our journey to the South.

Local Seagulls Chilling Out

A Statue in Crikvenica

A Huge Pineapple

The Beach

Next Stop: Split

The drive from Crikvenica to Split takes a lot of time – I can’t remember exactly how long, but it took almost a whole day.

It must have been one of the most beautiful driveways I have ever driven, because we were driving along the small mountains all the time, and you could see the Adriatic Sea with all the small villages down there showing their best parts for us.

After many hours and countless tries to find a decent radio station (we forgot our CD’s home), we finally arrived to Split.

According to Wikipedia “Split is the second-largest urban centre in Croatia. The city is located on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea, spreading over a central peninsula and its surroundings, with its metropolitan area including the many surrounding seaside towns as well. An intraregional transport hub, the city is a link to the numerous surrounding Adriatic islands and the Apennine peninsula, as well as a popular tourist destination.

Split is also one of the oldest cities in the area, and is traditionally considered just over 1700 years old, while archaeological research relating to the ancient Greek colony of Aspálathos (6th century BC) establishes the city as being several hundred years older”.

The coolest thing about Split is that the old town in the city center consists mainly of an old fortress (or palace, whatever), and walking inside it makes you feel like you have been traveling several hundred years back in time.

Part of the Very Old Palace in Split

There were a lot of young traveler groups from all over the world, so it seems like Split is a really cool destination at the moment, but still not overly popular, so I think now is the perfect time to go and visit this marvelous city. Walking around in the old town, stopping for a coffee in the small cafeterias, and eating great local food in the lovely restaurants will make you feel good for a long time, I promise.

Oh, and if you are looking for a great party, I got the feeling that there’s a lot of clubs and parties for young people, but we were too tired from driving to try those. Or maybe I’m just getting old. Sigh.

Inside the Fortress

You Must See Dubrovnik Once in Your Life

The last stop for us in the Croatian coast was Dubrovnik. This infamous medieval city is well known for its beautiful fortress that is something that I’ve never seen before. It’s been a famous tourist destination for a long time, and the city inhabitants were deeply shocked when the Serbs bombed the UNESCO world heritage site after the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991.

Now it’s fully reconstructed and definitely worth seeing. Just like in Split, you just get the amazing medieval feeling when walking inside the old city walls. We found a very nice private accommodation from the city center for 40 euros a night (about 50 dollars), so a visit there can be very affordable even though it’s a tourist destination.

Dubrovnik by Night

We took a little walk to the nearby hill to take a few nice photos from the fortress at night, and when we came back there was a small party on the stairs of a church (!) with DJ’s playing good house music and lots of people dancing on the street. I remember thinking that it could never happen in Helsinki because Finns always seem to think about rules and appropriateness first. I prefer the Dubrovnik way!

The Church Party

The next morning, when we headed back to our car, we remembered that it has been very windy last night, and realized that the roof of our rental car was full of small bumps. We couldn’t figure out what had caused them, and I’m still not sure, but my best guess is hail (the icy rain).

During the rest of the trip we were guessing whether we have to pay for those bumps or not, because I, the main idiot, didn’t remember to take the full insurance that would have cost only €70 extra, and they had reserved 800 euros from my account for excess in case of an accident. Fortunately they didn’t notice anything when we returned the car.

Hmm. I hope that the rental guys are not reading this blog.

For an amateur photographer like me the whole Croatian coast was a small paradise, and I think it’s better to let the rest of the photos speak for themselves.

After leaving Dubrovnik we were very curious to see Mostar and Sarajevo in Bosnia & Herzegovina, and I can tell you already that those cities were to become one of the most memorable experiences during the whole road trip, so you might want to check back next time when I write about our journey in that beautiful and controversial country.

More Photos of Stunning Croatia

Split:

Split City Center

More Split

Even More Split

Split by Night

Inside the Old City Walls

Stairs

Local Cat

Beach Bar in Split

A Tower in Split

The Tower Again

Fortress in Split

Somewhere between Split and Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik:

As we arrived to Venice at 1 AM in the night, exhausted, thirsty, and hungry, there weren’t really too many options for finding an accommodation. You can’t actually drive into the old town, because there are no roads – just canals and tiny streets for pedestrians.

By the way, before getting to Venice we had a funny incident on one of the pay tolls that can be found in most of the European highways: I had never driven in a highway with pay tolls before, so when we entered the first highway in Italy I didn’t really know what to do or what to expect.

When you’re leaving the highway, you are supposed to insert your ticket in a machine that then counts how much you have to pay, but of course I hadn’t realized that we were supposed to take the ticket when entering the highway.

There was this one guy speaking for us through a shitty loudspeaker that I could not understand at all. I just kept repeating “sorry, I don’t understand what you are saying” as he shouted louder and louder and got more angry.

I couldn’t understand a single word of his bad Italian accent as he tried to punish me through the loudspeaker and finally he gave up and opened the gate and let us through it without a cent after ten minutes that felt like three hours.

What a perfect way of saving 8 euros.

I should have found out how the system works – it’s really simple when you just take the ticket when entering the highway. The guy was obviously trying to tell me to insert the ticket into the machine, but it’s kind of hard if you don’t have it and you have no idea what he is mumbling.

We drove first to the parking area that is located just in front of the City of Canals but figured out that finding accommodation would be impossible because we hadn’t booked it in advance, and yes, it was also already 1 AM, so the only wise option was to drive back a little bit and find a calm and peaceful spot where we could sleep in the car and wait for the dawn.

Sleeping in a small car is not fun – it’s very uncomfortable, and the fact that it was still really hot and humid outside didn’t help either.

The good thing was that I was so tired that I could have slept anywhere, so it didn’t take too long after killing the few mosquitoes that had sneaked into the car to get asleep.

Wakey, wakey

This should be the best advice for anyone like me that has often difficulties waking up: Sleep in a hot car.

I woke up at 7 AM, still hungry, thirsty, and sweaty – exactly at the same time as my travel mate and girlfriend Ansku.

We drove the car to the parking building and then walked over the bridge to the old city that so many people in the world dream about.

The view was really nice: canals everywhere, old buildings that have seen millions of people and different life stories pass by, and tourists – lots of tourists.

After walking around a bit we managed to found a café that offered very good Italian coffee and fresh fruit salad with natural yoghurt for only three euros, so the mood started to lift a little bit after the short night in the Italian version of Finnish sauna.

Some facts about Venice

There are about 270 000 inhabitants living in this city that is quite different from anything else I’ve seen in my life. 60 000 people live in the historic city of Venice, which is the place all the tourists want to visit.

It has been described as the most beautiful city built by man and one of Europe’s most romantic cities, and I can agree with that at least to some extent – the canals give the city a particular feel, just like in Amsterdam, which is one of my favorite cities of the ones I’ve seen so far.

The only thing that prevented my romance with the city from becoming a full long-term relationship was the fact that there were far too many tourists for my taste. Maybe it’s just me, but I prefer places that are original, but not too well marketed to attract so many people from all over the world that you can’t really find locals from the masses anymore. Maybe that’s why I only chose the rare photos without any tourists for this blog post.

Anyway, it was such a pleasure walking around the old city, watching the famous sights and taking photos of the canals and beautiful buildings. The restaurant we ate in wasn’t really the best one during the trip because the prices were quit high compared to the quality, but I guess it’s the same in every tourist destination.

We didn’t actually spend that many hours in Venice because we kind of felt that we had seen everything we wanted to see after walking around the old city for half a day, getting lost a few times without a map, and walking so much that our feet were yelling for mercy.

The gondolas still looked very nice, so I naturally had to take a few more photos of those before it was time to head for another adventure.

It wasn’t as easy to get out of Italy as it was to get there, but I’ll write more about that next time.

Here are some more photos of the lovely but touristy Venice:

The Julian Alps

As you may have noticed, I was on a road trip in Balkan countries for two weeks, and just came back to Finland on Sunday.

The trip was nothing short of incredible, since we were able to see so many cool places in just 14 days and the feeling of freedom when you can drive around in completely new areas without any specific plan is something that I can never get bored with.

The first destination on our trip was Slovenia – a small European Union country right next to Italy, Austria, Hungary, and Croatia – and this first blog post regarding the trip will be all about that lovely and beautiful small country.

Just to give a sneak peak in advance of what I’m going to cover in the next posts, the whole road trip went like this:

Ljubljana – Bled – Bohinj (Slovenia) – Venice (Italy) – Crikvenica – Split – Dubrovnik (Croatia) – Mostar – Sarajevo (Bosnia & Herzegovina) – Skopje (Macedonia) – Thessaloniki (Greece) – Belgrade (Serbia) – Zagreb (Croatia) and finally back to Ljubljana again.

So there’s a lot of places to cover – I hope you don’t mind if I try to write a separate post about each of the countries we travelled through.

I feel sLOVEnia

The Slovenian slogan goes like that, and I can understand why.

Right after jumping out of the plane to the Ljubljana airport I could see the amazing Alps in the horizon with snow still in the mountain tops in the middle of the hot summer.

Another thing that I noticed besides the Alps was the green and fresh looking forests and green fields that were everywhere when we drove with a cab to the city center.

Ljubljana is a small city with about 280 000 inhabitants, and it is the capital of Slovenia. It has gained influences over time from Germanic, Latin and Slavic cultures, but compared to other Balkan countries it feels very modern and European.

Ljubljana by Night

Even though Slovenia was a part of the Yugoslavia for a long time, it was interesting for me to notice how different they still appear to be from other former Yugoslavian countries in many ways.

The people there are very kind (like in other Balkan countries, too), but they seem to be more calm and “European” in many ways, and they seem to be in many ways just like us Finns – kind, maybe a little bit shy, calm, wise, and honest. Those are some of the reasons I like them a lot.

I know a couple of Slovenes, so we met my friend Daša there and she showed us around in the capital.

The city center is really beautiful and the atmosphere along the river that goes through the city is really nice. There are street musicians playing, and people are hanging around in modern cafés and restaurants and watching people walk by.

A Street Musician in Ljubljana

There’s also a beautiful castle on a hill right next to the river where you can see the whole city from a panoramic view, which is definitely worth climbing onto.

We also walked in the biggest park of Ljubljana and found the so called “little Christiania” in the city, which is a small and eccentric hippie part of the city where the atmosphere is completely different from the rest of the city, so it was definitely worth seeing.

Experiencing the Alps in the Northern Slovenia

After we had spend one day in the capital city and finally got our rental car that was going to be the second home for the next two weeks, we decided to drive to Northern Slovenia where you have a couple of lovely small towns with amazing sceneries towards Julian Alps and beautiful lakes. We rented a boat in Bohinj, and rowed in the lake enjoying the sun and watching the picturesque view.

There’s also a waterfall in Bohinj, but it would have taken a 20 minute walk to see it, so we decided to skip it and do something little bit less exhausting. Lazy Finns, you know.

Another small town we went to was Bled, which is quite a famous tourist destination as well. There’s a small island in the lake of Bled that has a church in it. Behind the church you can again see the Julian Alps, so the view is truly beautiful. Maybe there were a little bit too many tourists to our taste in Bled, so we didn’t spend that much time there.

It is quite easy to actually drive to the mountains from Bled and that’s what we decided to do next.

Mount Triglav is the highest mountain in Slovenia, so we tried to find that with our priceless Eastern Europe Lonely Planet book that has crucial information of all the countries we went to (except for Greece).

The Julian Alps and Some Locals

I don’t know what happened to my map reading skills, but we couldn’t find a way to get to that mountain, so I’m not actually sure which mountain we drove onto, but the scene was spectacular anyway.

Our initial plan was to drive around Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and Serbia, but because we realized that the distances between different countries and destinations were really short, we decided spontaneously to drive during the same evening to Venice, Italy, because I have never been there even though my travel companion has, and it just is one of those famous places in the world that you must seen once during your life.

It took a little bit more than we thought to finally get to legendary Venice with all the canals and gondolas, but we managed to arrive there finally at 1 AM – tired but happy. I’ll write about our experiences in Venice next, so stay tuned.

More Photos of Slovenia

The Church and the Moon in Bled

Bled Sceneries

The Church that Lays On the Small Island in Bled

The Famous Picturesque Church of Bohinj

The Lake in Bohinj

A Walk in the Park

Hole in the Stairs

The Castle Viewed from the City

Some Artsy Stuff

Statues

The Castle from the Inside

View from the Castle

Ljubljana by Day

The Castle in Ljubljana

“If I’d observed all the rules, I’d never have got anywhere”

- Marilyn Monroe

Do you follow every rule in life, whether the rules are set by your employer, law, or your peers?

Most of the time people try to make new rules to make life easier for us – think about for example how dangerous traffic is in countries where rules are not obeyed. However, there are also some rules that most people obey even though the rules are based more on limiting beliefs than actual laws or facts.

Here are some rules and myths that are eagerly waiting for you to break them if you want to succeed in life:

1. You need a master’s degree or an MBA to become successful in business

Getting a respected degree from a university was probably an excellent choice about 40 years ago, when there was less competition and everyone who graduated was almost definitely going to get a decent job with a nice salary. You didn’t have to worry too much about getting fired – there was always a new job around the corner.

Times have changed, and now almost every second person has a master’s degree, so where’s competitive advantage now?

You must be the best of your class with a perfect job experience to get full benefit from your degree, so I am not sure if studying very hard for five years is the best bet for success anymore. At least you don’t need it in order to achieve great things in life.

Most of the successful entrepreneurs have skipped university almost completely and nothing has stopped them later in life. Talk about Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg for starters.

If you have a master’s degree like I do, good for you, and sincere congratulations. If you don’t have a degree, don’t let it bother you. Succeeding in life comes from giving value to other people, and you don’t need a degree for that.

2. You can only make money if you have money

Sure it is easier to start making money if you have something to invest, but it has never been easier than today to start your own business online without investing more than about ten dollars on domain and hosting and then start making money as an affiliate marketer. It will not necessarily be a quick or an easy road, but it doesn’t involve any risk.

You can also start a bigger business with a little bit more risk, no matter how much money you have got at the moment, if you just take your time and find a business angel or two to fund your start-up.

If your plan is good enough, there is always money to help you to get started. Most countries also have their own funding for start-up entrepreneurs, so not having money right now is a bad excuse for not starting to make money.

3. You need a degree from your own language or Journalism to start writing articles

No, you don’t need any degrees for that. Many successful writers have never studied writing, but they have just started to write because they love to write, and eventually they have become quite good at it. J.K. Rowling, the author of Harry Potter books was an unemployed single mom with no degree from writing when she began to write her first book.

No one becomes a great author instantly, and it takes time and practice like anything in life to become really good in writing, but you have to start somewhere and a degree is not nearly as important as practice is.

If you have dreamed about writing articles or your own book, why don’t you just start today? It doesn’t matter where you are now, all that matters is that you do what you love and learn everyday by doing.

You have nothing to lose and everything to win.

4. Writing a book takes a long time

No, it doesn’t have to take a long time. If you decide to write just two pages every day, which only takes an hour or two if you are in a productive mood, you will write 120 pages in four months, which is enough to call it a book in my opinion.

If you make it your habit to write just a little bit every day, you can write three books a year without any huge effort. It’s really not that difficult or time consuming when you have the right habits. Most people spend easily two hours a day watching TV or just laying in their couch doing nothing, so only by using that time more wisely you can publish your own book in just a few months. I bet that will be more rewarding than the soap operas you missed.

5. You need to have X (you can put youth, talent, looks, time, money – almost anything here) to become a star

It often seems like all the people who have somehow made it and become a rock star, famous actor, blogger superstar, or successful entrepreneur are different from the rest of us, and it is easy to make excuses to make yourself believe that you don’t have enough something to become what you deep down would like to be.

Let me tell you that it is simply not true. The only thing you need is to believe 110% in the thing you want to become really good at, and then start giving value to people as much as you can. Persistence is the key here. Talent, looks, and knowing the right people can make it easier to succeed in certain things, but what matters the most is that you have the persistence.

Do you think that Madonna or Britney Spears are amazing singers? Bullshit. I heard Madonna live and I could almost sing better than her.

You should just never give up. Most people give up after four months because they could not get a break during that time. Most famous superstars would still be serving drinks in a bar without persistence. Give everything you’ve got to chase your own dream for ten years, and then think about something else. Then you can at least look back when you are old and say that you tried and didn’t give up.

You only regret the things you did not do.

6. Investing is too difficult for an average person

Too many people either keep their money in a bank account or “invest” it to different expensive funds that their bank recommends for them. Because you are reading this article, you have access to internet and there is nothing that should prevent you from finding out how you can invest your money wisely without too much risk.

First get an account for shares and other commodities, then buy different stock market indexes if you don’t know how to pick right stocks, and remember to buy them a little bit over time. It’s all about patience.

Now it is quite a good moment for making long-term investments because the stock markets have come quite a bit down from the all-time highs, but don’t expect to make huge profits in a short period – focus on the long run.

Remember not to focus on the price if you buy stocks, but rather on the fact that you are going to own a little piece of the company. If the company is a really good one and you paid a reasonable price for it, why would it matter if the price goes down in the short run?

7. Your doctor knows everything

Respecting authorities and believing anything they say is quite common.

Especially for many elderly people doctors are god-like creatures that know everything about human beings and their bodies, but did you know that doctors for example study only one course regarding nutrition in university (at least in my home country), so if you believe that they know what you should eat to be healthy, you might be wrong.

If you buy and read ten books regarding nutrition and health, you are probably better off to give nutritional advice to other people than average doctor.

8. Scientifically researched things are facts

Science is only as good as the people who are behind the studies.

I have seen the academic world and I know that people there are not super-humans, but rather just like the rest of us. There are clever people in every field of science, but they are still only humans who can make mistakes and be biased towards something.

If a researcher or a lab gets funding from some source, it unfortunately is possible that the results are favorable for that particular source of funding, no matter how idealistic you would like to be.

It is possible to get different results from a particular data set, not to mention about how different data collection methods affect your results.

The main point is: Always believe in common sense and your own empiric observations more than authorities and scientific research.

Do you know some other rules or myths in life that one should break in order to succeed? Leave a comment and let me know.

And if you liked this article, you can make me very happy by sharing it with your friends for example in Twitter, Facebook, and Digg. Thank You!

“Live with your whole being all the days of your life.  Your reward will be true happiness”

- Rebecca Thomas Shane

One of the best questions you can ask yourself if you are looking for a new direction in your life is “what would I do if I would get enough money each month without doing anything?”

What are the things in your life you love to do – things that make you feel good and make you forget time?

Every one of us has a lot of things we like to do without getting paid for doing them, so if you are not sure what to do with your life and you are bored with your present job, you can’t spend your time better than making a list of those things.

For me the list looks something like this:

- I would spend every Winter somewhere where it’s warm
- I would help other people to find meaning in their lives
- I would take photographs, draw, and paint
- I would play different sports and exercise almost every day

After you have made the list of those things (it can be much longer than mine), you can start to think about all the possibilities in life to earn a living by doing those things. Usually your mind is quite limited and does not let you fully see all the possibilities in your life, but don’t let it limit you this time.

List all the jobs and business ideas that come to your mind that have something to do with the things you would do even for free.

In my case those could be something like:

- Travel guide
- Author
- Artist
- Photographer
- Teacher
- Running my own gym
- Starting an online business

This list should be much longer than the first one, because you shouldn’t be too picky at this point – just list as many possible ways to earn living doing something similar to your passions as possible without thinking too much.

Is someone else making your life decisions for you?

I used to let quite odd things to affect my decisions in life in the past, such as how much money I could earn in a particular job or how respected the job would be. I think most people do that either consciously or unconsciously, but that’s the best way to not find the job, career or business that you would be truly passionate about.

If you hate waking up every morning knowing that you have to go to work that you don’t really like, what’s the use of getting a little bit more money to spend on something you don’t really need?

You can also ask your friends what you are good at – they usually have a little bit different perspective from yours and they can help you to realize some obvious things about your strengths.

After you have a clear vision of your strengths and passions in life, the most difficult part of finding a new direction in your life is done. It’s never easy, but you can jump into the unknown when you know that you always have your passions guiding you, no matter what your situation is.

Today is a perfect day for making the change

If you don’t like your job and your daily life, you can begin changing your life already today. Don’t quit your day job right away, but start doing those things you love to do, just a little bit every day. Sing, draw, help other people – whatever it is you love to do.

You can also start to look at new job opportunities and think about business ideas where you could use your strengths and follow your passions, and make a living at the same time.

Sometimes you must do something really unconventional with your life to be happy and quit doing what your neighbors or friends do.

This is your life, and you only live once. Live your own life, not someone else’s.

Follow your passions and you will not regret anything when you are old, and forget about money as long as you have enough of it to give you shelter and food.

Happiness, success, and even money come to those who overcome their fears and have enough courage to spend their days doing the things they love the most. How could you become really good at something otherwise?

If you liked this article, you can thank me by sharing it with your friends for example in Twitter, Facebook, and Digg. Thank You!

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“People travel to faraway places to watch, in fascination, the kind of people they ignore at home.”

- Dagobert D. Runes

I’ve been traveling quite a lot during my adulthood, and one thing I have learned is that it is very difficult to sleep in planes nowadays because the space between seat rows is optimized and there’s really no extra space for your legs or to bend the seat backwards to a sleeping position (if someone is sitting right behind you).

I’m flying to Slovenia very soon for a little vacation, so I thought this kind of little tip for getting three seats from one plane would be nice right now.

Usually the planes are not fully booked, and there are empty rows of three seats somewhere in the plane. It really doesn’t matter where you sit on the plane, because your ticket is not checked after you hop on the plane, unless you are sitting on someone else’s seat.

Often the problem is that you just don’t know in advance where the empty seats are.

I have used this simple trick many times to find out easily where the empty seat rows are, so I want to share it with you readers now even if you become my competitors for the empty rows.

Be the Last One to Enter the Plane

When you have arrived at the boarding gate and the boarding starts, don’t rush to the line, but just sit, wait, and let other people stand in the line. You will not reach your destination any faster if you are the first one to get into the plane.

After EVERYONE else has entered the plane, and you are absolutely sure that you are the last one, you can calmly show your boarding pass and passport to the official in the counter.

Now you can walk slowly into the plane, and you should see other passengers putting their hand baggage on the shelves. If you have been slow enough, you should see where the empty rows are, as you are the last one to enter the plane.

You don’t have to care about the seat number that is written on your boarding pass, but you can just go to sit on the empty three seat row, if there is such left.

Just ask a pillow and a blanket from a flight attendant, pick off your shoes, fasten your seat belt loosely, and lay down to enjoy the three-seat-bed you have just got for yourself. Remember to pay also attention to other passengers’ envious glares before you fall to sleep.

Earplugs will make your sleep even better, so I suggest you take them with you to the flight.

I have used this trick many times, and it has enabled me to sleep very well during long flights. I don’t usually like to sit on the plane for a long time, because it makes me feel tired and exhausted, but when I can use the flight for sleeping, it can be quite relaxing and I can wake up rested and be ready to enjoy what waits for me in the destination.

Too bad the flight to Slovenia lasts only 2,5 hours, so there’s no need to sleep on the plane, but it’s always nicer if you have more space anyway.

If you like this article, you can thank me by sharing it with your friends for example in Twitter, Facebook, and Digg. Thank You!

As you can probably notice, I have changed the layout of Happiness Hunters a little bit. What do you think, is it going to the right direction? I’d appreciate some feedback in the comment section, because it’s so hard to know what kind of layout you readers would like to see.

I stumbled to this idea first briefly in Twitter, but only after seeing the amazingly cool fellow blogger Joshua Noerr take the challenge at his blog at www.joshuanoerr.com, I decided to take the challenge as well.

This challenge has been started by Darren Rowse from Problogger and the idea is that anyone who takes the challenge should publish a post that is a list of 7 links to posts that you and others have written that respond to the following 7 categories.

Without any further jargon, here is my list:

1. Your first post

How to Find Your Life Purpose in 10 Minutes

OK, 10 minutes sounds a little optimistic (I guess I tried to make a catchy headline there), it will probably take a little bit more time, but if you just focus on the right things, you can find your passions and life purpose quite quickly. After all, no one else but you can really realize your purpose in life.

2. A post you enjoyed writing the most

7 Amazing Productivity Tips for Lazy People

Yes, it must be this one, because I remember I was just about to escape to the beach when I decided to write this post, but remembered how good I would feel on the beach after I would have done something productive first.

Also, I really think those tips are very useful for getting a lot of things done in a short period of time, which gives more spare time for people that enjoy freedom, just like me and you.

3. A post which had a great discussion

Henri Junttila – My Experiences with Moving to Spain

Henri Junttila is an amazing young guy whose relatively young blog has got a lot of attention all over the blogosphere. I really like his writings and this topic especially had a nice conversation in the comment section where people shared their thoughts about moving abroad and living in different countries.

4. A post on someone else’s blog that you wish you’d written

Dragos Roua – 50 Ways to Start Fresh

Dragos is another awesome blogger who knows what he writes about and is a really open and kind guy as well. I warmly recommend checking out his blog. His newest post became really popular in Twitter and I don’t wonder why. It’s a simple but longish post that shows 50 excellent ways to start fresh and take a new direction in your life. I really wish I had written that post, it’s that good.

5. Your most helpful post

5 Huge Time Management Mistakes You Should Avoid

I think it has to be this post. I hope it’s been helpful to other people as well, but at least for me following those ideas have made it possible for me to get more things done without too many distractions, and when I get a lot of important things done, the feeling is always amazing.

6. A post with a title that you are proud of

7 Amazing Productivity Tips for Lazy People

This is the same post that I enjoyed writing the most, but I have to put it here as well, because it’s got the title I can be even slightly proud of. I think it has all the elements that a good title has to make it appealing for the reader:

- It’s a list
- It has an appealing adjective in it (amazing)
- It appeals to most people (because most people are a little bit lazy… well, at least I am)
- It sounds simple and seems like it’s going to give an answer to a particular problem that people have

7. A post that you wish more people had read

The Power of Giving

This is just a simple quote from a book, but I feel that the message is really good and it makes me feel good every time I read it. I think that more people should read it, there’s a great lesson to learn in a short story.

Yes, now I’ve taken the challenge. It was a little bit harder than I thought for some reason… difficult to be satisfied with my own writings I guess. If you are a blogger too, this is a nice challenge and a great way to get some links flowing in and out your blog.

PS. This challenge reminds me of something I did in school when I was about 8 years old. You know those little books that everyone had to write to, and there were several questions, such as which girl/boy you like the most, what is your favorite color, who would you like to kiss, and stuff like that.

The only difference is that this 7 link challenge is a little bit lame compared to those questions.

The idea of this whole challenge was to get a lot of exposure and retweeting all over the blogosphere, so I’d appreciate it a lot if you could retweet this. Thanks!

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“I didn’t fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong”

- Benjamin Franklin

Fear of failures is one of the biggest drivers behind most people’s actions. It makes them to always look for situations where they know the possibility of failure is minimal. In other words, they miss most opportunities of their lives.

What if I told you that there is no such thing as a failure?

That is how I genuinely see the world nowadays.

Everyone in this world has their own experiences and a unique perception of everything around them. The concept of failure is a man-made thing and every person sees the idea of failure differently.

People who choose to see even the smallest setbacks in life as big failures often end up being afraid of doing anything that forces them to step just a little bit out of their comfort zone, whereas people who see failures as great learning opportunities and as a possibility to develop more confidence and strength, are ready to take whatever life gives to them and always willing to challenge themselves.

While some people only see a failure, others will find the lesson in it, and while some people just focus on the pain, others will focus on the strength that just increased when something unexpected occurred.

The first way of looking at things is negative, self-destructive and limiting, while the latter one is positive, builds self-confidence and opens up new opportunities in life. It is up to you to make the decision how you want to see the little things we all have in our lives.

Do you want to have failures or great lessons in your life?

Who invented failure?

Failure is like the Loch Ness Monster.

It only exists as long as you believe in it. Just like any myth, it is a self-created phenomenon and does not exist until we create it with our thoughts, beliefs and behavior. When you decide to put the label “failure” on some event in your life, you decide to put yourself into a destructive state at the same moment, and you then let your body and emotions react accordingly.

When you choose to see the same experience as a growth opportunity and a good lesson, you put yourself into much more powerful state, and keep your mind and heart in a positive and solution-focused place.

I don’t know about you, but at least I want to live in a reality that is not filled with negative things and failures.

The time is always right for making the change

Like everyone else, I have had my share of problems in my life – I have tried some new things and failed miserably (that’s how I used to see things back then), and I have trusted people that were only there as long as they could benefit from my company.

No matter how good a person you are, life will not always be easy, but it is definitely worth it to start taking the steps to the right direction.

It doesn’t matter where you are at the moment. What matters is where you are going and that you have the will to grow mentally, evolve, and adapt to whatever life brings on your way. Your life is going to be full of positivity and great things if you choose so. The same applies to negative things.

The decision is yours, and it’s never too late to change.

Start today.

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