Like you, I’ve dreamt of doing the same thing and to continue making this dream a sustainable reality for myself. A couple of years ago, I made a decision to make a travel blog because I’ve read how these digital nomads are working their way around the world. It sounds like it’s what I wanted for myself, which is the ability to generate an income anywhere I go.

But beyond the fun and excitement and semi-grandeur of this life, there are other realities that you also need to know:

It’s Not a “Get Rich Quick” Scheme

When I started to blog (last 2009), I’ve read a lot of posts about people hoping that they could earn a lot in such a short spend of time. There were many blogs that time that used to write about how much they earned through a particular advertising company, affiliate marketing group and other related companies.

The truth is… there really are lots of people who earned some and some people who earned a lot. A lot of them are still blogging until now. A lot of them have shared how they were able to do it.

And the other side of the truth is… there are also a lot of people who didn’t earn. We didn’t hear about them anymore because they stopped writing. Some of their blogs does not even exist anymore.

For those who earned and are continuing to earn online, they seem to have a common denominator. They know that online entrepreneurship or making money online is just like any other business ventures that exist. It’s not a quick rich scheme. It’s a process that you develop as you go along and you don’t just quit halfway.

It May or May not be a “4 Hour Work Week” Life

We’ve all read about the 4 Hour Work Week (which is a brilliant book by the way) by Tim Ferris. And I do agree with almost everything that he has written but I have also realized one thing. It may or may not be always the case for every digital nomad especially for those who have just started their journey towards becoming a digital nomad.

A lot of hours (and I mean A Lot of Hours) will be spent finding your niche, learning the ropes on how to use online tools, building networks and business relationships, building your portfolio, and a lot more.

Maybe after you have understood the process or if you have the capital to immediately hire someone that can help you setup your online business, then the working hours would definitely be very short and you can spend majority of your time just traveling. But if you have to do everything yourself, then be ready to work long hours.

It’s Not Always a Walk in the Park

If you’re an accountant and have been an accountant for the longest time and will jump into travel blogging or something way beyond what you’ve learned, have been trained and have been doing for the longest time, then chances are you will feel the difficulty of trying to absorb and grasp the idea, not to mention the technicalities of blogging. I’ve worked in the Customer service for the longest time and the first time I heard of SEO, I was dumbfounded.

It’s not easy as I always tell everyone that ask me about it but at the same time bear in mind that it’s doable.

Especially if you have the patience and determination to make things work out, then you’ll have the motivation to keep on learning.

It Can Be Financially Unstable

Just like any other business, an online venture can be very financially unstable especially in the first couple of years due to a number of factors. If you’re earning by selling ad space, then you have to be ready with the fact that competitors or other blogs (maybe hundreds or thousands of them) are being created every day. The online business environment is also an ever changing environment and it has a direct effect on your potential income.

It Doesn’t Always Have to Be a Blog

Blogging is not the only way to earn money online. It just so happen that blogging is very popular nowadays. Becoming a digital nomad doesn’t mean that you have to become a blogger. There’s a wide variety of things that you can do online, you can be a graphic designer, website designer, freelance writer, freelance editor, photographer, business consultant, accountant etc. There are so many jobs that can be done remotely. You can even be employed and work online (remotely) if your company permits you to do so.

These are just some of the facts that you have to know before you jump into the bandwagon. I’m not discouraging you or anything near that but just making sure that you’re aware of what to expect so you’ll be able to prepare yourself and be ready for these challenges.

Photo Credits (Flick Creative Commons): Laptop by puuikibeach/ Money by tjmwatson/ Time by Alan Cleaver/ Headache by Sarah G/ Coin by abbynormy/ Intersection by Brad K

The Digital Nomad Roller Coaster – Are you Ready for a Ride? is a post from: Unedited Journeys. Also, check out my food blog Banana Roti and my travel blog FlipNomad.

Since I have new sites, my main tasks would just be to write valuable and helpful contents for each of them. In theory, the task is just plain simple for me, write two articles per day. In execution, I didn’t do what needs to be done. I have been struggling from procrastinating and over analysis on what needs to be done. My small projects have been delayed for a few months because of my own doing.

Until one morning I realized things that might help me in doing these tasks and achieving the new goals I set for myself:

1. Unlearning the Old Mindset: Prior to jumping into making quality niche sites, I only have one travel blog, one niche site and one food blog. And that’s all! Maintaining three sites requires a different skill set and competency (and of course discipline – which oftentimes I lack) in comparison to maintaining 14 sites. I realized that I need to change the way I do things in order to keep up with the 14 sites without getting burned out.

2. Recognizing that the Goal Has Changed: The goal I had when I first left to backpack around Asia had been fulfilled. I created the blog to help me generate a few bucks that will help me fund my travels. That goal has been achieved already. Now I want to sustain this kind of life and help provide for my family. I have been chipping in with my family’s expense even when I was traveling but it seems to be not enough now. The amount that we all need before increased and so I feel that the income that I’ve been generating should also increase. The goal has changed therefore my strategy and way of thinking needs to change as well.

3. Maintaining the Balance: I also realized that I’m always at both ends of the spectrum. If I’m not working on my websites I’m just travelling incessantly and if I’m not traveling then I’m just in front of my laptop all the time. It speeds up the rate of me feeling burned out and exhausted. An immediate solution that I see is log off as soon as I finish my tasks and go out and explore or just relax and have a nice cup of coffee and read some new stuff.

4. Setting a Personal Schedule: Though I loathe having schedule to follow set by other people, I don’t mind following a schedule I set for myself. I realized that scheduling tasks helps me breakdown the deliverables and make it more manageable. Imagine, if you tell yourself to write 90 articles for the month of May, the task looks too big to fulfill right. But if you break it down to 3 articles/day, then it will look manageable and easy to do. And in the end if you keep up with writing 3 articles/day then you’ll definitely meet your 90 articles per month goal (except in February of course LOL!)

5. Bridging the Gap of Old Lifestyle and New Lifestyle: I have been wondering why it’s so difficult for me to do these tasks despite the fact that my previous work was more demanding and more complicated compare to what I do now. I was also handling multiple projects before and reporting to different people who were located in different countries (which of course have different timezones) and it was never been an issue when it comes to achieving what needs to be achieved and I wonder why it’s so difficult to do the same thing now.

I realized that I grew up, lived and breathe in a structured system and got used to it very well and now that I don’t have a structure to follow nor someone to remind me of what needs to be done then I’m struggling. And since I’ve finally realized and acknowledged the existence of that huge gap, I’m devising some small strategies that will help me unlearn my old ways and keep up with managing myself.

6. Working On Your Business and Not In Your Business: I’ve read about this concept and it definitely hit the nail in the head. I realized that if I continue working on tons of stuff myself then it will look like I just transferred my past job to just anywhere I go which isn’t my goal. My goal is to create income streams that will still enable me some free time that I can allot for travel and my other interests in life.

7. Acknowledging that I Can’t Do Everything: I also have acknowledged that I know some stuff but I don’t know everything. Since I have a goal to meet, I have decided to bring in new people to what I do. I started with working with one person for now that will help me update one of my niche sites and hopefully I could transition majority of the tasks to other people as well.

Photo Credits (Flickr Creative Commons): Green Light by Victory of the People/ Walking on Rope by Wichid/ Mountain Climbing by Nomadic Entrepreneur

Changing the Way We do Things is a post from: Unedited Journeys. Also, check out my food blog Banana Roti and my travel blog FlipNomad.

I remember my conversation with a couple that I met in Puerto Galera, the guy once told me that after all the travelling that he has done, he could not stand it anymore to look at his reflection in the mirror. Because every time he does, it makes him cry.

Upon hearing it, I was quite puzzled because I didn’t understand what he meant.

And then he continued, “A question keeps popping in my head every time I look at myself. Now, that I’ve seen the suffering of a lot of people in different places, what am I doing about it? What am I doing to help change it?”

I was numb upon hearing it, speechless in fact. It hit me as well. A lot of stuff flashed back instantly. And I asked myself quietly, what did I do about those things as well.

What could we do to change some things for the better?

A Change in the Way We Treat Others

Bullying has been in the limelight for some time and a lot of media personalities in different countries are starting to talk about it, sharing their experiences, creating support groups and encouraging others to talk about it. The way we treat the people around us now will affect the way we treat the next person that we’re going to meet and so forth.

It just snowballs. A repetitive thought becoming an action, a repetitive action becoming a habit, a repetitive habit until it becomes imprinted to our characters.

It’s just so easy to laugh at and mock someone you saw/heard for a few minutes even without knowing the full story of that person. I just saw a post once and it made a big impact on me, it said,

“Be kind to everyone you meet, you don’t know what they are going through.”

A Change in the Way We Buy/Purchase/Consume

They say that every dollar spent, is a vote to what we want to happen to our world. I have never been an environment conscious individual when I was growing up. I only learned to appreciate how beautiful and fragile our world is when I started travelling. Recently I’ve been reading a lot about alternative ways of living. I try to understand how big my impact is to the environment and have been reading a lot on how to minimize it.

One thing that I was able to adapt for a some time now is buying second hand items. These stuff would have probably ended in some landfills but luckily a large group of people from around the world have embraced the value of thrifting. The act saves you money and minimized stuff that ends up in landfills. Aside from buying, you could also sell or donate some of your old stuff instead of throwing it away. As a cliche goes, “One man’s trash might be another man’s treasure.”

One traveler also taught me that buying directly from the local markets also help as the money goes directly to the local community. The local produce also are farmed nearby thus minimized the cost and byproducts of transporting goods.

I still have a lot to learn when it comes to this kind of lifestyle and I hope that you will also take some time to read about this stuff.

A Change on How We Think

Critical thinking seems to be becoming a thing of the past as it’s so easy to jump into a conclusion nowadays due to the abundance of ready information online. It’s as if there’s a fastfood now of information available 24/7. People believes everything they see and hear and only a few questions the truth behind anything that you present them.

This is becoming a sad reality for all of us. Be careful! Be very careful because not everything is what they seem to be.

Sometimes Change Doesn’t Have to Be Big

I was chatting with a friend of mine a couple of weeks ago and she shared a story that she said changed her a bit.

A garbage collector usually does his rounds in the afternoon to collect their garbage and constantly reminds them to segregate their trash before leaving it at their gate. Recyclables go to this bag, non-biodegradable go to another and so forth. They’ve forgotten to do it that day and she met the collector at the time she left the trash and the collector called her attention as he segregated the garbage himself.

In a calm and non-condescending tone, the collector explained again which ones are recyclables, biodegradable and non biodegradable. My friend told me that she felt humiliated not by the collector but by forgetting a simple act that she knows will create a big impact to some thing that matters to a lot of us. She even felt humbled on how this one guy sorted out other people’s garbage as a job and doesn’t feel shy about it and even extends an additional effort by educating people he meets.

It Starts From You and Me

Change starts from you and me. From simple watching what we say, type in Facebook, Twitter and other Social Media for thinking before we click on sharing something, watching our purchases, reusing and recycling stuff and the list goes on. I know it’s no easy feat. But I realized that if we try, maybe we’ll all get into the habit of doing these small changes. And collectively these small changes that we’re applying will snowball into a large effect that will benefit us all.

We got a long way to go my friend, a long way to go…

Small Changes Matter is a post from: Unedited Journeys. Also, check out my food blog Banana Roti and my travel blog FlipNomad.

I went back to my same old routine after that trip and tried to nudge the idea. I tried so hard to ignore the burning passion that got ignited on that trip and kept myself busy with my same old routines.

I was new in my position that time since I just got promoted prior the overseas trip and my managers were already gearing me up for another promotion. Job promotions in big call centers are quite fast compared to other industries due to the fact that there are so many positions to be filled.

While trying to keep myself busy with everything that was being thrown at me, I felt like I was being eaten alive by my passion to see more of the world.

After nudging it for two months, I finally gave up and filed my resignation paper, together with one of my friends who was on that same trip.

It’s a Stupid Idea

Initially, my boss asked if I could just file a Leave of Absence for two months and if it’s not enough, maybe three. She suggested that I still travel and find out if that’s the thing that I like and if it’s not, I could go back to the same company.

At first it sounded like a cool compromise so I told her that I’ll think about it first and that she should not process my resignation for the time being.

But after having thought things out, I realized that I don’t want to go back to my old routine. So I talked to them and told them my final decision that it’s my time to leave.

I told my so called friends in the office about that decision and a lot of them said that it sounded like a cool idea but it’s the most stupid idea that they have ever heard especially that the managerial position was looming in my horizon.

I bid them goodbye, wished them luck and followed my “stupid idea”.

The First Try to a Nomadic Lifestyle

I flew to Thailand with my friend with a very small amount of money and tried to find a job there. The idea is to have a job so we could legally stay in that place for a long time and use it as a base to explore nearby countries.

After a month of looking for a job, I finally got the chance to be hired as an English Conversation Tutor by a small school in Bangkok. I got the call when I was in the North exploring Sukothai.

I went to the school and aced the interview and the demo. The other teachers liked me despite the fact that I never had a teaching experience. They said that they’re gonna help me on my “new job” even if it wasn’t offered yet.

While waiting for the result, I was sitting outside their conference room and chatted with the other applicants. They’re also Filipinos who came from the Southern provinces. I was excited and asked them the places that they have visited in Thailand.

I was surprised when they told me that they haven’t been anywhere except the room that they’re renting and the schools that they’re applying to. They said that they only have enough money to cover the day to day cost of living and nothing more. They said that they couldn’t even afford to visit the local attractions in Bangkok.

I felt horrible after that discussion, here I was applying for a job because primarily I want to be based in Thailand so I could explore the other countries. And they were there to work and probably send money to their families.

After a few minutes of dead silence, I was called and the head teacher congratulated me and told me that I could work in Bangkok or in a smaller town. I chose the smaller town and thanked them and told them that I would bring them the documents the following morning so they could do the necessary paperworks.

I called my friend while I was in the cab and told her the supposedly great news on a sad tone.

“Wow, that’s great! Congratulations, but why are you sad?” she asked.

“Coz I met people who needed it more than I do,” I replied.

I was shook up with my naivety the whole afternoon and decided to give the head teacher a call. I declined the job and asked if they would hire as a replacement one of those fellow applicants I met that morning. She said yes and I felt relieved.

The Second Try to a Nomadic Lifestyle

Having no job to finance my life in Bangkok, I have decided to go home and look for a job in the same industry I was prior the trip. I found one after a couple of months and stayed there for almost one and a half year.

The sweet taste of freedom and adventure still lingers in my mouth and for almost everyday I think about seeing the world again. I tried to save as much as I could.

I got hired as a supervisor and on the next couple of months promoted as a manager. I flew to different countries and stayed in business hotels for free courtesy of my company but the idea of backpacking haunts me still despite of the free travels that I was getting.

Coz of the promotion and the per diem and miles that I got to earn and save, I was confident enough to plan my next “whirlwind trip to nowhere”.

I filed my resignation and bid goodbye again. But due to some unforeseen family crisis, I gave almost all my money to my parents and got left with only P30,000.

I told my mom that I will still continue with my “dream trip” despite of the lack of budget.

I flew with P30,000 and went to 8 countries in 6 month juggling some volunteer stints while sightseeing.

Despite of the lack of money, I realized that there are so many opportunities everywhere that could help me continue my life on the road. I met a lot of people from different countries who were doing the same thing.

But an unfortunate event struck when I was in Varanasi that prompted me to go home. So I cut the trip on my sixth month and promised India that I will go back.

The Third Try to a Nomadic Lifestyle (am I just stubborn or what LOL)

I arrived in Manila just in time before my grandma’s burial day and spent the next few weeks grieving and at the same time catching up with some family time.

After almost a month of doing nothing, I decided to do some research about people who are living an alternative lifestyle. I tried to read about people who are not living the 9-5 grind. I came across the terms, “digital nomads” and “location independent lifestyle” and did further research about those stuff.

And after spending weeks of reading day and night, I’ve decided to setup a website to practice on the things that I was learning online, and on October 25, 2009, flipnomad.blogspot.com was born and a few weeks after that flipnomad.com. FlipNomad is not just my travel blog but it also serves as my platform in learning the economics of the internet world.

I started writing up the past trips that I took and everything that I know about travel. I started writing tips and I also started interviewing fellow travellers and launch a new segment on my blog called Meet the Nomads. I coded my own website with the help of various online tutorial sites. I kept on learning and creating on the next months.

After a couple of months, I felt the need to get a job. The backpay that I got from the last company I worked with (which I received when I was in Manila already) already dried up.

I got a job again in a call center and continued blogging, learning, networking etc. I was deeply hoping that my blog would help me get back on the road just like the stories that I’ve read from other bloggers. I believed it without any hint of doubt even if the only thing I had that time was their words.

I spent four months working with them and left the job to focus on my online adventure. And on March 2011 I flew out to El Nido and a month after, left the country to start a new adventure.

I’ve been on the road for 16 months now and has travelled to multiple countries. And I just didn’t travel for 16 months, I also built multiple sources of passive income and amped my skills and competencies to further increase my chance just in case a need arises that will prompt me to go back to the world of employment.

It became possible to live the life that I want because I did something that everyone could do (but failed to do sometimes).

I never stop believing in myself even if the others have already did.

Don”t Stop Believing – My Journey Towards Location Independence is a post from: Unedited Journeys. Also, check out my food blog Banana Roti and my travel blog FlipNomad.

Now after leaving my employed life in pursuit of self-employment, I’m currently managing three blogs and three niche sites as of the moment with the intention to build more as I go along.

Managing multiple projects is really exhausting and in some cases even leads to losses instead of gain. You get swayed in almost all directions and loses focus on achieving the main goal.

Years of being exposed in handling multiple projects eventually honed me to become better at it (I hope) and I’d like to pass on what I’ve learned.

Here are my Five Simple Tips in Effectively Managing Multiple Projects:

1. Action Plan – Have a clear cut action plan on what you want to achieve and how you will achieve them in a particular time frames. Each project should have their own action plan especially if those projects are entirely not related to each other.

2. Use Tools – Use a notepad to jot down your daily or weekly deliverables and to do’s. Use MS Excel to plot and trend your performance. Tools are created to make life easier so you better use them. If you feel that they make your life more complicated then find simpler tools that will fit your needs.

3. Prioritize – Different projects have different significance to you (if you’re self employed) and to your organization (if you’re employed). Identify the priorities for the day and do them first.

4. Eliminate Distraction – Allot a specific time for each task and focus on them until you finish it. If you’re a blogger like me, closing down FB and Twitter while writing your articles will help you finish your work early. If you’re working in an office, politely declining small chats during the hours you allotted in accomplishing a certain task will definitely help.

5. Take a Break – Regardless of how busy you are, do not forget to take a break, eat lunch or snack and hydrate by drinking juice or coffee. A stressed mind will often lead to burn out and productivity loss.

Photo Credits: Makeshift Station by Shayne Kaye

Five Simple Tips in Effectively Managing Multiple Projects is a post from: Unedited Journeys. Also, check out my food blog Banana Roti and my travel blog FlipNomad.

When I was 5 years old, my aunt would ask me to sell greeting cards to my classmates for a few cents. There were days when I would be able to sell them all and there were days when I would return everything back to my aunt.

My cousin and I also tried selling melon juice and kropek (prawn crackers) in front of our house which turned out to be a success. I remember earning fifty pesos ($1) in one day which was huge at that time.

As soon as I got to high school and college, I have completely forgotten my passion to become an entrepreneur. I was enveloped in the mindset that I should prepare myself for a future employment to hopefully a multinational company.

My focus shifted from pursuing what I want to pursuing what everybody else was doing.

My professional life was focused on getting the next position at the shortest possible time. I tried involving myself with projects that would highlight my value to the company and just like what happened before; I failed in a lot of them and became successful in some.

After quitting my job last year, I got involved in blogging which also led me to try niche sites and authority sites building. Out of the almost twenty websites that I have right now, only two are generating income. I failed in almost 90% of all my online gigs and only successful in the mere 10%.

But I’m not and would not be deterred by this gruesome number.

Because every time I fail on a certain project, I learn a valuable lesson that helps me become successful on the next one. I realized that if you take some time to assess your input vs output and do root-cause analysis, then the effect of failure is success.

Here are Five Tips to Convert your Failures to Success:

1. Do a Root-Cause Analysis – As soon as you identify a failure on a particular project that you’re handling, make a thorough assessment. Try to understand what caused the failure. For example, you are aiming to earn from your travel blog and it didn’t earn even a single cent for a year or two. Try to ask yourself, why it didn’t generate some money. Did you meet the desired metrics of your target advertisers? Did you meet the expectations of your readers? What value does your blog provide to your readers and advertisers?

2. Draft an Action Plan – As soon as you identify the causes, then you start to draft an action plan. Based on the first example, ask yourself, “What are the desired metrics of your target advertisers? What are the expectations of your readers?” And again, “What value does your blog provide to your readers and advertisers?”

3. Finalize a SMART Action Plan – After making the initial draft of your action plan, ask yourself, is my action plan Specific, Measurable, Realistic, Attainable and Time-Bound. Given the above example, Number of Unique Visitors is one of the desired metrics of advertisers. Try to research on what is the acceptable Monthly # of Unique Visitors to attract an advertiser. Ask yourself, how you would increase your followers or audience. Here’s a sample of a possible action plan:

a. Increase Number of Unique Visitors to 20% by April 30, 2012 through:

-Writing Bi-Weekly Valuable Contents (which at the same time are Search engine Optimized) that appeal to your Target Market

-Marketing/Disseminating your content through various Social Media

-Improve overall website design by March 30, 2012

-Change logo and header to improve brand recognition by April 15, 2012

-Simplify coding to ensure faster Pageload by March 30, 2012

4. Execute – An action plan will be utterly useless with acting on it.

5. Re-Assess – Using tools, do an assessment if your action plan worked. Given the above example, Google Analytics and Statcounter would be able to provide you information about Number of Unique Visitors. Monitor the result on a weekly basis and do some trending to understand possible external variables that would have an effect on your desired results.

These are just five steps that you can take to start transforming your failures to success. Aside from the steps that I mentioned, it’s your attitude and determination that would make the biggest difference. So every time you encounter failure, just think of it as your next step to achieving your goal!

“A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.” – David Brinkley

Photo Credits: Lightbulb by respres/ Think by @boetter/Handshake by Yorick_R

The Effect of Failure is Success is a post from: Unedited Journeys. Also, check out my food blog Banana Roti and my travel blog FlipNomad.

Every single day I look at my laptop’s wallpaper which is a picture of the world map telling myself that if I could save enough money, I will leave and travel the world.

Every time there’s a seat sale, I book flights to various destinations locally and internationally and spend my weekends to a new place. It breaks my heart once it’s over and often utter to myself that someday I will spend as much time as I want in those beautiful places with my friends and family.

At the peak of my career in one of the companies I worked for, I was offered the global manager position which means I would be able to travel to all continents except Antartica and would carry a nice title and a nicer salary. I first thought that it would be a nice compromise to what I want in life. I have a job and I could travel, but reality is business travel is not my definition of travel. And then it dawned to me.

I want a life that gives me enough time to enjoy the things that I love to do. I don’t want to wake up when I’m still sleepy. I don’t want to talk about machine spare parts or performances of our service which I wasn’t really passionate about. I don’t want schedule to govern my daily living! And the personal complaint list goes on.

I left the job and backpacked across Asia.

I realized that there’s a way to enjoy life every day and not just on weekends or long holidays. I found out that there’s a way not to drag ourselves out of our beds every fucking day!

I’d like to share a brief outline on how you can achieve this:

1. Spend Time Finding Your Passion: If you spend time doing things that you don’t like, then you ought to find time to try out things that you really like. List the things that you’re passionate about and try allocating some time to try them. If designing clothes and jewellery is your passion, then enrol yourself to some school to build your skill and competency on this craft. If travel is your passion, then go to a new place every weekend.

2. Generate Revenue through Your Passion: If you want your passion to be your lifeblood, then you have to think of ways on how to generate revenue through it. Going back to the first example, if you’re passionate about designs, then you may create some wonderful stuff and sell it to your officemates. If travel is your passion then you may try to write about your experience and send them to publishing companies, you may also try selling pictures or you can make travel websites and earn from advertisements.

3. Be Strategic with your Time: Juggling a new endeavour alongside with your current employment is exhausting that’s why most people just quit during the start-up phase. Be strategic with your time and you’ll be able to do it. Identify your time wasters and stay away from them.

4. Be Strategic with what you Offer: Going back to the first example, ask yourself, why would people buy your products? Is it cheaper? Does it have better quality? Does it offer value for money compare to the competition? If you own a travel blog, you can ask yourself, why will people read your blog? What will they get out of reading it? What will make them come back? What do advertisers look for in a travel blog? How else will you earn aside from writing content? And the list goes on.

5. Network: If your current circle of friends and acquaintances are not familiar with your passion then you should meet new people that could help you learn more about it. Whatever your passion is, the internet is a good way to start connecting with people who share the same passion. Look for online forums, FB groups, and other online groups. Don’t hesitate to connect with people outside your countries too, the world is a big place and there are billions of people out there, you’ll surely find a group that shares your passion.

6. Keep Yourself Motivated: it’s not a walk in the park. It takes time to learn something new and convert it into an income generating activity. It can be frustrating. You have to constantly motivate yourself within and without. Always remind yourself of thee purpose or reason on why you’re doing this.

7. Surround Yourself with Positive Like-minded People: Converting your passion into a business can be difficult especially if you don’t get support. Surround yourself with passionate, positive and like-minded people and you’d be able to breeze through all the negativity that will come your way. Just remember though that you shouldn’t depend much on external motivation because internal motivation (IMHO) is stronger.

8. Identify your Freedom Fund Goal: Identify how much you want to earn and save before you pursue your passion full time. Designate an income buffer so you will have some money even if you’re not meeting your sales target.

9. Asses: Make an honest assessment of what you have done. Use tools to help you measure your own level of success and key challenges. Identify the things that worked for you well and the things that didn’t. Make necessary adjustments. Talk to your friends and family and ask for a feedback. Be sensitive about all feedback about your product or service. Appreciate positive and negative feedback and use it to improve.

10. Rinse and Repeat: Maybe design or travel is not your only passion. Once you’ve made the first one work, then maybe you can try another thing.

This is just a brief outline on how I was able to pursue my passion and earn at the same time. In the coming weeks, I’ll be writing a more detailed explanation on how you could launch a travel blog and earn from it. I’ll be posting those articles in my travel blog, FlipNomad.com.

Leaving you with a quote that became one of my guiding principles in life:

“Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, you ought to set up a life you don’t need to escape from.” – Seth Godin

Build a Life That Revolves Around Your Passion is a post from: Unedited Journeys. Also, check out my food blog Banana Roti and my travel blog FlipNomad.

I travelled with this backpack for six straight months last 2009. I also travelled with this backpack on my short trips when I was still employed. I also lent this backpack to one of my closest friends when she travelled to various islands in the Philippines with her colleagues.

I travelled with this backpack in Singapore last 2010 when I still thought that I wanted to live and work there.

I also left with this backpack last March (this year) and travelled until November.

After six years, I’ve decided to finally let it go because I need to downsize so I could just “hand-carry” my bag and so I would be more mobile as well. The bag itself is a bit heavy and it looks huge even if it doesn’t have that much content.

I left it in my hostel in Bali and replaced it with a smaller backpack.

A couple of years ago, I wouldn’t have thought of doing it. I would probably have shipped it back home and keep it in my room until it accumulates dust and be forgotten.

I would’ve thought about it a million of times and would be re-considering about its “sentimental value” until I opt to keep it instead of just leaving it in the hostel.

A couple of years back, if someone asks me about my priceless possession, I would probably say without a doubt and without hesitation that it’s my backpack.

If I left it a couple of years back, it would’ve brought sadness in me.

I used to keep a lot of things due to the memories that I’ve attached with those things. I used to tell myself to keep things that have “sentimental value” to me.

But now I realized that with or without the things that represent those memories, the memories will forever be in my mind and in my heart and I don’t need to keep those things just to be reminded.

I left my bag and I left the past behind. It’s time to keep staying in the present!

‘Hope you find someone new to travel the world with! Farewell, my good friend!

Letting Go is a post from: Unedited Journeys. Also, check out my food blog Banana Roti and my travel blog FlipNomad.

This guy laid out a piece of cardboard that had a brief introduction about him and started playing with what seemed to me as a football. It seemed to me that he badly wants to go to Europe to showcase his talent. Being a Southeast Asian as well, it seems to me that football is not as huge here in comparison to what they have Europe and I was thinking that maybe he wanted to get a shot to play with the world-famous teams there.

I honestly don’t know what his chances would be in this kind of strategy but I have to say that I really admire his courage to go out there and show the world what he can do.

It inspired me a lot and made me ask myself, “How far would I go to achieve my dream?”

Initially my dream is just to travel the world. But after being on the road for almost eight months now, it transitioned to a bigger dream. I want to be able to travel the world on my own pace and earn more at the same time so I could continue to provide financial support to my family.

The strategy now is to be able to think and execute short, mid and long term plans. Alignment is the key to make the process shorter and more efficient for me. I don’t know what the future holds but I’m going to give my best shot today!

How Far Would You Go to Achieve Your Dream? is a post from: Unedited Journeys. Also, check out my food blog Banana Roti and my travel blog FlipNomad.

It made me think, “What would be a nice thing to bring home after the trip?”

And then it made me laugh. I don’t even know when I will go home or if I have any plans to do so in the next few weeks.

And then my mind started wandering off…

It has been seven months since I’ve been away from home living this crazy passion called “travelling”. I left my job with the hope to see the world (or some parts of it) and earn online at the same time. It sounds crazy I know. But I’ve read that some people have done it and some are still doing it and I’d like to give it a try.

So far it has been doing well except in the last couple of months wherein the income started dwindling. I started to doubt myself but at the same time my guts told me to stay optimistic because everything will be fine. If only my inner self could react, it would probably punch me in the face and remind me of what I’ve accomplished in the past seven months.

But human as I am, sometimes I feel like losing grip on my target and giving up. Luckily, I met people online and my old friends who never get tired of believing that I would be able to go farther in this journey.

“Let’s eat first!” said one of my friends.

This remark woke me from my daydreaming. If I was walking on a bigger road with more vehicles I would have probably be hit by some car or motorbike. Sometimes my mind wanders off incessantly and starts hurling a variety of thoughts on me without a single warning.

After eating, we immediately cross the street to go to the beach.

At first glance, the beach reminded me of Long Beach in Puerto Galera although Kuta is way bigger than it. It has a wide shore filled with beige-coloured sand which might not look favourable for those who love white sand beaches like me.

I took off my shirt and ran towards the water.

It was refreshingly cold. The temperature of the water felt just fine. It balances the warmth of the afternoon sun.

Unlike other beaches that I’ve been to, this one creates small waves that made swimming more interesting. Maybe this made Kuta popular to surfers especially to those who are new to this kind of sport. The waves aren’t that big and it seems to be perfect for learning how to stand and balance on your board.

I saw a lot of locals and foreign tourists alike who were trying to balance on their boards. A lot of them fell off their boards on their first few tries but due to their persistence, they finally achieved what they came here for, to learn how to ride the waves.

It was such a joy even for spectators like me to see what they were able to achieve.

My friends and I were contented on just banging our bodies against the small waves. We filled our area of the beach with our child like laughter and kept on slamming the waves that passed us by. It was a great day. Indeed it was!

After a couple more hours, the sun began to cast an orange glow. It has begun what it has always been doing every day in the past centuries. A lot of people gathered on the shore to watch the sunset while my friends and I stayed on the water.

The sky begun changing its colours and the presence of an angel-wing shaped clouds added a more interesting appeal to the sky.

And then it dawned to me.

This is what I’ve been struggling for in my life, to be able to enjoy and see this kind of beauty. I love seeing how magnificent our planet is. And I’d like to see it now while I’m young and not when I’m too old to even carry my backpack. I’d love to see it every day and not just on weekends or during my days off or two weeks of vacation from work.

I like to live my life passionately every day!

I realized that what I’m really after is to live a passionate life and it just so happened that in my case, my passion is to travel and to see the world.

At that moment aside from having that kind of realization, I also had the conviction to re-asses and re-strategize. I need to be better and smarter from whom I was yesterday to be able to do this.

I lost the fear of uncertainty or not knowing what would happen tomorrow. On that same day, I gained a stronger faith that I would be able to really do this.

And the faith to believe that at the end of the day, everything will be alright!

A New Beginning – Living a Life of Optimism and Uncertainty is a post from: Unedited Journeys. Also, check out my food blog Banana Roti and my travel blog FlipNomad.