The 007 Lifestyle guide is a really slick, nicely-packaged 3-part program aimed at young guys like Derek and myself who also want to learn to live an amazing lifestyle, travel freely around the world, make a living on the road, improve their style and their health, and be successful with women. Might sound a little corny at first, but it’s actually an extremely elegant compilation of health & fitness, men’s style tips, concrete mechanics for earning an income and traveling, and attraction and social dynamics lessons (people call this stuff “seduction community” or PUA stuff, but I find that’s got such a negative connotation). Basically, it’s an incredible program for any young dude who wants to all-around improve his life and himself—especially for just 27 bucks!

In his weekly 007 newsletter, Derek provides detailed interviews with experts in all facets of the James Bond lifestyle, constantly-updated information and articles to help you succeed, and more. But because only those who purchase the 007 Lifestyle program get access to the newsletter, I asked him if I could reprint our interview here.

As for comparisons to James Bond, I’ll let you be the judge! But I was humbled to be included in the creation of Derek’s awesome product and wanted to share the answers to his really interesting questions about my location-independent lifestyle with you here. And I had to throw in some pictures of the ladies just for fun!

How do I finance my lifestyle?

Professionally, I’m a web developer & social media presence consultant, coaching authors, CEOs and other thought leaders on social media and helping develop blogs and web platforms for their businesses.

I also write consistently about lifestyle design, entrepreneurship and travel here at Thrilling Heroics and have several websites that earn a little bit of passive income for me through ad revenue. Looking forward, I’m working hard on a lot of content for release in upcoming months, some in the form of free manifestos and some which will be paid information products—and I’m hoping to develop another recurring income stream from those.

How does the idea of geoarbitrage affect my travel? How much does my current lifestyle cost per month?

For me, at this early stage in my career—and especially as I bootstrap my own small business—geoarbitrage is a integral part of my live-anywhere lifestyle. If you can find or create a career that allows you to work remotely, and you earn in US Dollars, Pounds Sterling, or Euros, for instance, those currencies will go a long way in a place with a low cost-of-living.

I chose Thailand as my current headquarters because it offers a spectacular lifestyle, proximity to some of the world’s greatest beaches, climbing, snorkeling, etc., all at a very affordable price.

Personally, I’m quite a minimalist and like to be able to carry all my belongings in just two bags. I don’t have the fanciest flat in town, and I don’t buy many gadgets, souvenirs, or anything else—instead I prefer to go out with friends and gorge myself on delicious Thai food and pitchers of ice cold beer five nights a week, and save my cash for a trip to relax on the beach every once in a while.

I rent a modest, furnished studio apartment in the heart of town for just about $225 per month, and generally if I can earn at least $750-$1000 per month, I’m able to go out frequently with friends, travel a bit, and live quite comfortably. This same lifestyle back in California would probably cost me $5000 a month at the very least, so leveraging the value of the dollar certainly lets me do quite a lot more here.

What are my passions outside of work? Do I have more time & freedom now that I’ve taken the leap to start my own businesses?

Certainly, when you’re talking about geo-arbitrage, more free time goes hand-in-hand with getting more for your money. Like Tim Ferriss preaches in The 4-Hour Workweek, I’ve designed my lifestyle so that I get to spend a lot of time on things that I’m extremely passionate about—even things that I may turn into a business one day—but that don’t necessarily earn me any income right now.

I spend a lot of time writing content for my blog, reading, working on personal growth goals, talking with friends and family back home, and especially investing my time in local volunteer and charity work. My company donates 5% of all profits to InSearchOfSanuk.com—an organization that my buddy Dwight Turner runs to benefit needy and underserved demographics here in Thailand—projects that provide assistance for refugee health issues, send volunteers to spend time at local orphanages, install urban gardens in Bangkok’s slums, and more.

What does a typical day look like for me?

There is really no such thing as a normal routine when you run your business from abroad and travel frequently, but the one thing that’s consistent is that I’m a night owl and I’ve just learned to embrace it. I’m most productive in the evening and very late night/early morning when there’s fewer distractions, so I tend to wake after 10am and frequently work until 4am or later.

When I’m settled in Bangkok or elsewhere for a few weeks, I typically spend 4-8 hours working on work projects each day, writing, social networking, and promoting my business each afternoon, depending on my energy levels and what I have scheduled on my to-do list.

I work from home, my hotel/hostel if I’m traveling, and sometimes I utilize a membership at a local co-working office so I can be in a quiet but social setting while I work.

In the evenings, I almost always go with friends to one of Bangkok’s lavish restaurants, wine bars, or nightclubs, or frequently even just grab dinner at a street vendor (incredible food is everywhere in this part of the world). I’ll frequently come home after spending a few quality hours socializing and enjoying time with friends and crank out another couple hours of work.

Every few weeks we’ll have a big event—I help host charity mixers and fundraising parties with my colleagues, we’re involved in running monthly Bangkok Tweetups and Couchsurfing meetups with other social media users around town and traveling through, and of course occasionally I’ll spend some time traveling. [I'm also officially on the committee to bring TED Talks to Bangkok as of last month!]

My favorite spot to relax for a week or two is Krabi, Thailand. Beautiful, serene beaches are abundant, there are gorgeous limestone mountains that are popular with the climbers, the snorkeling and diving is good, and nice luxury accommodations are cheap. Of course I take the laptop and spend some time running business each day, but it’s a great getaway from time to time.

How can other people get started on the path to making money online or working location-independent?

Well we all have our own unique skill set, but the first step is to recognize that you have skills and knowledge that others value and are willing to pay money for. The web is where it’s at, and these days almost anyone can trade what they know for income if you have some expertise, an interesting and original voice, and can package it nicely for an audience that needs it.

Some of the most common nomadic careers are 1) freelance writing, copywriting & ghostwriting, 2) web design & development, and 3) career or business coaching & consulting. There is more and more need for WordPress development now that nearly all companies are going online and getting active in social networking, and my company is always looking for great designers and programmers to partner with.

Corbett Barr compiled a great list of location-independent jobs here.

Resources I absolutely can’t live without.

I run my entire life and my business with my MacBook and my iPhone. I had to have the iPhone unlocked to free myself from the clutches of AT&T and get EDGE data access abroad, but I use a system that incorporates my SkypeIn phone number, a Google Voice account and a local SIM card wherever I go for phone calls.

If you run an online business, a system to backup your client files and important documents is a must-have: I use Apple’s TimeMachine application to backup frequently to an external hard drive, and I use Mozy to backup another copy of my most important files to the web as well. Other than that, my RSS reader, Google suite, and DestroyTwitter are integral for communicating with people, tracking conversations, and managing my projects remotely.

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If you’re interested in Derek’s kickass James Bond guide, it includes 3 comprehensive guides: The Style & Image Guide, Lethal Seduction Techniques, and Money, Wealth & Exotic Travel, you’ll get the weekly MI6 Report, and he also includes 2 additional free bonuses: The Bond Body—an 8 Week Intensive Training Program and Casino Gambling Tells ebooks. All-around a pretty cool product. You can grab yours here: 007 Lifestyle: Living Like James Bond.

Either way, make sure you check out Derek Johanson at Live Uncomfortably. Another few awesome dudes living like 00 agents:

• Rob Granholm at The Life Design Project
• David Walsh at MuseLife
• AJ and Jordan at The Pickup Podcast
• Tynan at Life Outside the Box
• Colin Wright at Exile Lifestyle

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This guest post comes from Jonny Gibaud, who writes at TheLifeThing.com

School – Work – Eat Some Strawberry Pie – Die.

Surely there is more to life and living than this? because if not then I want out. Shall we just take a moment to remind ourselves of the road “most traveled” and why getting out of the un-winnable rat race, whether by leaving the track completely or just moving to the outside lane where the views are better, should be high on our life goal list?

This Beautiful Thing Called Life

Life is not simply about surviving, for making do and settling for less then the best. Life is not something to be endured or regretted. Life is not being stuck in the middle of six lanes of traffic going in a direction you really don’t want to go with an aggressive backseat driver.

Life, conversely, is like imported Italian ice cream. Something to be enjoyed, to be experienced, to be toyed with, risked, investigated, challenged, experimented on and, over all, “Devoured” with lots of mess around the facial region.

Life is too short and too expansive to be trapped on autopilot on the superhighway that is the “Road Most Traveled.” How can we slam on the brakes and get off? How can we avoid falling into the trap of following the “Road most Traveled”, and instead go for a wander along the “Path” that is least followed? Away from the pollution and the noise, it is a much more beautiful experience.

The Road “Most” Traveled

I have found, in my experience, that the road “most” traveled is generally job-focused.

It is the old cliche of “go to school to get an education in order to get into college so that you can get a good job and start a good career, spend 50 years of your life working hard and then spend a few of the last years having fun with your walking stick before kicking the bucket.”

I don’t know about you but, like four-day-old seafood, that’s just not doing it for me.

In this case, the term “Job” can be supplemented for any individual aspect of a person’s life that takes an uneven share of a person’s focus.

Like farting in public, it just so happens that jobs and careers tend to be the main single-focus offenders to most people.

Life is not just about a career or any other single aspect of living, and yet those riding along on the road most traveled tend to focus solely on this facet whether this be a career, your relationships, your goals, your 10 Pin Bowling prowess or any of the many things other things people focus on.

Whether you are driving a Ferrari or a Banger, on the road most traveled you’re all going to end up in the same place.

I understand the logic for people focusing on their career early on, then maybe shifting focus to their family after that and then finally shifting focus to themselves when all the kids have left home, it’s just that this approach tends to lead to a very unbalanced life all the way through, where one aspect is focused on to the detriment of the other aspects of life.

This single focus of just one section of a person’s life, having it as the center of existence to one degree or another, is the key indicator of the road “most” traveled and leads to an unbalanced and ultimately, in my humble opinion, less interesting and overall fulfilling existence.

So what is the alternative? Well, here is a suggestion.

The Path “Least Traveled”

There will be uneven ground, there will be potholes, there might even be the odd wild cat, and yet all this is worth it because there will be spectacular views.

The path least traveled is just that, a path – a more risky and thus generally more eventful journey than the road tarmacked for the majority.

The path less traveled is like a Tightrope walking Cat performing in a very strong head wind. It is “Balance”-focused.

A “balanced” approach to life is not about not focusing on a job or any other single aspect of life but conversely focuses on seeing a job or career or any other aspect of one’s life as exactly that, one aspect of their life, not the aspect.

The path least traveled focuses on ensuring a healthy balance between all aspects of one’s life so that, in the same way that eating some greens with your red meat, you will enhance the experience.

The path “least traveled” understands that life is not and should not be defined by a single focus, but that ultimate happiness comes from experiencing everything life has to offer, at every stage.

Puffer Fish Jobs

Like the puffer fish, a job can give the illusion of being a monster with spines that requires your full attention, but in reality it is but a tiddler in the vast ocean of your potential experience.

A job, while important, is but a small part of everything that makes you who you are, and yet how many of us spend up to 100 hours a week or more focusing on careers to the detriment of all the other things that life has to offer. Your job will eventually be taken over by someone else, the company will go on without you, and you will be forgotten about fairly shortly after you leave. It is a brutal truth.

Unfortunately that is just the nature of the beast that is corporate life, it has sharp teeth, a rather bad nature and a very poor memory.

Knowing this then, are the hours you are pouring into this one avenue of your life really that well invested?

Is spending up to a 100 hours a week focusing on one small part of your life really time well invested?

People who travel the path less traveled see their career or any single aspect of their life as just one small part of their journey and existence and not the sole focus.

The path “least traveled” is an unconventional approach and people are right to say that with this more balanced approach one will probably not be able to build empires, reach the lofty career heights, be involved in every moment of their kid’s lives or spend a couple of years of pure self-focused retirement. This is true but…

It is worth remembering that empires do not last, careers are fleeting, children will not want you in their lives 100% of the time and retirements, like office parties, are vastly over-planned and under-executed.

The Key To A Full And Successful Existence

The key to a full and successful life is always to have balance. If you are currently doing 80 on the “Road Most Traveled” maybe it’s time to reflect on exactly how this is shaping your life and whether straying from the road and moving to the “Path Least Traveled”, having more balance in how you spend your time, finance and focus would improve your quality of life.

I have found that, in the most part, so-coined “Life Designers” are quite good at living in the moment and experiencing as many aspects of life as possible in balance, no matter what stage of life they are at. We could learn a lot from these guys on how to enjoy life and live more fully involved with everything it has to offer, no matter what your age or situation.

-If nothing else why not try it, if it’s not for you it is very easy to find your way back to the road again: just follow the noise.

Jonny Gibaud writes for the love of Helping People, Inspiring People, and Katie Holmes. He honed his unique writing style through his refusal to read for fear the words would attack him and borrowed his life philosophies from the local stray terrier but plans to give aspects of them back.

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A Reminder About Ramit Sethi’s Personal Finance Bootcamp

Remember to check out my video interview with Ramit Sethi from I Will Teach You To Be Rich. Ramit has been the personal finance king for over four years, and his book is now a New York Times best-seller. If you want to get your finances in shape for 2010, sign up for his 6-week bootcamp through Thrilling Heroics and get $75 off (details here). Here’s what you’ll get:

• Week 1 – Unearth secret credit card hacks. Find better credit cards and negotiate with your credit card companies. Get perks from free airline flights to free hotel stays with “secret” credit card hacks you aren’t currently using. Get a plan in place to pay off your credit card debt once and for all!
• Week 2 – Stick it to the big banks. Negotiate fees and get rid of them with step-by-step scripts. Use the support of Ramit’s community to switch banks if necessary.
• Week 3 – Retire early and happy. Why your friends haven’t invested; how to become rich on $100/month; how to legally evade taxes!
• Week 4 – Spend guilt-free on the things you love. How to get out of the joy-fear-guilt cycle of debt spending. How to spend money on what you love and cut back on everything else.
• Week 5 – Automate your way to freedom. Spend just a few hours a month managing your money, and stop letting it manage you. Special techniques for those who are freelancing, self-employed, or who have irregular income!
• Week 6 – Invest like a pro without taking the risks. How to automate your investing so your money works for you. The top ten mistakes people make when investing — are you making one of these? Running the numbers on investment strategies (with Ramit’s help!)

Click here to see Ramit’s detailed video interview or sign up for his personal finance bootcamp!

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Although he’s based in the Bay Area, I reached out to him and learned that he’s originally from my hometown in Northern California. The first time I met Ramit in person was one chilly winter day in 2006 when he was in Sacramento to visit his family, and I had the chance to interview him about his education, entrepreneurship experience, and his perspectives on new media.

One of the first bold moves Ramit made in his career was to call up Seth Godin and negotiate a job opportunity with him! He later consulted with Omidyar Network, the philanthropic social innovation firm started by Ebay founder Pierre Omidyar. He got himself featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, NPR, ABC News, CNBC, and more, sharing personal finance tips and bolstering his readership at I Will Teach You To Be Rich to over 250,000 visitors per month!

In March, Ramit published his book by the same title, which instantly hit #1 on Amazon and made him a NYT bestselling author. His educational background in social psychology translated well into a book that helps you make real behavioral change:

At last, for a generation that’s materially ambitious yet financially clueless comes I Will Teach You To Be Rich, Ramit Sethi’s 6-week personal finance program for 20-to-35-year-olds. A completely practical approach delivered with a nonjudgmental style that makes readers want to do what Sethi says, it is based around the four pillars of personal finance—banking, saving, budgeting, and investing—and the wealth-building ideas of personal entrepreneurship.

These days Ramit hangs out with Tim Ferriss (check out his feature on the 4-Hour Workweek blog about the psychology of money and how to set up an automated personal finance system, with great excerpts from Ramit’s book).

How could you ask for a better twentysomething role model for personal finance and entrepreneurship success?

I met up with Ramit a time or two in San Francisco since first meeting him in 2006, but I’ve been wanting to catch up with him for a video interview for a while now to see what has changed in the last three years. Just my luck, this week he’s turning the six-week personal finance program in his best-selling book into a real online bootcamp where he’ll take you by the hand through a step-by-step online curriculum to automate and optimize your finances before the end of 2009, so I offered to help him promote the bootcamp if he’d sit down and answer some questions for you guys here.

Check out the video interview below for the following:

• Learn more about the I Will Teach You To Be Rich 6-Week Personal Finance Bootcamp
• Entrepreneurship, experimentation & failure
• How the things you spend your money on reflect your values
• How Ramit negotiated a book deal from his blog
• How he promoted his book to #1 on Amazon and the New York Times bestseller list
• Personal finance & entrepreneurship tips for travelers & expats
• Learn about the I Will Teach You To Be Rich Scholarship for Social Innovation

Interview with Ramit Sethi of IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com

Want to get your finances in shape for 2010? I highly recommend you sign up for Ramit’s bootcamp.

Stop worrying about your money. If you invest just 6 weeks with Ramit, you can set up an automated system to handle your money so you can focus on starting a side business, living your dream life, traveling, or whatever’s important to you. It won’t be easy…but you can do it with a plan. Ramit will be doing live weekly webcasts to answer your specific questions, and you’ll be surrounded by a huge community of other people like you who can share hacks, tips and suggestions for the problems you face.

The I Will Teach You To Be Rich bootcamp includes:

• Weekly live classes from Ramit where he’ll kick your ass to take action implementing an advanced automation system, and answer your specific questions
• Expert guest speakers on entrepreneurship, finding dream jobs, earning more, and advanced topics—every week
• Curriculum with detailed action steps on saving, earning more, automation, and entrepreneurship—which will let you start 2010 off fresh
• Private community with hundreds of other members who are going through the same thing as you (and are dedicated to taking ACTION)

This is a great chance for young professionals to learn not just the technical answers to your questions, but the psychological side of staying on top of your finances and making forward progress.

The special offer for Thrilling Heroics readers:

Here’s what I’m going to do for you guys if you’re interested in participating in the 6-week program:

• If you sign up through this link here on Thrilling Heroics, you’re going to get $75 cash back from me. So rather than $199 you’ll be getting this 6-week bootcamp for only about 125 bucks. Sign up here before Friday, November 6.
• The first 5 people who sign up through my link in the next 24 hours will get $100 back. That’s effectively 50% off. You have until 8am PST Wednesday, November 4.

Registration is ONLY open from now through Friday, November 6th. If you’re not TOTALLY satisfied, just email Ramit for a no-questions-asked, 100% money-back guarantee any time within 30 days.

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Purchase the IWTYTBR bootcamp by clicking this link only. You may want to clear your cache first to make sure my cookie is in place, so you guarantee your discount.
2. After you receive confirmation of your order, email me your receipt with the transaction ID. If you’re one of the first 5 to get $100 back, I’ll let you know, otherwise you’re still guaranteed $75 cash back, plus another goody or two Ramit & I might throw in later.
3. After the 30-days money-back guarantee has passed, you can look forward to receiving a cash payment from me via PayPal (wouldn’t be fair to let you run off with my cash and then cancel the bootcamp).

To learn more about Ramit Sethi, social psychology, technology in business, scrappy startups, and x-man abilities, make sure you also read my 2006 interview with him.

Feature photo from You 2.0

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Naturally, Steve is a huge inspiration for digital nomads and location-independent types. But it really struck me when I came across this video of his presentation at Xerox PARC in 1989 about his solar- and human-powered journey on a custom-built technobike: he was an eager young guy like myself, extremely passionate about his work and about living life on his own terms, and forging new ways of working remotely from anywhere in the world.

Now he lives part-time on a beautiful, fully-loaded sailboat, a 44-foot steel raised-salon pilothouse cutter called the Nomadness, which is sure to induce envy in geeks and boat lovers alike. You can follow his sailing and digital nomad adventures at Nomadness.com and check out all of his experiments and projects at Nomadic Research Labs.

There has been a lot of talk about passion and responsibilities recently. My friend Jun is someone I know is really intrigued by the mobile lifestyle, but he recently wrote about the challenges of doing what he’s truly passionate about because of his responsibilities to family. Then “Nerdy Nomad” Kirsty asked if it’s selfish to reject the average lifestyle, and others’ expectations of you, to follow your passion.

The below essay from Steve is something that instantly resounded with me. (Perhaps it was the Pink Floyd opening!) In his words, “this little essay from 1992 captures some of the mad, driven intensity that is the engine behind creativity and growth.” Roberts touches on the desire to embrace those serendipitous moments where your life could take you down very different, alternative paths, rejecting the template lifestyle even if it means you go broke, and living life consciously and not falling into mediocre escapes. Steve Roberts is someone who has a few more years, a bit more wisdom, and a lot more experience, and I found this too powerful not to share with you.

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Passion: The Heart of Nomadness

Dangerous Influences

Maybe it’s the music, classic Pink Floyd penetrating me as I write this. Wordless memories overtake the present, obscuring it, rendering the computer puzzling even while practiced fingers perform their familiar little dance.  Perhaps madness lurks herein:  time is inside-out; the swirling vapors of time are suddenly real.  Guitars like scalpels part the callused years, revealing visions of terrible glorious color overlaid upon freight trains rumbling gritty in the night, memories of adventures and obsessions potent enough to raise gasps and gooseflesh… my first astonished discoveries, 20 years ago, that life is a thing of infinite potential.

I recall suddenly a day up Boulder Canyon, long ago, free-climbing far beyond my skills.  The rock, hard and hot against my cheek… my legs, vibrating with the tension of death’s leering proximity… and on top of it all, that crazy moment when reality gets lost among a dozen hotly competing alternatives – each convincing, each alluring, each equally fatal if mistaken for the real thing.  I grinned into the stone and inched impossibly upward, curiously disconnected, vision overloaded, abruptly FREE…

Yes, freedom.  That’s what is behind all this:  the exhilaration of walking empty-handed away from Somebody Else’s Plan and sticking out a thumb, leaning against the superstructure of a drawbridge for a thrumming three A.M. liftoff, dynamiting a love nest with walls where once were windows, releasing the brakes what-the-hell and flying with a shout down a mountain road, releasing reality and flying wide-eyed into the infinity of psychosensory unknowns… it all tastes of freedom.

Try, please, to capture this.  Reach into your past, before marriage and business, and examine the brief gaps between commitments.  Inside those gaps are subtle tears in the fabric – glimpses of wild seductive alternatives to everything you knew at the time… other realities inches away, dancing just out of reach, teasing you with infinite possibilities even as you turned dutifully from one chapter of your destiny to the next.

But did you let it lure you away?  Did you leap into the unknown and hitchhike off somewhere, not caring where, yearning for the sweet sense of movement and discovery?  Did you shock your family and chase a crazy dream, abandoning years of conditioning to let that spark inside you explode into flame?

And what about now?  Is the notion of staying ten years in one place depressing… but somehow inevitable?  Are you doing exactly what you want to do with your life, not only at this moment but at 9:00 Monday morning and tonight in bed?

The most delicious freedom comes from venturing beyond the assumptions that other people have made about you.  The real prisons are those of expectation:  denying the possibilities of your life in order to be what somebody else wants you to be.  I’ve watched brilliance tarnish, fade, and finally disappear in the murk of a stupid marriage.  I’ve seen those capable of pushing the big envelope waste a lifetime waiting for little ones with paychecks, rationalizing lost time with vague dreams of retirement travel and future ventures.  I’ve seen others, constrained by circumstances or interests to a steady job, discard all leftover energy in a nightly haze of television, alcohol, drugs, religion, or dull routine.

I am not a proselytizer for nomadics – or anything at all, really, other than what’s already inside you.  There are countless ways to explore that, and my own peculiar choices are obviously not for everybody.  But damn it, do you have any idea how much brilliance and wit rots away undeveloped?  We need to do away with the numbing influences of this mad age and start developing passion.  What could you teach others if you applied your skills and insights to whatever you love most?  Could you change the world if given a chance, even if only through a tiny increment in the evolution of intelligence?

Today’s assignment:  do something that involves risk, learning, awe, passion, courage, invention, insight, or the sweet sparking of another’s awareness.

Tidal Passion

Let’s talk about passion.  It’s a driving theme of nomadness, of learning, of life in general – it’s the crystallization of dreams, the lust for evolution, the antithesis of comfort.

Without passion, life is spent waiting… waiting… waiting for someone else to make it all seem worthwhile.

With it, growth is a way of life and you are in control.

Passion is not an intellectual notion, nor a psychological abstraction.  It often appears for a while in association with sex, but that’s not what it’s all about either.  Passion is raw and all-consuming, and can’t be replaced with religion, New Age interpretations of experience, academic compartmentalizations of the universe, pleasure seeking, or a romp up the career ladder.  It’s intense, almost violent; it renders everything else in life unimportant while driving you on a quest of personally epic proportion.

Something like that is not to be taken lightly, especially if you once felt it but now sense it slipping away.

The problem is that our cultures, in different ways, discourage passion – although not overtly, of course.  We’re politely encouraged to excel, to invent, to make something of ourselves.  But the people who actually do so have had to struggle past the boundaries of a society that offers up numbing entertainment, reduces education to the level of homogenization, discourages personal risk in its corporate world, applauds conformity, treats the exceptional as aberrations, and rewards the successful with that spectacularly sanitized mediocrity known cynically as suburban bliss.

There’s an abrupt boundary between the haves and the have nots, as far as passion is concerned.  You can’t just dabble in passion – it’s all or nothing.  Suddenly finding it makes you resent Christians for appropriating that otherwise useful term “born again”; losing it makes you feel dead.

No, there’s no such thing as a passion dilettante.  Your life is either driven by a grand, magnificent, all-encompassing design… or it isn’t.

What is possible, unfortunately, is to live passionately for a few years then suffer through the agonizing process of watching it slip away – without even knowing whether it’s recoverable.  It must be a bit like Parkinson’s Disease…  the mind goes, but slowly enough that you witness your own dissolution and understand perfectly well what it means.

I am discovering, however, that passion can be viewed as a tidal, and thus cyclic, phenomenon.  It has been in my life, certainly, with every ebb a slow tragedy and every flow an exuberant celebration of new growth.  I recoil from stasis with the fire of a new project… then burn out and fall back into stasis.  The question is:  how can one short-circuit this process and keep passion alive?  Could we survive nonstop passion, day in and day out?  Is endless passion even possible?  If we see it slipping, can we snatch it back?

One way, I think, is with landmarks.  For me, it’s a strange mix of favorite road music, an amusing juxtaposition of nomadic system design concepts, fantasies of magical encounters Out There, and a few freeze-frame images of intense romance or adventure etched like lightning flashes on my brain.

Another way to hang on to it is by spending time with passionate people – other mad, driven souls who brave the chortlings of the complacent, celebrate risk, and fear not the specter of bankruptcy.  It’s powerfully reinforcing stuff, and when you forget your own passion, a spark from someone else’s can reignite the blaze.

Yet another way is through obsessive learning:  peeking under rocks, exploring different cultures, chasing seductive unknowns, and emerging into the sunlight from the mine of your own specialties to exchange information with those in other mines (a process better known as consulting).  Learning is a delicious addiction, even though schools usually present it as a method of working for approval rather than daring to reveal the terrible secret that education is actually a magnificent form of play.  Satisfying your curiosity at every opportunity is a good way to keep your passion alive.

Now let’s list a few methods that don’t work:

• Making lists of things to do, especially if they represent the intellectualization of something about which you were once passionate.
• Perennially reshuffling your workspace, filing systems, business structure, software choices, circle of friends, or hometown – all in the name of correcting problems that are interfering with your pursuit of the Big Dream.
• Waiting for someone else to come along and solve your problems, or, if you’re wealthy, attempting to subcontract your quest.
• Praying, drinking, getting stoned, swilling coffee, playing computer games, watching TV, or otherwise engaging in any numbing and time-consuming ritual that by direct effect or superstition is somehow involved with soothing your psyche or warding off danger.  (Not that all these things are necessarily bad, mind you, they just don’t have much to do with passion… even though some of them feel pretty good.  Why, one day on a coffee buzz I broke 2 million in Crystal Quest and celebrated with a drink.)

The important thing is recognizing when your passion is slipping – and stopping it before it’s too late.  The trappings and rewards of past brilliance echo sweetly with the magic of days gone by, and it’s blissful to sail upon remembered waves if you ignore the fact that you’re not on a boat anymore.

Remember why you are.  Life is only once, and slips by so smoothly that you can get away with coasting through a whole career and still look pretty good.  Think about what you really want.  Grasp it with unshakable passion and focused desire.   Everything else is secondary.

© 1992, 2004 by Steven K. Roberts
Nomadic Research Labs

Reprinted with permission

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Releasing a free WP template is something I’ve been talking about for six months, and I’m excited to finally set my Thrilling Heroics design loose as a free, open-source theme to help you build your own awesome blog! This is my personal SEO- and social media-optimized design (that you see in action right here on this page) which I’ve experimented with, tweaked, and perfected for a year and a half!

You can also see custom installations I’ve built at Business Backpacker and In Search of Sanuk. And of course, check out the live demo site here.

I’m proud to make this available publicly as free software licensed under the GNU GPL 3.0 license. That means it’s free to download, free to use it anyway you like for your commercial or personal blog, modify, alter, improve upon and share.

Just Give It To Me Already!

See Live Demo
Download for Free!
See full details & installation instructions here

ThrillingTheme is largely based on FreshNews 1.0 from WooThemes and WP Framework, to which I added my own design elements, incorporated support for several prominent plugins, and added tremendous amounts of custom code to help you customize your blog and easily integrate it with your social media presence. I spoke to Adii from WooThemes yesterday to get his blessing (I have built designs on top of their awesome premium themes for many of my sites and highly recommend the whole WooThemes portfolio), and I owe thanks to Magnus Jepson, Jai Nischal Verma, and Vladimir Prevolac for a lot of design and code inspiration.

Fully-Customizable

The powerful admin options page allows you to make changes without editing code: you can upload your own custom logo image; automatically resize, crop & frame your own photo snapshot in the header, use mine, or leave it blank; change color schemes; easily integrate your Twitter, Flickr & Facebook profiles; add your Google Analytics tracking code, and manage your ad slots. Everything is plug-and-play!

Social Media Integration

I know how valuable a fully-integrated web presence can be when you’re building your personal brand and connecting with new people online. ThrillingTheme makes it easy to integrate your latest Twitter updates, recent Flickr photos, and even insert a link to your Facebook group or fan page with beautiful, pre-designed widgets.

Increasing Your Readership

I’ve also optimized ThrillingTheme (painstakingly over 3 years of experimentation) to keep visitors on your website longer and increase your subscribers. You’ll notice an attractive RSS & email subscription box in the sidebar, and a tabbed content box (set your own featured category, automatic popular posts, recent comments & tags). Single post pages are specially-designed to encourage visitors to share on social bookmarking sites with quick submission buttons for Facebook, Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon & more, and I’ve built in support for the WordPress Related Posts plugin to encourage readers to dig deeper into your site.

Other theme features:

• 4 Color Schemes – Shades of Grey, Thrilling Orange, Black & White, Icy Blue
• Search Engine Optimized
• Auto-sized featured images & thumbnails
• Integration with FeedBurner email subscriptions
• 125×125 and 300×250 ad management
• Blog category dropdowns
• 3 widget-ready sidebar areas
• Built-in support for WordPress Related Posts
• Gravatar support in comments
• Compressed CSS & minified JavaScript for faster load time
• Cross-browser compatible with all major browsers
• Tested with WordPress 2.5 and up
• Custom page templates for archives, sitemap & photo galleries
• Easy customization with the integrated theme options page
• Totally FREE for commercial & individual use

See Live Demo

See full theme details & installation instructions here

Download ThrillingTheme 1.0.6 now!

Filesize: 420.95 KB | 1410 downloads

Thanks so much for your continued support and encouragement!

Help & Support

For more on how to install and how to use the special functions of this theme, please see the full download page. If you have unanswered questions and bug reports, leave your comments below. I can’t provide free support for this theme, but I will do my best to keep it updated and fix any major errors that you guys report here. If you urgently need help, I am for hire, and I’ll even offer a special low rate for anyone who needs a new WordPress blog installed on BlueHost or DreamHost and help customizing ThrillingTheme.

Like This? I Also Need Your Help with My Next Product

Please help spread the good word to your friends online by Stumbling, Tweeting, and otherwise sharing this post. More importantly, I’ve also been working on my first ebook for release about establishing your web presence and using social media & blogging to build a successful solopreneur business.

I’m interested to hear what specific questions you have and problems you need help with? Please add your questions and feedback in the comments, and if you like, subscribe to my newsletter to be notified when the book is coming out and get other future goodies. Thanks!

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In June, a new blogger on the lifestyle design scene sent me a great email seeking “some real world insight from people who have gone before me and are still trekking on the path to financial freedom.” Rob Granholm has built up his freelance web design and tech support business, and at The Life Design Project he has set upon a fantastic mission to document his journey implementing Tim Ferriss’ principles in The 4-Hour Workweek, trying to find avenues to create passive income from what he knows so he can be fully self-employed and get “a little of that dream living” going on.

I’ve watched him make a ton of progress, and in the last few months we’ve become friends, but in June he asked me:

What was the single catalyzing product, idea, or venture that took you from driving a beat up old car with hopes, ideas, and willpower…to making thousands a month to free your lifestyle?

The short answer is that—truth be told—I don’t have thousands coming in each month!

I’m still very much in the early stages of this lifestyle design journey just like Rob. Figuring out what your purpose is, building a business you’re passionate about, and consciously living and pursuing your ideal lifestyle is a journey, not a destination. It’s an ongoing trip where you never stop learning, you never quite get there, because your interests will always be changing and you’re always growing. People like us will always have new goals to attain, every time we achieve the last one.

The long answer: you have to re-frame the problem.

I too read The 4-Hour Workweek, and it just blew my mind. It changed my outlook on work and how we spend our time.

What really sparked my “success,” or my ability to have the live-anywhere lifestyle was actually the realization that I didn’t need thousands of dollars per month to live the way I truly wanted to! It was realizing that I don’t have to play the game like most people do, “keeping up with the Joneses” as they say. I scaled back the stuff I own, got it to the point where I can easily move around with a backpack and a carry-on bag, and started only putting money into things that I really want. If you are into the location-independence thing, or the “mini-retirement” as Tim calls it, you can find tons of places around the world where you can live fairly luxuriously for $1000 or less per month.

At least in my experience, rather than play by the same rules most people are playing by, I looked at what kind of lifestyle I wanted, what kind of place I wanted to live in, and realized that it could easily be had for much less than you’d think if you look in the right places (obviously, for me, Thailand is where I chose to live for at least a year or so).

When I first read 4HWW, I was doing a little bit of freelance WordPress work on the side while I was employed full-time as assistant to the Dean at my university’s College of Business. (It was a great job, but I just didn’t want to work for someone else for long.) I started really leveraging the freelance business and, thanks to my mentors and a few really fantastic early clients, turned it into something that could support me. It was my realization that there was a need to be filled with all these businesses jumping into the blogosphere and social networks. I knew a ton of designers, but no one who knew how to code for WordPress at the time. So I started Thrilling Heroics Consulting.

And then it was getting over myself and realizing that I had actual marketable skills that people would pay for if I communicated them effectively and packaged them properly. Now I’m making a transition from a programmer to a consultant, coaching non-profit organizations and innovative social entrepreneurs on how to build their tribe with social media, and turning my one-time project work into ongoing service plans that can provide a more consistent income each month.

There was no single catalyzing change! Entrepreneurship and lifestyle design are a series of experiments and failed attempts, but if you have the persistence to keep pursuing your goals, eventually you’ll get there.

What does your ideal lifestyle look like? Can you achieve it by bending the rules? Changing the game?

How much money do you really need to do the things you want to do? If you’re willing to stop keeping up with the Joneses, it’s likely much less than you think.

What are you good at that provides value for others? Do you have some marketable expertise or skills that others will be willing to pay you for?

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(If you’re familiar with Gary already and you just want the meat, skip down to the second video on this page to see Gary’s exclusive message for the Thrilling Heroics community.)

Garyvee, as he’s called, can teach you a lot about following your passion.

Gary’s a wine guy. He’s the 33-year-old director of Wine Library in Springfield, New Jersey, where he has successfully built up a following of over 80,000 viewers a day through blogging, Twitter, and Facebook. Wine Library TV, the company’s video blog, now has over 750 video podcasts. To quote his bio:

With a wealth of knowledge and an entrepreneurial spirit, Gary spent every weekend of his college years at his parents’ store, rebranding the family business as Wine Library and establishing himself as a respected expert. As the store’s only wine buyer, he sampled every wine that entered the store. Customers depended on Gary for his advice and within a five year time period, Wine Library grew from a $4 million dollar business to a $45 million business.

But Gary’s career took a new turn with the advent of Wine Library TV. Gary’s key goals are twofold: “First, I want people to try different wines. How can you have a favorite if you only know a few? Second, I tell people to trust their palates. If a wine appeals to your palate, then it’s a good choice. Don’t feel pressured to like popular brands or what experts recommend. Buy what ‘brings the thunder’ for you.”

Even if you’re no wine connoisseur, Gary’s experience in social media and business has far-reaching implications in this new economy.

In internet currency, Gary Vaynerchuk has more reach than Tim Ferriss, who you should be familiar with if you’re a reader of this blog. Gary has spoken around the world and been called the “Social Media Sommelier,” and he’s successfully leveraged all this exposure into a 10-book deal with HarperCollins, national TV appearances, and much more.

At the Web 2.0 Expo, Gary put out a call to action: he says it’s time to stop doing shit you hate and embrace what you love. The web makes it possible to go out on your own and make a living doing what you care about. In his new book out this week, Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In On Your Passion, he’ll share his path to success and teach you how to do just that.

(If you’re reading via email, you may need to click through to see the video above.)

How I Royally Botched a Great Interview Opportunity

I had the huge opportunity to chat with Gary last Thursday in anticipation of his book launch. He’s an extremely busy guy promoting Crush It! all across the web, and was kind enough to meet me bright-and-early at 7am his time on Ustream for a live discussion. I was so excited for this interview I couldn’t sleep!

I screwed up! EPIC FAIL.

My blogging buddies Adam Baker and David Turnbull were on the line, along with a few others, and I know we put on a great show for a lucky few, however it was 4am for a large bulk of Thrilling Heroics readers back on the West Coast and I was hoping to get the recording up on the blog for anyone who couldn’t tune in live.

But, to my disbelief, when I got off the call with Gary, all I had was a recording of my side of the call, with me sitting there talking to myself looking like an idiot!

I’d heard positive reviews of Ustream for web-based video interviews, and I’d spent the four days prior preparing and testing with the live broadcasting interface, but for whatever reason, it just didn’t work out as expected. Lesson learned: I should not have used a new technology I’m unfamiliar with for such an important opportunity.

Gary Vaynerchuk’s Truly Badass, Exclusive Video for Thrilling Heroics (Must Watch!)

Gary and the guys he works with effin’ rock hardcore style, and they went the extra mile and made my month. Because we didn’t get the recording during the interview, Gary took a few minutes to videotape answers to two of my biggest questions for the Thrilling Heroics community:

• How can Gen-Y start applying your advice to “stop doing shit you hate” and the lessons in Crush It! to gear their career around their passion?
• How can the non-profit & social entrepreneurship world leverage social media & transparency to be successful?

Make sure you check this video out for Gary’s unconventional advice for Gen-Y and the non-profit world

I was truly blown away that with his busy schedule promoting the new book, he made time to do this. I pushed hard because I wanted to share with you guys, and I owe a lot to Marcus at VaynerMedia for all his help.

Gary still runs this huge multimillion-dollar business like a mom-and-pop store. He makes time to answer everyone, to interact and respond with the little guys like myself, and I’ve watched him take full ownership of his mistakes. He’s someone who knows how to provide superior customer service, and how to go above and beyond. He treats everyone like a rockstar.

He’s incredibly enthusiastic and engaging in his videos. He’ll be uniquely honest and transparent about his feelings. He’s authentic and entertaining, and all of these things have made him a success. He’s real. He gives a shit. He’s himself.

He’s not afraid to call people out on their bullshit, he advocates radical transparency, and hustling your ass off to make a living doing what you’re passionate about.

If you want to make a living with your passion, pick up your copy of Gary’s new book Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In On Your Passion today.

If you enjoy a nice glass of wine now and then, you can find him at Wine Library TV, and even if not, make sure you subscribe to his social media video podcasts and follow @garyvee on Twitter for some really useful tips.

###

I would have loved to debut the new Thrilling Heroics interview series with my great discussion with Gary Vaynerchuk if I’d had my act together, but I dropped the ball, and Gary, I’m sorry brother. I’ve now got my own recording ability properly set up on my hardware though, and I’m honored to have Clay Collins as my guest on the first episode of Thrilling Heroics TV. If you haven’t seen it, make sure you watch my discussion with Clay for more about finding your passion and creating a purpose-driven business.

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This discussion has been months in the making. Clay Collins caught my attention long ago when he was writing at The Growing Life and Finance Your Freedom. Today he’s dedicating his attention to a fantastic program teaching people how to build purpose-driven freedom businesses.

Clay is an expert marketer, with solid knowledge of market research, testing, keyword research and SEO. But he’s also someone who uses this stuff for good. Clay Collins is someone who has built his life and his business around helping others find their purpose.

His writing has always been really compelling, but I feel like I’ve watched him find his true passion over the last year or so and the quality of his message has become truly captivating. Finance Your Freedom evolved into Project Mojave, where Clay and a faculty of awesome folks like Jonathan Mead, Laura Roeder, Johnny Truant, Michael Martine, and Dave Navarro have helped tons of people turn their passion into profitable businesses that can take them out of the 9-to-5.

I had the chance to get to know Clay better and get his perspective on freedom and purpose in this 25-minute interview:

Clay Collins Interview from Cody McKibben on Vimeo.

You can grab Project Mojave’s impressive, free manifesto The Liberation Revolution and check out this opportunity to get involved in the 4-month course for free!

Project Mojave’s doors open for 200 more students starting Tuesday. That’s tomorrow! What makes this different than crappy programs like Teaching Sells is that Clay and other teachers will actually hold your hand through the process of building and launching a product or business. Clay is going to personally take one lucky member’s idea and build an automated freedom business out of it himself.

Even if you’re not interested in the course, make sure you check out Clay’s blog, where he’s got tons of great, motivational content and of course, the inspirational ebook, for free, and follow him on Twitter @claycollins. Some great posts from ProjectMojave.com:

• 47 Decent Lifestyle Design Resources
• The Freedom Business Blueprint
• The Business Ideas Litmus Test

Clay on finding your purpose—it’s a journey, not a destination:

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Everyone keeps telling you it’s time to stop doing shit you hate. You should drop the stuff that isn’t meaningful to you, and do epic shit that matters to you.

If you’re a reader of my blog, you know The 4-Hour Workweek is still required reading for leading a kickass life. But along comes The Zero Hour Workweek!

If you ever wanted to figure out what you’re passionate about and learn how to create your own dream job, Jonathan Mead has shared a brilliant ebook that you need to download right now and read. And it’s free!

Jonathan is the incredibly compelling author of Reclaim Your Dreams and blogs at Illuminated Mind. In The Zero Hour Workweek he tells his own story of how he liberated himself from a traditional job (which you know I’m all about) and started getting paid to be himself.

Society typically defines “work” as the stuff you don’t want to do, but have to do. Most people don’t know why this is the way it is, and they don’t take the initiative to question that assumption, so they accept that work is supposed to be a chore. But Jonathan recognized at an early age (like I did, like you did) that work and play shouldn’t have to be mutually exclusive.

“For a long time I didn’t know it was possible to stop participating. I didn’t realize that I could choose that, or something different. That was until I started testing this convention: the cultural consensus that work must not be fun.“

Jonathan figured out how to make work fun though, and that it is possible to get paid to exist! He’ll show you how to figure out what you’re good at and passionate about, and how to make money doing what you love.

“You have to choose your purpose. You have to choose the way you contribute value that is meaningful to others. You have to find a way to pay yourself for the value you share. “

He will show you how to create a clear, remarkable message that people resonate with. He will tell you why it’s important to use things like blogging and Twitter to find your tribe and build a community of enthusiastic people who share your passion.

You’ll learn how important it is to focus your time and your energy on the activities that will have the biggest impact, and build relationships with a core group of people who can hold you accountable to your goals.

If you want to get paid to be you, the key is that you have to find a way to provide real value to others while you’re doing what you love: maybe through selling an ebook or information product that you created, building a video training site, leading workshops, doing coaching, teleseminars, or consulting, for instance.

You’ll hear inspiring words of wisdom from folks who are are striving to live an authentic lifestyle, providing value doing what they care about: Danielle Laporte from White Hot Truth, Chris Guillebeau from The Art of Nonconformity, Glen Allsop from PluginID, Nathalie Lussier from Raw Foods Witch, and Charlie Gilkey from Productive Flourishing.

I was sincerely gracious to be a part of these Zero Hour Case Studies myself! I’m overwhelmingly honored to be included among these really remarkable people in the book.

When Jonathan asked me to contribute to his book, I thought to myself, “I don’t consider myself the next big lifestyle guru or expert.” I’ll be the first to tell you that it’s a long hard journey—one that I’m certainly still in the early stages of and one that I will always be on—because building your life around providing real value and what you’re passionate about is not a destination, it’s an evolving, changing exercise in personal growth. But Jon had some really spectacular questions for me that I thought you would find useful:

Why the World Needs People to Do What They Love for a Living

“People who love what they do simply do it better than people who are ‘just doing their job’! I don’t know yet if a world where everyone truly loves their work is possible, but I know that the individuals who make the biggest impact in the world and move society towards positive social change definitely tend to enjoy their work so much that they work 60-80 hour weeks. It doesn’t feel like work for them!”

If I Had to Start All Over

“I find that there are things you are good at, things that you enjoy doing, and things that you can get paid for. There is a small area where they overlap, and that is where your business will be most successful. To be honest, I got my start doing things I was good at and could get paid for but that I wasn’t that excited by. So it can be a struggle to reposition yourself and focus more on the things you enjoy. Try to remain focused on the things that you really enjoy and are passionate about from the very beginning and you’ll be on the path to getting paid to be you!”

On Empowering Your Tribe

“Build your community wisely. Use tools like Twitter and Facebook to connect with like-minded people. Answer comments and emails from your website. Be helpful, answer questions (LinkedIn Answers, Twitter search, and Yahoo Answers are good for this). Address complaints and misunderstandings amicably. Find and empower the biggest influencers in your community—let your followers shine!—and continually, graciously thank and reward your True Fans!”

Those are just some of my thoughts on the Zero Hour idea, just to give you a taste of how much Jonathan’s philosophy resonates with my own. But don’t stop there! Jonathan’s writing, ideas, and advice are about 17 times better than mine, and he’ll key you into finding your “secret weapon” for Getting Paid to Be You.

“Getting paid to exist is about eliminating the lines between ‘work’ and ‘life.’ It’s about demolishing the disconnect between the value you create for others on the one hand, and the passion and natural talents you have on the other.”

The Zero Hour Workweek will reframe your definition of work: it doesn’t have to be a chore, it’s the exchange of value with others. So what value will you share with the world?

Steal this ebook: The Zero Hour Workweek: How I Liberated Myself from the 9 to 5 By Getting Paid to Be Me

###

Upcoming interview with Gary V!

If doing what you’re passionate about gets you fired up, please make sure you tune in for my video interview with Gary Vaynerchuk on Thursday—the enthusiastic voice of Wine Library TV. Gary has a new book coming out on October 13th called Crush It!: Why Now Is the Time to Cash In On Your Passion, and I have a fantastic opportunity to ask him a few questions live on Ustream this Thursday at 7am EST / 6pm BKK.

Visit Thrilling Heroics TV on Ustream to sign up. You can sign up for a free Ustream account or use your Facebook login. Click on the big “Follow” button at the top-right of the page or find the “RSVP” button. Or you can simply come back for our live discussion at 7am EST on Thursday October 8th. I know that’s early for you West Coast readers, so I’ll surely post video to Thrilling Heroics before the end of the week. This is my first in a new series of video interviews, and there will be more great discussions to come!

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I’ve talked before about the impact Dwight Turner is making in Bangkok—making it easy for people to volunteer and contribute to charitable causes in Thailand. We have gone to hand out food to the homeless near Democracy Monument here in Bangkok, we’ve taken the great kids at Chonburi Children’s Center to the beach, we’ve volunteered with the infants and toddlers at Friends For All Children (F.F.A.C.) nursery, we’ve held events to raise money for an urban garden installation project here in Bangkok and for medical aide for refugees. Dwight’s hard work has even earned him the attention of CNN’s new local Asia site.

I’ve met incredible people with touching stories. I’ve made incredible friends with some of the other volunteers.

To commemorate September 11th this year, In Search of Sanuk hosted Bangkok’s Twestival celebration. Twestival is a Twitter-inspired social event where attendees can meet other Twitter users (much like our monthly Bangkok Tweetup), but also be a part of a global awareness and fundraising campaign for charitable causes around the world. We raised money for two orphanages near the Burmese border—Baan Unrak and Baan Dada.

The event was spectacular. Over 350 people came out to party on the Fraser Suites’ poolside rooftop bar and support our cause. People recorded and shared our social media-powered event live. We raised over $2400 US, which can go a long way in Southeast Asia. The founders of Digital Democracy even showed up to interview volunteers Jen, Danielle, and myself about emerging technologies in Thailand and about how the global Twitter event was helping make a social change:

[Update: Sorry I didn't realize this first video was an updated, longer version. I don't expect you to watch all 30 minutes, but if you're interested, scan to -20:30 (reverse count-down, not count-up) to see me chatting about the social media aspect of Twestival, and -11:00 to see Julien talking about the green/CSR aspect. If you don't see the video in the feed, visit Mark Belinsky's video page here.]

So here’s the secret: Some of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had have been volunteering with children throughout Thailand.

A few days after the event successfully wrapped, Dwight and I took a 7-hour van ride to hand-deliver donations and visit the two children’s homes with our travel buddies Mark, Joel and Agnes.

Baan Unrak and Baan Dada educate and empower orphaned or otherwise impoverished kids—not only Thais but also Karen and Mon refugees who’ve been driven from their homes and persecuted by the Burmese military dictatorship. The children are instructed in playing musical instruments, sewing, fixing motorbikes, art, languages and technical skills. They’re taught to respect all people, creatures, religion and to practice vegetarianism. The homes also provide jobs for refugees and local families who help care for the children, assist with farming, construction and weaving projects.

Hanging out with kids like these is a transformative experience. They are some of the poorest people in the world, often living in crummy conditions, many have lost their families, yet they are the most cheerful and gracious little people you’ll ever meet.

Words cannot describe, so I’ll let this video do the job for me. This is a montage of many of the great kids I’ve had the opportunity to share time with while helping out at Baan Dada, Baan Unrak, F.F.A.C., Chonburi Center, and more.

Whatever you do, watch this video:

[Update: if you don't see this video in the feed, click here to watch on YouTube]

Spending time with children in need will change your life. Once you begin to understand the loss some of them have experienced, the disadvantage they are at—and yet they still exude love—it should cause you to reevaluate how you look at your own life. You can’t help but smile around some of these kids.

The only activity I’ve found yet that is guaranteed to keep a smile on my face.

Find children in need (they are everywhere, unfortunately). Go and give generously with your time and any other resources you can share.

—

This message is dedicated to a gracious, playful little tyke who lost his life way before his time. Ali Baba lost a battle with disease on Thursday, September 17th, just two days after we said goodbye to him and the other children at Baan Dada. The loss was unbearable and affected a lot of us. Rest in peace, friend.

Ali Baba

If you’d like to make a donation on his behalf, the home is building a new medical clinic and needs your help. You can sponsor a child’s food and healthcare needs for three months for only $187. Donate to Baan Dada.

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I’m a rebel. Be afraid.

I tagged buildings in college. I ran off a handful of Sunday School teachers back in my middle school days. I wrote controversial columns for my high school newspaper that almost got me expelled and I’ve pirated more than a few MP3s in my day.

To most people who know me, though, I’m a straight-laced kind of guy. Definitely not a rabble-rouser. I may have different ideas about things, but I’m no in-your-face revolutionary. And that’s exactly the kind of reputation to I want to have.

Because you know what? I have done things (and intend to continue doing things) that make people uncomfortable, yet still I insist upon keeping a clean image and a sterling reputation.

I make it a point to obey the law most of the time.

Why? Because if I ever find myself on the wrong side of a situation, it’s much more likely that I’ll get out of it without too much trouble. Not only that, but in general society does a pretty good job at keeping things oiled and running smoothly. There are problems, sure, but the vast majority of everyday people, places and things don’t need my help to do their job because they’re doing just fine on their own; if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.

Many people I know who have revolutionary ideas don’t abide by this rule, unfortunately. They find something to rebel about and then keep on screaming at the top of their lungs (sometimes metaphorically, sometimes literally) for things to change. Once you’ve demanded one change, it’s easy to find little problems with anything, which leads to more demands, more yelling, more—let’s be honest—really annoying revolutionaries.

This is a serious problem for people with good ideas everywhere, because in all honesty, most people couldn’t care less about someone else’s ideas or complaints. To them, someone else screaming ‘Viva revolution!’ is the same as the neighbor’s dog barking or a baby crying or a garbage truck driving by at 6am…just more noise pollution to be tolerated until it can be ignored.

By exercising restraint, however, you are able to make it clear that when you speak up, what you are speaking up about is important.

If you, the clean-cut, helpful, friendly, cheerful boy/girl next door are taking action and instigating change, well, then something must really be wrong! Just make sure that something really is wrong, though, because you can only cry wolf once or twice before people start treating you as if you’ve been screaming your head off all along.

Then, of course, there are all the benefits of actually being a respectable part of society in general. Just be a good person and surround yourself with good people and you’ll have a good life. Help old ladies cross the street and hold doors for people. Be polite. Be honest. There’s no need for an ‘us versus them’ mentality for most things in life. Compete with yourself and not others and work on your confidence level. Obey the damn law.

Do these things, and your ability to influence change by drastic action will not be watered down by years of complaining and acting out. You’ll be more than ready to unleash the beast, should you really need to, and make tsunami-sized waves any time you speak up.

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This week, surprisingly, I went to church. There was a time you could have found me in church, but it’s typically not a place for me anymore.

On this particular Friday night, I was invited by my friend Ryan for an Arabic food dinner, and though the church is a Protestant one, my understanding was this was supposed to be some sort of celebration for Ramadan. Ramadan is the Islamic month of fasting, and Muslims practice self-restraint, extra time in prayer and concentration on spirituality.

How Christians Celebrate Ramadan

Free food had attracted a rather diverse group of folks, and I’m fairly certain I wasn’t the only one there who’s not a normal churchgoer. I thought, hey, this is typically a pretty progressive, cool community of Christians, and hey, how cool of them to get together to talk about what this important religious holiday means for another faith community.

Someone, apparently not the normal pastor, stood up in front of the group and started off telling us about how deep a Muslim’s faith runs. The call to prayer, about God’s greatness and how Muhammad is his messenger, is the first thing that a father says to his newborn child and the last thing people recite over your body before they put you six feet under. It can be heard five times a day being chanted from every mosque across the globe. I give them great props for how central they make that in their lives. (Actually for folks who believe in a supreme being, I think Christians could learn a thing or two from many of those ceremonial practices.)

Then the propaganda leaflets started coming out. The speaker started talking about how much of a “foothold” this gives the Islamic religion in people’s lives. And how only we can save them and show them the light. Alright, I thought, so this is how this is gonna go. Y’all are gonna rag on Muslims, talk about how they’re wrong, and then have the gall to eat their food! And that is how you celebrate another culture’s great tradition.

After listening to about one minute and fifteen seconds of this, I stood up and dismissed myself. Although I don’t think my friends share the same sentiment as the group leader that night, I later related to them:

The word Muslim means “servant of God.” They believe in the same damned god as Christians and Jews. Asking them to give up something that is so central in their culture and their identities is akin to asking someone to change the color of their skin. That’s not my idea of a celebration of Ramadan, and it’s certainly not a celebration of any of the extensive shared heritage of these two belief systems.

Most people are ignorant and uninformed (or misinformed) when it comes to other religions. I think it would behoove Christians to learn more about the facts about Jesus’ role in Islam. His name, ‘Īsā, is found 25 times in the Qur’an.

Herman Roborgh, PhD in Islamic Studies, in an article on the paradoxes of Christianity and Islam, states:

Christians and Muslims regard their own faith as the true way yet also affirm the truth of other paths.

It is clear that, for Christians, Christ is the Way to God. Yet Jesus is also presented as saying, ‘many will come from the east and the west to take their places with Abraham’. The Catholic Church acknowledges that those outside the community of the Church can attain salvation, thereby recognising the value of other paths to God.

Similarly, the Qur’an says that God has chosen Islam as the true religion: ‘Today I have perfected your religion for you, completed my blessing upon you, and chosen as your religion Islam.’ But the Qur’an also acknowledges the faith of those outside the community of Muslims: ‘The (Muslim) believers, the Jews, the Christians, and the Sabians—all those who believe in God and the Last Day and do good—will have their rewards with the Lord.’

We Need to Find Common Ground

I spent my time at university studying religions, history and humanities: comparing the fundamentals of Theravada Buddhism (prevalent throughout Southeast Asia) and Christianity, Qur’anic schools of jurisprudence, Calvinist and Catholic theology, orthodox Christian dogma versus liberal Biblical criticism. For my senior thesis, I wrote a historiography of Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship and examined how those manuscripts have impacted the study of rabbinic Judaism and early Christianity.

I was always looking for commonalities, but it still seems that the loudest voices in every religious community are always shouting and bickering about differences.

Sam Harris, a leading atheist and author of The End of Faith, says that people must embrace rationalism, not faith—otherwise they will never overcome their differences:

On the subject of religious belief, we relax standards of reasonableness and evidence that we rely on in every other area of our lives. We relax so totally that people believe the most ludicrous propositions, and are willing to organize their lives around them. Propositions like ‘Jesus is going to come back in the next fifty years and rectify every problem that human beings create’—or, in the Muslim world, ‘death in the right circumstances leads directly to Paradise.’ These beliefs are not very contaminated with good evidence.

[…] this whole style of believing and talking about beliefs leaves us powerless to overcome our differences from one another. We have Christians against Muslims against Jews, and no matter how liberal your theology, merely identifying yourself as a Christian or a Jew lends tacit validity to this status quo. People have morally identified with a subset of humanity rather than with humanity as a whole.

[…] Unless we can erode the prestige of that kind of thinking, we’re not going to be able to undermine these divisions in our world. [Emphasis added]

Religion is responsible for a majority of the wars, genocides, and other atrocities that have befallen us throughout all of human history.

We are still doing the same thing. We think we’re so advanced, so evolved. But we haven’t learned a damned thing from thousands of years of history. When are we going to grow the hell up?

Steve Pavlina, a trusted authority in the blogosphere and personal development circles, says that we must graduate from Christianity:

To its credit Christianity does a decent job of stressing the importance of Love. Jesus’ teachings are all about unconditional love. “Love your neighbor as yourself.” “Turn the other cheek.” Those are worthy messages. Unfortunately the Church doesn’t do a good job of modeling this ideal in practice. It encourages separation between Christians and non-Christians. It creates division instead of promoting unity. You’re either saved or you’re not. Many Christians are raised to be rather unloving toward non-Christians, including the priests themselves. That is unfortunate because this is not at all what Jesus taught.

Christianity does a poor job of embracing Truth. It claims to value honesty and it does promote some degree of self-awareness, but that’s about it. Beyond that it markets a variety of fictional stories as indisputable truth. It doesn’t teach people to accurately interpret and accept what their senses tell them. And it largely ignores the importance of prediction. The lack of Truth-alignment is why many Christians find this belief system largely unhelpful in their day-to-day practical lives. So they’re Christians on Sundays but not on weekdays. Because Christianity is disconnected from Truth, it’s out of touch with reality. If you want to grow in your career, finances, or health while maintaining a strong spiritual focus, you’re basically on your own.

Christianity falls flat in the area of Power too. It teaches people to become dependent on the Church for spiritual guidance instead of cultivating real power as independent conscious beings. It promotes fear and timidity instead of courage. It teaches you to give your power away to an external authority instead of developing your own authority and creativity as a conscious being.

If you want to create an effective moral code for yourself, it must be solidly grounded in reality (aligned with Truth), it must help you cultivate a sense of unconditional love and connection (aligned with Love), and it must empower you to grow (aligned with Power). If it fails to satisfy any of these conditions, then your moral code is ultimately turning you away from conscious growth.

My Experience with Religion

I was raised with a mixed but fairly religious background. In college, I read the Bible cover-to-cover. I was closely involved with a Christian fellowship group: I lead Bible studies, I contributed to an online publication, I even became a vice president for the campus organization. I thought I had “found” religion for myself, and I wanted a deeper understanding of my own faith and that of others, so I chose to major in Humanities & Religious Studies. I spent three years desperately seeking to understand, to believe, and to be accepted within that community of believers.

When my good friend Chris died in 2004, people who think this way told me that he would burn for eternity in hell because he wasn’t a Christian. That was an absurd idea which didn’t align with my experience and will forever stand out in my mind, because my best friend was a far more caring, thoughtful person to me—a true brother—than any member of this new faith community I was striving to be a part of. Chris would have given anything for me.

I could never believe in an angry god like that. I have my own ideas about the transcendent—some form of higher power that could never possibly be understood by our little human brains but that one could label “God”. And I have my own sort of spiritual practices: I find God in the sublime—the great, powerful, beautiful forces of nature and the outdoors.

I pay my respect to that higher power by pouring my love into other people: by striving to be a decent person, a helpful, loving friend, and by giving back to those in need.

People Make the World What It Is.

Whether you believe in God or not, we have to take responsibility. We can’t hold some god, nor devil, or ghosts or spirits accountable for how messed up things are. Nobody is accountable for the sins of his father, but we all screw things up in our own way. We are the ones who fail to sell all our belongings and give our money to the poor, the ones who don’t love our neighbors, don’t turn the other cheek, who can’t be bothered to ensure that the innocent children of the world are given access to decent health care. Nobody is innocent here, no church, no faith—not in my book.

I have the utmost reverence for people of all faiths, and complete respect for an individual’s personal beliefs. But organized religion perpetuates the differences that divide us, it perpetuates hate, it stagnates progress and peace. Religion encourages xenophobia: irrational fear of foreign or different ideas and people. And these are beliefs which I do not and can not ever share.

We must take personal responsibility for making things right—we can’t leave it up to some higher power to make the world a better place. And we must overcome divisiveness and unite humankind as a whole.

Further reading:

• Jesus in Islam – Wikipedia article
• Paradoxes of Christianity and Islam – Herman Roborgh
• How to Graduate from Christianity – Steve Pavlina
• Why Religion Must End – interview with Sam Harris
  

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