Bren on The Road

Category: Musings

  • Everything I Learned About Life And Happiness I Learned From Accounting

    Everything I Learned About Life And Happiness I Learned From Accounting

    Throughout your time on this planet many things will move in and out of your life. Some will be good and some will be bad, but everything will have a role in shaping who you are and where you end up.

    There will be things you welcome into your life, such as nice cars with drink holders big enough to fit your over-sized protein shakes, big televisions you can watch the Playboy channel on, and friends in high places who can get you into nightclubs without waiting in line. You will welcome these things and people into your life because they have value and and fulfill your needs. In accounting, we refer to these things as assets.

    There will also be things you would rather not have in your life. These are things like a mortgage from the bank with a zillion percent interest rate, or a debt from a dodgy loan shark named Toothpick to fuel your online poker addiction. In accounting we refer to these as liabilities.

    The difference between an asset and a liability is probably the first thing you will ever learn in accounting class (if you’re not asleep already). In layman’s terms, an asset is something you own, while a liability is something you owe. Assets are good and liabilities are bad. If you have many assets and few liabilities, you will be rich. In accounting, we refer to this richness as equity.

    After reading the work of several accomplished investors, my view of assets and liabilities changed. I learned assets were no longer things I owned, but were only things I owned that brought money into my life. Liabilities were things I owned that took money out of my life.

    An accountant would tell you a car is an asset because it’s worth money and you own it, but to an investor it is a liability, because it causes you to spend thousands of dollars on petrol, warrants, insurance and servicing, but doesn’t produce any income.

    I started viewing many textbook assets such as houses, bikes and clothing as liabilities, and it started becoming clear to me why so many people were struggling financially – because they were amassing “assets” that were only taking more money out of their lives.

    I now look at life the same way. As we all know there is much more to life than money, so we should consider the assets and liabilities in our life from more than just a financial perspective.

    I like to think of things from a point of happiness, or fulfillment.

    A life asset is something that improves your happiness or quality of life.

    A life liability is something that causes you stress or suffering.

    A supportive group of friends would be extremely valuable assets, while a nagging, bitchy girlfriend would be a liability.

    For a healthy life you would therefore aim to spend good amounts of time with your friends and then try to amass even more quality friends, or assets. In accounting, we call this capital investment. You should also aim to make the unpleasant girlfriend an ex-girlfriend as fast as possible. In accounting, we call this a disposal.

    The next thing we learn about in accounting class is the concept of capital. Capital refers to the resources that you, the owner, have available to generate wealth in your life. Of course, in this context wealth simply means happiness. What resources do you have available to you to create happiness in your life?

    Some people were lucky in life and were born with more capital than others. The short, pudgy, Shrek looking kid might look at the 6’2 rich-kid pretty boy with an overwhelming sense of envy and bitterness. But many of the world’s most successful people forged their destinies with a modest amount of life capital. 

    To be a famous actor you’re supposed to be tall, have a six pack, and a head of perfect hair, but Danny DeVito is bald, fat, 5’1, yet became one of the most versatile and celebrated actors in Hollywood. He simply decided to be awesome and made miracles happen with his capital. A living legend.

    Is life easier when you were born with greater capital? Probably. But that doesn’t mean you can spend your life complaining about it. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses in the game we call life, and everyone has the ability to win.

    Easy or not, you take the capital you have and you build your empire. 

    You can’t win if you don’t play.

    Danny DeVitoDanny DeVito is fat, short and bald, and reached the highest success in an industry where everyone is supposed to have abs and be tall with perfect hair. A legend.

    During the course of building our empires we will all makes mistakes. Mistakes in life are simply things we do that are not successful in bringing us happiness. We might spend some of our life capital, such as our time, emotions or money, on things that don’t turn out the way we wanted them to. In accounting, we call these expenses.

    A good example of this might be a bad relationship or a bad career choice. But expenses are not always a bad thing, and any successful businessman will tell you expenses are unavoidable. Our expenses in life are nothing more than experience in disguise.

    As life goes on, some of our expenses will lead to victories. In accounting, we refer to these victories as revenue. 

    Revenue in life is when we succeed in something and receive a piece of happiness. Perhaps, after a few years of dating crazy bitches you find a sweet girl who is a joy to be with, or maybe after dating an Xbox-playing couch potato you meet a cool travel blogger whose name starts with B and ends in N.

    A successful business cannot exist without reliable revenue streams, just as a successful life cannot exist without consistent victories. When you find a source of revenue or happiness, you must hold onto it, cherish it and duplicate it.

    These are instrumental to a full and happy life.

    Oftentimes people are unable to do this. Their expenses are too high and their revenues are too low or non-existent. For some people, just waiting in line at the bank will piss them off and ruin their entire day.

    This is because they have no sources of revenue, or happiness, to offset this expense, or problem. They know after standing in this line they will need to go back to a job they hate, have no time to go to the gym to work off their pot belly, and will go home at night to someone they cannot stand. Eventually, it will take just one traffic jam or one drop of mayonnaise on their shirt before they lose their shit and have a total mental breakdown. In accounting, we call this bankruptcy.

    This occurs when your expenses or struggles are through the sky, your revenues or victories are non-existent and you have no more will or capital to continue on. This is when you know it’s time to start over.

    Eventually, you will find your path. If you don’t allow any negative energies into your life and only pursue things that bring you happiness, you will be able to minimise your expenses and maximise your revenues. You will be living a life of few mistakes and many victories. In accounting, we refer to this as profit.

    Profit, or overall happiness, is achieved when our revenue is greater than our expenses. You might find yourself waiting in the same queue at the bank but you won’t be angry this time. You will be ecstatic, because perhaps you’re waiting in a bank in Hawaii or the Mediterranean – you’re on an exciting trip around the world and the revenue from this will far exceed the expense of waiting in a bank line.

    When your revenues are so great and abundant, your expenses will seem so small you’ll barely notice them at all.

    So, how do we live profitable lives?

    We put ourselves in a position where our revenues can be high and our expenses can be low. The successful businessman will always ask himself whether his expenses are generating revenue or not. If not, he will cut the expense and allocate his capital elsewhere.

    When you have something bringing you immense unhappiness, such as an unhealthy lifestyle, a toxic relationship or a shitty job, you always need to assess whether this is going to eventually produce some revenue or happiness in your life.

    If your boss, business partner, girlfriend or boyfriend is driving you insane, ask yourself what revenue they are bringing into your life; are they bringing you closer to your dreams and goals? If not, you need to put them up for sale and give them the boot. In accounting, we call this reallocating capital. 

    Remember, your capital is scarce. Don’t waste it on expenses that aren’t worth it.

    You will need to reallocate capital many times throughout your life. Your assets and liabilities are never set in stone and they can always turn from good to bad and vice versa.

    You might have a boyfriend who has been a huge asset for many years and then suddenly turns into an alcoholic and sleeps with your sister. You might have a girlfriend who used to take your breath away and then she turns into a level 5 crazy with a moustache. In accounting, we refer to this as depreciation.

    Sometimes the depreciated assets in your life can be restored with a little repairs and maintenance, but more often than not they will need to be removed from your life. In accounting, we refer to this removal as a write off. If you feel there are old assets lying around bringing negative energy into your life, don’t let them get too far. Write that shit off and move on.

    You will make some enemies along the way. People you thought were on your side but really just used you as a stepping stone or a doormat. The simple fact is, most people resent those who go in search of big dreams, and you can’t allow this to stop you.

    Surround yourself with people who lift you up, not bring you down. These are the people who will help produce revenue in your life. 

    As for the others, use them to motivate you. Prove yourself right and everyone else wrong. In business, we call these people competition.

    Competition is always good for business.

    Often the hardest thing about becoming profitable is changing direction. Many people go bankrupt because they couldn’t adapt to an unprofitable situation. In fact, in today’s world, the business environment changes so quickly that companies who fail to adapt disappear very quickly.

    Life is no different.

    When the iPod comes out, don’t be like Sony and keep making Walkmans hoping they’re going to make a comeback. You must change and adapt.

    If your career is not producing happiness in your life, change it now.

    If your relationship is a never ending source of stress, cut it now.

    If your diet and lifestyle is making you cry when you look in the mirror, change it now.

    You might be thinking, “oh but I’ve been working on this career for twenty years and it’s so stupid to change now”, or “we’ve been dating for 5 years and I just can’t do it”, but what has happened in the past is irrelevant. The fact you’ve already invested a lot of capital in something is not a good reason to keep it in your life.

    In accounting, we refer to these as sunk costs.

    The savvy businessman always removes sunk costs from the decision-making process because they are irreversible and therefore irrelevant. We do not look to the past, only the future.

    Take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle. On the left side write down all the things in your life that are making you happy. Then on the right side write down all the things that are making you unhappy.

    In accounting, we call this piece of paper a balance sheet.

    A balance sheet tells you whether or not your business is healthy. The piece of paper you have in front of you is now the balance sheet of your life. The goal is not dollars, but happiness.

    If the right side of your balance sheet is overflowing and the left side is empty, your life is a mess. Your profits will be non-existent and investors would not be interested in touching you with a poop covered pole. In accounting, we refer to this as insolvency.

    This means you will not be attracting many good people or experiences into your life. In fact, you will probably have many bad people coming into your life, some of whom will sense your weakness.

    Perhaps an employer will see your dire situation and not bother giving you a payrise, because he knows you can’t quit anyway, or maybe some crazy will sense your loneliness and try and get close to you to take advantage of you. In accounting, we refer to this as a hostile takeover.

    On the other hand, if the left side is full and the right side isn’t, your life is very attractive. Many people will want to invest in and be a part of it and you will have a life of high revenue, or happiness. Whatever expenses life throws at you will be manageable, because your balance sheet is so strong you will have nothing to worry about. You will also be in a position to be a positive influence on the life of those around you and the people you care about.

    You might not have an overflowing bank account, but your life will be full of revenue streams of happiness you can share with those who are important to you. You win.

    It’s time to size up your capital – the resources you have available to make a difference in the world and create your happiness. What do you have to offer? Size up your health, education, finances, your drive and your passion, your wit and charm, your friends and family, who you are and where you come from. 

    Do you feel like you have less capital than the next guy?

    Boo hoo. 

    Life waits for nobody and you can get up and start moving or cry in the corner. Nobody cares.

    Besides, we might start from different places but we’re all on the same rock.

    Life is just a game. You’re dealt the cards you’re dealt.

    Now play.

    To endless profits and happiness,

    Bren

    Brendan is a 29-year old Chartered Accountant who hopes to never work as an accountant again in this life or the next. He hopes you appreciated this attempt to make accounting interesting. If you are an accounting professor and have issue with how he defined the terms in his article above, you may leave your concerns in the comments section below. If you are an accountant reading this at work, please charge your time to brenontheroad.com. The reading of this article can be added to your CPD hours. Expected reading time is 15 minutes.

  • Travellers And Tourists Are All The Same, And Anyone Who Tells You Differently Is Just A Silly Gringo

    Travellers And Tourists Are All The Same, And Anyone Who Tells You Differently Is Just A Silly Gringo

    “Yeah, but those kinds of people aren’t travelling, they’re on holiday.”

    “Oh right,” I nodded, as I quietly took a sip of my beer, pretending to know what he was talking about.

    What the hell was the difference?

    For the rest of the night, the topic popped in and out of conversation, and eventually, I kinda got the gist of what he was talking about. It was my first year of travelling and, little did I know I would meet many, often smug and obnoxious characters, with this mindset throughout my next few years on the road.

    “Don’t go to Phuket! It’s just full of typical tourists on package holidays. It’s not the real Thailand. It’s a place for tourists, not travellers.”

    Spend one month on the backpacking circuit and you’re bound to meet someone like this; people who have, with apparent Robinson Crusoe-like fearlessness, slept in a beach hut or visited a city without a Sheraton, and thereby elevated themselves from just another silly tourist to a gritty, hardened and courageous “traveller” – someone who, through their immense nomadic struggle of taking one 40-hour bus ride, is now so brave and bulletproof that they no longer need the precious comforts of air-conditioning and pizza to survive life out on the unkind road.

    These self-proclaimed “travellers-not-tourists” are often obsessed with shunning the tourist centres for more “local” and “off the beaten path” travel experiences. And if there’s one thing they always pride themselves on, it’s having experienced “local” life – eating like a local, sleeping like a local, living like a local, taking shits like a local.

    But here’s the kicker: you will never know what it’s like to be a local, because you’re not a local, and you never will be a local. So, my suggestion? Stop trying to pretend you’re one, because you sound like an idiot.

    After I returned from the visit to my project in Ethiopia last year, my friends and family all commented on how “off the beaten track” and “authentic” the experience seemed.

    “It must have been so fascinating, to experience life in the village like that!”

    “Wow, you really got to see what the locals live like! That’s amazing!”

    And it was amazing. But I do not pretend to know what it is like to live their life. Sure, I slept in the village for a night. I met the community, ate their food, fetched their water, learned their customs. I observed, first-hand, a 48 hour snapshot of village life. But do you know what I did the next day? I got in a 4WD, drove to my 3-star hotel, had a Coke and a pizza, a hot shower, and went to sleep in a bed with clean white sheets and a fat pillow. I did not, and do not, live their life. I have no idea what it is like to wake up every single morning at 6am and carry a 20L jerry can of water on my back for 40 minutes. I don’t know what it’s like to eat injera and that pungent orange powder every night for dinner off the dirt floor of a mud hut. What I can do is attempt to appreciate their culture and their hardship. I can acknowledge the contrast their life has to mine. But, in reality, I have no idea what their life is like.

    To all those who claim to be “real travellers” because they have experienced “the local life”, please, stop. You may well have seen how locals live, seen what they do in their daily life, you may have even eaten some of their food and slept in their houses, but despite all that, you’re not a local. You’re a tourist. You’ll always be a tourist.

    “Why do these people even bother coming to Thailand? They spend their whole vacation in their air-conditioned resorts, eating cheeseburgers in the tourist restaurants. They might as well just stay home.”

    Typical words from a “traveller-not-tourist” that you will hear on many an occasion. For some reason, they hate resorts. They hate tourist restaurants. They hate people who go on holiday to do things they can do at home.

    The irony is, these oh-so-knowledgeable travellers will probably sleep in a hostel dorm, eat Thai noodles in small Thai restaurants, and drink beer with Thai people on the beach at night.

    Guess what, Indiana Jones? You can do all that at home too.

    And even if you couldn’t, what is so wrong with staying in an air-conditioned room and eating cheeseburgers? What is so “unauthentic” about it? Why is that not a “real” and “local” experience? Are you suggesting that all Thai people live without air-conditioning and never eat cheeseburgers? Walk into any Burger King in Bangkok, and I assure you it will be packed with Thais eating Whoppers. It will probably be air-conditioned, too. Perhaps these super-experienced know-it-all travellers need to pull their head out of you-know-where and start observing the “local life” they are so apparently informed about a little bit closer.

    The reality is, a traveller is a tourist. And a tourist is a traveller. You are nothing more than a visitor in a foreign land. Just because you slept in a hut and shit in a hole, does not make you any more ‘travelled’ than the guy who slept in the Radisson and shit in a flush toilet. I mean, you can sleep in a hut and shit in a hole at home. Why did you bother coming all the way out here to do that?

    It seems, people are searching so hard for something extreme, something extravagant, that they refuse to accept the “real” culture for what it actually is. Once you land in the country, there is no ‘real’ and ‘fake’. Everything you see is real. Yes, maybe it’s Americanised, maybe it’s changing, maybe it’s becoming frustratingly similar to what you see at home. But it’s real. Embrace it. Learn from it. This is the world, whether you like it or not.

    I’m not quite sure when travelling became a competition. Perhaps in the 13th century, when Columbus sailed West trying to find chicken tikka masala before anyone else. Or was it more recently, thanks to TV shows like An Idiot Abroad and The Amazing Race?

    Whenever it started, nothing paints the picture more perfectly than listening to two bickering 19-years olds in a hostel lounge trying to one-up one another while pretending to be best friends.

    “Oh, but do you know what it’s like to actually live like a Cambodian? I do, because I got invited into a Cambodian family’s house, and actually ate real home-cooked Cambodian food!”

    “Oh yeah, but did you actually help cook the Cambodian food? No? Oh that’s a shame, because I got invited to a Cambodian dinner too, but I actually helped cook the amok and I stayed the night there too!”

    “Oh yeah, I stayed the night too of course. And then in the morning I realised they had no toilet. I had to shit in a bucket!”

    “Oh I’ve had to crap in a bucket many times, it’s like, so normal to me now. Actually, when I was in Africa, I spent a whole week in a Maasai village and had to shit out in the cornfield!”

    And it goes on and on, this passive aggressive “I’m a better traveller than you” game, until they’ve made up as many stories as their imagination will allow.

    Sorry to crash the party kids, but here’s the inconvenient truth:

    Both of you are just a couple of silly gringos.

    Just like me.

    Just like the rest of us.

    We are all village idiots; outsiders, people who do not belong but have been welcomed in anyway. That is exactly what makes travel beautiful. We get to see a glimpse of different lives. We get to see new faces, experience new smells and flavours. We get to do, see and eat whatever and wherever we want, even if it is a cheeseburger in the resort café. Everything about travel is a personal experience – not a competition. People will explore the world and themselves in different ways. There is no wrong or right or better or worse. So instead of spending all your energy trying to be the most un-touristy traveller out there, how about just enjoying travel for what it is; a chance to escape the rut of daily life, learn about yourself, see the world, and have a good time.

    You silly tourist, you.

    Photo credit: garryknight@Flickr

  • What People Are Doing When They Travel To “Find Themselves”

    What People Are Doing When They Travel To “Find Themselves”

    You’ve seen it before, right?

    Someone you used to know, suddenly transformed after venturing around the world. All their old dreams vanished and they come home all worldly with their stories and new-found carefree attitudes. Kind of annoying, really.

    Life is different now, they say.

    They’ve changed.

    They’ve finally found themselves.

    Honestly, I hate that phrase. “Finding yourself” is so cliche and fluffy that it doesn’t even mean anything anymore. Films like Eat Pray Love and Walter Mitty have only glammed it up even more. But the truth is, travel does change things. The person that leaves is rarely the same as the one that returns.

    But why? What the hell happens out there?

    Here’s my take.

    Read more:

    Removing outside influences

    For most of us, our life is full of outside influences. We have parents telling us to work hard and find good jobs. We have teachers telling us to study hard and get good grades. We have bosses directing our careers. We have girlfriends (or boyfriends) swaying our decisions. We have social pressure from colleagues and friends to fit in and be normal. We have governments saying we need jobs to be responsible. We have television, billboards and advertising, telling us what is trendy and acceptable. We have society creating a mould and constantly pressuring us to fit into it.

    And every time we want something somewhat different to the pack we get ‘concerned’ friends looking at us funny saying, “Really?”

    With all these voices in our head, our decisions are so heavily influenced that it’s impossible to figure out what we truly want.

    Instead of “going travelling to find yourself”, a more appropriate phrase might be “going travelling to decide what you want from life because it’s the only place where people will shut the fuck up long enough for you to think”.

    Seeing the world changed a lot of my opinions and perspectives on life; almost complete U-turns in some cases, but in reality it wasn’t so much the travel that did it.

    It was the quiet.

    It was the solarity.

    One of the biggest fantasies you will hear from people in 9-5 jobs is that they want to just “retire on the beach and drink cocktails all day”. In fact, while sitting in my cubicle I can admit that I fantasised about the exact same thing probably every Monday (and Tuesday, and Wednesday, and Thursday…).

    And then, only a few years later, I found myself in South East Asia doing exactly that. Each morning I would wake up, eat breakfast, and then sit on the beach and drink cocktails all day.

    Was it fun?

    You bet.

    I had the best time of my life…for two days. Then I got bored.

    It only took 48 hours to realise that wasn’t my dream at all. It was just a fantasy that had been dreamed up out of hate for my old life; early morning commutes, wearing a tie, a shitty job and a 40-hour work week.

    During those years, I would wake up every morning and think, “If this is really going to be my life for the next 40 years, you can kill me now.”

    But as I sat on the beach with drink in hand, the prospect of that lifestyle didn’t impress me much either. I mean, honestly, ask yourself; do you really want to sit on the beach and drink every day for the rest of your life? Never learning anything new, never challenging yourself, never growing or achieving anything? Is that really what you want from life? Is that really what you want to spend your precious time on this earth doing?

    Sure, it still sounds better than a cubicle. But I’d be surprised if anyone would be happy spending 40 years drowning in alcohol on the beach.

    That wasn’t my dream. It was an “anywhere but here” fantasy, dreamed up out of my unhappiness and desperation. I soon realised, I need to be challenged. I need to be learning new things. Sitting on the beach drinking cocktails is fun, but sitting on the beach reading books would surely satisfy me more.

    But that’s not enough either. I like challenges and building things. I like writing and creating things. So perhaps, sitting on the beach reading books and building a business would be my dream.

    But even that’s not enough. I like to have friends. I like companionship. I want to be around my family. So perhaps, sitting on the beach reading books, building a business, near my family with a great girlfriend and great circle of friends would be my dream. Maybe? Who knows.

    But that’s a part of finding yourself. If I were still in my cubicle, with only 3 hours of free time a day and my friends, family, colleagues and girlfriend all telling me what I should do, I would still be fantasising about cocktails on the beach.

    “The best day of your life is the one on which you decide your life is your own. No apologies or excuses. No one to lean on, rely on, or blame. The gift is yours – it is an amazing journey – and you alone are responsible for the quality of it. This is the day your life really begins.”
    –Bob Moawad

    Realising your paradise does exist

    We all think our lives are normal. We all think that the way we live, the things we eat and the society that we have is the right version of life, and everything else is different.

    But every traveller eventually has that eureka moment; maybe while sitting on a beach or wandering through some small town. They see and experience something so different and so contrasting with their own life that it suddenly hits them: their life isn’t normal. Normal doesn’t exist.

    You think an alarm clock is normal? No, it’s not. Not everyone wakes up at 7am and does a 40 hour work week. Just the mere thought of doing that is a complete joke to many people.

    It goes for everything in life – shoes, monogamy, internet, religion, taxes, locking your doors, tampons, divorce – all these things we blindingly accept as normal are considered absolutely ridiculous somewhere else in the world.

    And then suddenly, it’s like, poof, you no longer need to live by the rules back home. There are many different places out there, with different rules, and if you look hard enough, you’ll find a place with rules you agree with.

    That life you hated so much back home, you don’t need to go back to it.

    Back there, the life you want to live is considered ‘stupid’ and ‘unrealistic’. You’re bombarded by naysayers and cynics, and people who feel threatened by your desire to venture out.

    But not on the road.

    Somewhere in the world, you’ll be able to find a place where the life you always dreamed of living; your beliefs and values and lifestyle, isn’t stupid. It’s normal. And by finding this place, you no longer feel like an outsider. You don’t need to feel like what you’re looking for is stupid and unrealistic. You’re finally able to accept who you are and what you want. In the process of discovering the world, you were able to rediscover yourself. And that’s a part of finding yourself.

    “If you end up with a boring miserable life because you listened to your mom, your dad, your teacher, your priest, or some guy on television telling you how to do your shit, then you deserve it.”
    -Frank Zappa

    Finding perspective

    You’ve probably heard the saying “it’s a small world.”

    Well, whoever came up with that is an idiot.

    It’s an enormous world, overflowing with amazing people and places that even with twenty lifetimes you would not come close to seeing it all.

    But it’s not until you really start exploring that you realise how big the world is. It’s only when you meet that one interesting person in that one faraway town in that obscure, impossible to find tea house, that you begin to wonder; how many more amazing people are waiting to be met? How many incredible stories are waiting to be told? How many more places are there to be found, all with their own myths and scandals and legends and stories?

    But more importantly, you realise that you cannot meet all these people, or see all these places. The world is too big. And in a world so big, you’re insignificant. You yourself are also just another one of these faraway people, waiting to be met. So even though back home you probably consider yourself the most important person in the universe, in reality, you’re nobody.

    There are 7 billion people on this planet. If you disappeared tomorrow without a trace, how many people do you think would actually care?

    100?

    200?

    500?

    That’s not even 1 percent of 1 percent of 1 percent.

    Perspective.

    You’re nothing more than a speck of sand on a shoreline that never ends.

    Is that cynical? No. It’s liberating.

    Because since you’re so insignificant, you are free. And because you are free, you can do whatever you want.

    Nobody cares.

    Perspective.

    One thing that’s very noticeable among well travelled people is how laid back they are. They don’t get hung up on stupid shit.

    Girls I used to eat lunch with at work would freak out when their plate had a tiny bit of dirt on the edge. They would berate the waiter with a tone that said “how dare you serve me a plate that isn’t sparkling clean!”

    However girls I eat lunch with on the road happily sit down in the dirtiest, smelliest street stalls and devour their meals with huge smiles on their faces.

    Why?

    Because the road humbles you. You learn how insignificant you are. And then you don’t care anymore. If someone is angry at us, we don’t care. If our order is late, we don’t care. No job? We don’t care. If the bus ride is 40 hours and there’s no air conditioning and we’re all sweating and someone vomits and the whole bus starts to smell like mouldy fish…we don’t care. Because after seeing how big the world is and all the crap that goes on it, we realise this stuff doesn’t really matter.

    Perspective.

    When we stop caring about dumb shit like this, we allow ourselves to properly care about the things that really do matter – friends, family, our loves and our passions. With our new found perspective, we learn how to choose our battles and focus on what matters. We rediscover what really is important to us, and that’s a part of finding yourself.

    “It took me a long time and much painful boomeranging of my expectations to achieve a realization everyone else appears to have been born with: That I am nobody but myself. But first I had to discover that I am an invisible man.”
    -Ralph Ellison

    Realising that it’s ok to do what you love

    We live in a wonderful world, where from the youngest of ages we are conditioned into being model citizens. Our lives are paved out for us before we even hit puberty.

    I didn’t really want to go to university. I didn’t want a 9-5 work day. I didn’t want to apply for a job after graduation. I did it because I thought I had to.

    You’ll probably do the same.

    But then, you travel. And you do the things you love. And you find new things to love. And you decide you don’t want to be a banking officer anymore – you want to ride horses, or scuba dive, or do yoga, or play the harp.

    And more importantly, you actually meet people who are spending their lives riding horses, and diving, and teaching yoga, and playing the harp.

    Those moments stick with you. It’s like, “Shit! Look at all these people living the exact life I never thought was possible!”

    And you no longer need an alarm clock to get you out of bed. You don’t need any more inspirational quotes on Facebook. You’ve finally realised that if you just take the tiny step outside the lines, it’s possible to spend your life just doing what you love and life is suddenly exciting again. That’s a part of finding yourself.

    “We can’t be afraid of change. You may feel very secure in the pond that you are in, but if you never venture out of it, you will never know that there is such a thing as an ocean, a sea. Holding onto something that is good for you now, may be the very reason why you don’t have something better.”
     -C. Joybell C.

    Do you need to travel to find yourself? Probably not. But amongst all the noise of your daily life, it is hard to really give yourself the space to do so. 

    When we travel, we get lost.

    We have days where life has no meaning at all – we just lie in bed and stare at the slats in the bunk above us.

    And then we have days where life has all the meaning in the world, when we meet a special person who teaches us a lesson so powerful that our life changes completely.

    Time on the road is time to reflect, to think, see what is on the outside. It’s time away from the masses; time to be whoever you want to be. We see all the different flavours of the world, absorb it all, and decide which path draws us in the most. We get lost, and we search, and then we find ourselves.

    Whatever the hell that means.

  • The Real Reason I Quit My Job To Travel The World

    The Real Reason I Quit My Job To Travel The World

    Back when I was a young teenager, I remember sitting in the car one morning with my Mum on the way to school. The night before I had just watched an episode of South Park, where the guys were sent a starving child from Ethiopia and then took him to a buffet, but kept stealing his food as he was about to eat it. While obviously just bad comedy, I remember being extremely angry at it, and thinking how incredible it would be to really take one of those starving children to a buffet and let them live in our shoes for a day.

    And so I blurted out to Mum, “One day, I’m going to get really rich and then go and build a village in Africa.”

    I don’t remember exactly what she said in reply, but it was probably along the lines of, “If you study really hard and come first in class, you can build as many villages as you want.”

    You might say, even at that young age, I was already dreaming of adventuring in faraway places.

    Of course those intentions were a little starry-eyed, and today I’d probably say building a village in Africa would just be a wasteful and ego-driven way to blow a bunch of money. But the point of the story has nothing to do with Africa, or villages; it’s simply to say that from my earliest years, I had never once dreamed or aspired to become an accountant.

    Nonetheless, around ten years later there I was, fresh out of university and sitting at a desk in an accounting firm. I had never planned it that way, and still to this day can’t really figure out how it happened; I just ended up taking accounting in high school, studying it at university, applying for a few jobs, and then, like clockwork, I was locked into a three year accounting contract. Funny how life can flash before your eyes like that, even when you’re not dying.

    And so I continued to drift along, following the crowd like I’d always done. Everyone signed that form, so I signed it too. Everyone joined that institute, so I joined it too. I straightened up my tie and cleaned my shoes. I paid my fees. I played the game.

    It was long, painful. Every morning I would wake up and curse relentlessly, starting every day as bitter as they come. But as much as I wanted to, I didn’t give up. My fellow comrades and I trucked along, just like we were supposed to.

    “Just one more year,” they said.

    “It’s all going to pay off,” they said.

    Three years passed slowly but I’d played all my cards right. I studied hard. I passed all the exams. My grades came back and they were “great”. It was seven years of study and tens of thousands of dollars in fees, but my efforts had finally culminated in two words – Chartered Accountant.

    Yet as I watched everyone else celebrate with such glee, I didn’t see many reasons to be happy. I hadn’t really enjoyed my time as an accountant, so I didn’t find a whole lifetime of it as something to be very excited about. I’d been told for years that accounting was an interesting and important career, yet nothing about it seemed very important or interesting to me.

    Before long, many of my colleagues had moved to London or Sydney, where they picked up six-figure salaries with relative ease. The ones that stayed in New Zealand landed jobs as managers and advisors in some of the country’s biggest companies. It wasn’t uncommon for them to be earning over $3,000 a week, and usually for doing a lot less work than we were used to. Here was the payday we had all been working towards, and finally it was sitting there in front of us, waiting to be taken.

    For several months I pondered the idea. London? New York? A fat paycheck and a sexy looking business card? It was extremely tempting.

    But it was different this time. Money didn’t entice me anymore like it did when I was 21. I was at a point where I hated my life and I hated myself, and no amount of money was going to fix that.

    People often ask me, how did you do it? Why did you do it? How did you spend all those years and all that money working for something, just to throw it away in the end?

    People assumed I just hated working, but that wasn’t necessarily true. Others thought I was just lazy. Others thought I was simply proving a point. But it was none of that.

    Instead, it was a deep-seated unhappiness, a result of spending my whole life working so hard for things I had never wanted in the first place. People used to ask me what I did, and when I had to answer “I’m an accountant”, I felt ashamed of myself. And not because there is any shame in being an accountant, or because accountants are to be looked down upon; in fact, it is considered one of the more prestigious careers in my country. It was merely because an accountant was never what I wanted to be, and that was never the life I had envisioned for myself. Each day I would stare out the window and dream of living a different life; studying Spanish in Spain, exploring my ancestry in China, volunteering in rural Africa, backpacking through South America and Southeast Asia. To say I was an accountant only upset me, because it told me that I did not have the resolve, and was too afraid, to chase after the life that I truly wanted. I was a dreamer; someone who talks big and walks small. I was that guy. And I knew if that was always how I saw myself, there was no chance of me ever being happy.

    So, after 1,165 days working as an accountant, I quit.

    It was a strange feeling at first. I felt so…free. I thought back to when I first started working, in particular to a distinct memory I had of buying some gear online for my computer. At that time, I was barely two weeks into the job, and I had wanted to go pick my stuff up from the shop warehouse. However, I couldn’t go during the week because of work, as the shop closed at 6pm, nor could I go on the weekend because the shop was only open on Saturday morning and I had sport. The sudden feeling of paralysis hit me like a brick. I felt so suffocated; shocked at the realisation that someone now had so much control over my time that I couldn’t even pick up my own shopping.

    And now, I had too much time. Where should I go? What should I do? Options were literally endless, and all that seemed to do was spurn hundreds of ideas that collided with each other. Overwhelmed, I spent a month vegetating at home, but eventually managed to pull my plans together and set out on the journey I had been dreaming of.

    First stop: Kilimanjaro.

    Fast forward three years and all those Monday morning dreams I had have come true: I’ve studied Spanish in Spain, lived for a year in China, taught for six months in Africa, backpacked South America and Southeast Asia and so much more. All the things I had so longingly lusted for in that office cubicle, each of which had seemed like highly improbable fantasies at the time, became realities, and each of them were just as fascinating and fulfilling as I had imagined them to be. It seems that dreams, no matter how extravagant, do come true, and sometimes they are much, much closer than you think.

    These days, my old life is a distant memory. Sometimes I actually look back and find it hard to believe those years ever really happened at all. They just replay in my mind like a movie I once watched, or a dream from years before. Three years in the office is just one big blur, but three years on the road has blessed me with enough memories to fill several lifetimes. I can finally say with honesty: if I died today, I would have very few regrets at all.

    People ask me all the time about my future plans, and to be honest, I don’t have too many. In terms of money, I don’t need a lot; between life as a blogger, some side projects, my freelance gigs, my savings, and the investments I made during my working years, I make enough to live quite comfortably in many different countries. I live a much simpler life than I did before, and spend far less than I used to; at my old job I used to pay $13 a day just to park my car. That amount alone is enough to get by each day in many of my favourite cities around the world.

    And then, people often ask me if I ever regret my decision. Do I miss the office life, the routine, the putting on my suit and tie each morning? And the answer is, shockling, yes. Sometimes I do. Travel is not always the glamorous lifestyle it appears to be, and sometimes, you miss the familiarity of a routine and a community. But not once have I regretted setting out to fulfill my travel dreams. Exploring the world has been a truly priceless experience, completely my own, and totally irreplaceable.

    Try to remember that life is to be enjoyed, and we usually make a habit of taking it a little too seriously. As long as you have food to eat, clothes on your back, and a roof over your head, the only thing missing from your happiness is fulfillment. Forget the shiny life you are sold on television. What do you enjoy? What makes you happy? Start chasing that today, because waiting is a fool’s game. Sooner or later, the day will come where you don’t wake up, and none of us know when that might happen. It may be today, or 50 years from now, but either way your tomorrows are numbered.

    How are you going to spend them?

  • The One Simple Lifestyle Change That Will Transform Your Life

    The One Simple Lifestyle Change That Will Transform Your Life

    Everybody wants more. Everybody wants to have the bigger house, the faster car, the nicer suit. When the new phone comes out, we want it. We need it. When we get to six figures, we want seven, and if we’re lucky enough to get to seven, we want eight. Everybody always wants more.

    But what would happen if everybody wanted less? What if you offered somebody a mansion and they simply said, “No thanks, my studio apartment is just fine.” What if you offered someone an Armani suit and they said, “That’s alright, I’ve already got all the clothes I need.” Because interestingly, that seems to bring people a lot closer to happiness than you’d think.

    When I was a kid, I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up. My friends wanted to be firemen, or soldiers or race car drivers. But not me. None of that stuff really jumped out at me. The only thing I knew for sure was that I wanted to be rich.

    This dream carried through my teenage years and into adulthood. When I started work as an accountant, I would fawn over my clients’ bank statements, mad with envy.

    “Bro, come look at this one!” I’d say to my colleague, and we’d huddle around it, staring at the endless zeroes, in awe of these guys who were ordering European cars like Domino’s and living in million dollar houses. I would run through their entire statement, looking at the $2,000 dinners they would buy and the weekend shopping splurges they’d have on clothes and holidays.

    “That’ll be me one day,” I would smile to myself.

    I was going to upgrade from this shitty job, work at some big bank in London, get a gig on Wall Street. I was going to be that guy who drove around the corner in the $400,000 car and everyone would stop to watch me drive past. I’d be the guy that finally bought that $3,000 bottle of wine on the menu. I had a nice life, but I wanted more. I always wanted more.

    My first trip to Africa started to change that. I worked with many vulnerable children and families during my time there, and interestingly, began to admire them a lot more than I’d admired those millionaires in my client folder. It forced me to question the value of my dream and where it was taking me, and I began to wonder why I had been chasing a life of excess when in reality, I already had everything I could possibly need.

    I spent the next 3 years travelling the world, and with these thoughts in the back of my mind I started to embrace the simple life. I stopped buying new things, simply because I didn’t have any room to carry them. And as I stopped buying new things, I stopped wanting new things. And as I stopped wanting new things, I noticed that new things didn’t have any effect on my happiness at all.

    With only five t-shirts, my body felt the same as when I had twenty t-shirts.

    With one pair of shoes, my feet felt the same as when I had five pairs.

    Somehow, my shoulders didn’t seem to complain that I wore the same jacket each day.

    Instead of wanting more, I wanted less. And slowly, I realised I’d been chasing the wrong things all along. All those years I’d been working 40 hour weeks to buy more and have more, and now suddenly, there was nothing I wanted to buy. So what good was a job after that? What was I supposed to be working for?

    Nothing.

    I didn’t need to work for anything. I was free.

    And just like that my dream had come true. I was rich.

    rich

    Over the past year, I can count on one hand the physical things I’ve bought that cost more than $100.

    Two.

    A cellphone, and a juicer.

    I’ve largely managed to remove “stuff” from my life. And despite not earning a lot of money and not buying a lot of things, the year gone by has been one of the richest years of my life. Without the burden of a job, mortgage, car and house full of stuff, I’ve managed to spend my entire days on more fulfilling activities such as writing, reading, learning, meditating, exploring, exercising, cooking, relaxing, and interestingly, almost all of these things are free. Some would say I’m living like a retired millionaire, and maybe I am, but I don’t have much money at all.

    I’ve learned that when you stop buying things, you stop needing a lot of money, and when you stop needing money, you no longer need a regular job, and when you no longer have a regular job, you have time, and when you have time, you can literally do whatever you want. And isn’t that the meaning of happiness? To do whatever you want?

    In the west especially, we place a lot of value on material things. We often define people by what they have, rather than who they are. Just the other day I remember asking my friend about someone in her family.

    “What’s he like?” I asked, to which she responded, “He has a helicopter”. It puzzled me. A helicopter? Is that who he is? I guess a few years back, that would’ve impressed me, but the reality is things are just things. And they have nothing to do with who you are.

    Ask yourself, who are you as a person? Who do you want to be? What do you want to learn, to be good at, to experience, to see?

    Because what makes you rich and unique is not what you have, but how you have lived. It’s in the stories you’ve collected, the lives you have touched. It’s in the memories you have to take with you.

    blind

    Since I’ve been travelling, I’ve had a lot of plane rides and bus trips to sit and reflect, and the one thing I always tend to think about is happiness.

    What does it mean? And where does it come from?

    Many of you, like I did, might consider that getting your dream apartment, a European car, a walk in wardrobe with all your favourite clothes, and a million dollar lottery win will probably get you there. But imagine you had all that tomorrow. Picture yourself with all of that. What would you do next? I’d assume you would say you’re going to spend the rest of your life doing things you love, like travelling, or relaxing on the beach and surfing, or writing music, or spending time with your kids. But if you think about it, you can already do all these things. You do not need the house, or the car, or the million dollars for that fulfillment. And that should tell you that in reality, your happiness has nothing to do with those material things at all.

    becker

    If you find yourself unhappy, not having the time or money to live the life you desire, start asking yourself, why? What are you missing in your life? Chances are you’re spending too much time working, and not enough time on the things you love. But what are you working so hard for? What do you need to buy that you don’t already have?

    There is a Swedish proverb that goes something like, “He who buys what he does not need, steals from himself.” Take a moment to think about how much you’ve stolen from yourself. What did you spend your paychecks on last year? Were they essential to your survival? Will you remember those things ten years from now?

    You can buy a car for $10,000, or you can travel the world for a year. You can buy a $1,000 iPad, or you can buy 10 flights around Asia. You can buy an $800,000 penthouse apartment, or you can spend the rest of your life relaxing in beachfront huts for $20 a day.

    Think about the stuff you’re buying. Is it bringing your dream closer? Or pushing it further away?

    In The 4 Hour Work Week, the author talks a lot about lifestyle costing and design. The basic premise is, what is your ideal lifestyle, and how much does it cost to live it? I love Asia, so for me, I’d probably live there, at least for now. A decent bed is $12 a night, great food is $5 a day, a massage is $5 and other miscellaneous costs might run me $5 more. That works out to $27 a day to live a comfortable life at the beach (or in the city). So ideally, that is what I’d aim to earn, and the rest of my time would be spent living, i.e. doing what I love.

    What about you? How much money do you really need?

    The beauty of this equation is that it highlights the value of minimalism and living a simple life with less. If your lifestyle is too expensive, want less. Make do with less. Everyone has a choice between living with more and working more, or living with less and working less.

    Which will you choose?

    jackma

    People often ask me, what’s my secret? How do I do it? How do you spend the entire year travelling the world?

    I suppose there is a secret, and to live this lifestyle it’s mostly been about one thing – spending less money.

    Everything of importance to me I can fit into my 70 litre backpack. There’s a couple of pairs of shoes in there, my laptop, my camera, some clothes, some toiletries, and that’s it. I live with the contents of this bag year round, and need nothing more and nothing less. It almost feels like I own nothing. But I have more than I could possibly need.

    backpacking life
    My life squashed into one bag

    I can’t remember the last time I went “shopping”. I don’t remember the last time I bought a new shirt. I do not spend my day dreaming of things to buy, but rather reading about things I want to learn, writing about things that are on my mind, and seeing places that I’ve always wanted. I take photos, I sleep in, I walk, I exercise, I read and write, I explore and I relax. That is my day.

    In this age of hyper-consumerism and extravagant spending, I’ve been liberated by simply living a life of minimalism. I am no longer enticed by shiny things. I no longer believe in the lie that success consists of earning more and buying more. I buy only what I need, and I simply live.

    The one simple lifestyle change that will transform your life

    In the movie Fight Club, Tyler Durden famously said, “The things you own, end up owning you.” You buy a house, and it owns you. You cannot stop working because of it. You cannot travel because of it. You cannot spend more time with your family because of it. You cannot quit your job because of it. Your entire day, your entire life, becomes about earning more money to pay for your house.

    Ask yourself; do you own the house, or does the house own you?

    When you buy a car, you need to finance it. You need to service and clean it. You need to pay for petrol, insurance, warrants, parking. You worry about where to leave it, whether someone will dent it, whether it will be stolen, whether it’s been registered. The car you wanted so badly is now always on your mind, sucking in all your time, money and energy.

    Ask yourself, do you own the car, or does the car own you?

    When the weekend finally comes you have two precious days free, but you need to spend it cleaning the house, the car, the boat, the second house, the clothes, the garage, the garden.

    Let me ask you, what if you had nothing? How much simpler would life be? Instead of 5 rooms to clean, what if you only had three? Two? One?! How much more time would you have to read, surf, run, play the piano, go out for dinner, travel, stargaze, dance?

    Instead of wanting more, maybe it’s time we started thinking about less. Instead of filling up your shelves, empty them. Instead of buying something every weekend, sell something. Instead of wanting everything, want nothing at all.

    You might just find your dreams are a lot easier to get to, when there’s less stuff in the way.

  • A Place Called Home

    A Place Called Home

    I’m home.

    Interestingly, it’s become almost a place of in-betweens for me. A place of mixed thoughts and mixed feelings, and ones I still don’t even really understand.

    At first, it’s relief. It’s that feeling of finally stepping off the plane for the last time, stretching my legs, and seeing the familiar Maori carvings as I walk through the arrivals gate.

    Next is the comfort. The car pulls around the same corners I rode my bike on as a kid. I step inside my house, smell the distinct smell of my family home that only I know. And then I hike up the stairs and enjoy the indescribable feel of my own sheets and my own bed.

    And then comes the wondering. How long will I stay this time? And where to next? Because of course, I know that I cannot stay here forever. The itch to explore will always be there. New adventures await and the only problem will be trying to choose the next destination.

    48 hours ago, I was halfway across the world, packing my bags to get ready to leave my apartment in Quito. I hadn’t planned my time in Quito; in fact, it was as unplanned as it could possibly have been. I had only expected to stay perhaps 3 days in the city, a week at most, as I planned my epic 3 month backpacking trip through Central America.

    But those 3 days passed, and then a week passed, and then two, and I still hadn’t booked anything. Every day the flight to Panama was too expensive, or the internet wasn’t working, or I was too tired from the night before, or I had a blog post to write, and every day I stuck I around I happened to grow to like Quito a little bit more. And then I made some new friends, and of course had to stick around to go out with them that weekend. And then I discovered the gym down the road, and Quito felt a little bit more like home. And one day, while bored and watching South Park in the lounge, I decided to sign up for a salsa class, and enjoyed it so much I booked in for a whole week. And before I knew it my epic 3 month backpacking trip through Central America had suddenly turned into an epic 3 month relax and learn salsa trip in Quito.

    And so, as has happened in so many cities around the world, Quito became home. I spent every day at the salsa studio, sometimes the entire day, and the people there became like family. Eventually I found an apartment, which became as comfortable and homey as any other home I’ve had around the world. The nightlife became a blurry stream of familiar faces and places. I became a regular at the corner store and the supermarket, so much so that the checkout ladies would recognise me and greet me with a familiar smile. After a few weeks, it was as if I wasn’t even travelling anymore. Quito was home.

    But, as a traveller, home never lasts forever, and three months can sound like a long time but in reality, it’s not. This time, it kind of crept up on me and before I knew it it was time to go. In the week I was set to leave, I started letting people know of my departure, and in doing so the all-too-familiar wave of emotions hit me. It began to dawn on me that these people who I’d grown so close to I might never see again, and it was then I realised this was becoming a cycle and perhaps a rather unhealthy one. Every year I make a new home, meet new friends, find a new routine, and then end up leaving as abruptly as I’d arrived. The constant goodbyes on the road drain you, but it’s usually manageable when it’s people you’ve only known a few days. But what about the ones who’ve become true friends? Who’ve become like family? How many of those goodbyes can you handle?

    In living out my desire to see and understand so many places around the world, I’d underestimated the difficulty of the journey emotionally. What good is it to make a home that you will never see again? Where is the value of your home being everywhere, and nowhere? And what about the people that you leave behind? Did you leave them anything at all? Did you give to their life as much as they gave to yours?

    When I think back to all the homes I’ve had, it’s bittersweet. There was a time when those places were a part of me, where I felt like I belonged there in some way, but the reality is today I’m probably little more than an afterthought to the friends and family I left there. And of course, I wouldn’t expect any more than that. When you come and go, the memory of you does as well.

    However, I don’t need to hesitate for one second to know that I would not give those experiences up for anything. Every new home I’ve made has enriched my life in too many ways to count, has taught me lessons that I will surely carry the rest of my life, and opened my mind to understanding people and cultures in ways I was never able to before. I know that I am now a stronger, wiser person than the one that left Auckland four years ago, and will have evolved even more another four years down the track. The world has taught me so much, and as long as it continues to do so, I will continue to let it.

    The truth is, home will always be here, in New Zealand. But I’ve learned that despite what we might think, home can be in several places. If home is where the heart is, then once you have travelled home will never be in one place again, because it is impossible to travel without opening your heart to new people and new places. There will always be somewhere that is pulling you back, and that’s ok. It is the reason why we travel, after all.

    But where do you belong after that? If home is everywhere, which is the home that you come back to? Does it even exist?

    I do know that one day, there will be a place where I settle for good. I am not sure when, and why, but I suppose those are questions that will be answered when the time comes. For now, it seems that many places call my name, and what can you do other than follow the voice inside that is telling you to go?

    As I’ve done so many times before, I left a part of myself in Quito. There will always be times when I long to be back there, to relive those days, to sit in the studio and laugh and dance, to eat at my favourite restaurants, to sit and trade stories with my friends in my broken Spanish. The streets there are no longer just streets, but familiar walks I will recognise and remember many years from now. The friends I made there accepted me into their lives and their homes without a second thought, and added a chapter of memories to my life that I will surely never forget. There’s a good chance I will never see them again, but I will always wonder where they are, what they’re doing, and where their life has taken them. To be a part of their life and then suddenly not is overwhelmingly sad, but is a feeling that is not new anymore. I’ve learned that as someone who travels, you just need to get used to coming and going, and saying goodbye. And as you leave pieces of yourself around the world, you just need to accept that the joy of going home will always be tainted with sadness as well.

    “You will never be completely at home again, because part of your heart always will be elsewhere. That is the price you pay for the richness of loving and knowing people in more than one place.”  -Miriam Adeney

    For now, home is here. For how long, and where next? I don’t know. But to lie on my old bed and hug my old pillow, I suppose what they say is true. No matter how far you go, you’ll never forget where you came from. 

    Do you struggle with coming home? Do you have more than one? What does home mean to you? Let me know in the comments below.

    Photo: jimmybrown@Flickr

  • The Joy Of Learning Something New

    The Joy Of Learning Something New

    Do you ever feel like life is just….boring?

    I feel like that all the time. Some days I just wake up, and I don’t feel like doing anything. Everything I’ve got planned for the day just makes me go…bleh.

    Isn’t that crazy?

    The world is so exciting and vibrant, with so much to do that even ten lifetimes wouldn’t even be enough to do everything we want. But we’re bored.

    How are we bored? Why are we bored?

    It’s madness, but we are.

    And I think maybe, this might be the reason:

    We’re bored because…we’re living boring lives.

    Ouch.

    But it’s the truth.

    Think about it. Most of us spend every day just drudging through a daily routine, and if you don’t make an effort to plan or pursue anything interesting, well, then of course your life is going to boring.

    I remember back when I used to work as an accountant, I was bored every single day. Why? Because I was doing the same thing every single day. Sure, one day my client was a dentist, and the next day my client was a plumber, but it was all the same. We talked about their business, and then I punched numbers into the computer, and then out of the printer came this little booklet that the client would pay $10,000 for. Did that make me feel good? No. It didn’t. My boss was happy, for sure, but not me.

    Why?

    Because I wasn’t learning anything new. I wasn’t growing. Every time I talked to my boss, she would never ask, “Brendan, are you learning anything new today? Brendan, have you developed any new skills today?”

    No.

    She would ask things like “Brendan, how many jobs have you finished today? Brendan, how many fees have you brought in today? Brendan, how much money have you made for me today?”

    And needless to say, those were things I didn’t care about. But I was used to that, because all throughout my life, ever since I was a little kid, I’d been almost exclusively learning stuff I didn’t care about.

    Long division? Covalent bonds? Trigonometry?

    For the first 25 years of my life, I spent my days learning these things. I used to study them for hours, write notes on them, write reports about them, prepare speeches about them, stress about them before exams, and guess what?

    I don’t care about any of them.

    I’ve spent 90% of my life learning about things I couldn’t give two shits about. No wonder my life was boring.

    It was only a few years ago when I decided that learning was actually fun. There is so much to know in the world, so much knowledge, yet almost all of us concentrate on the most boring things possible. But I’ve learned the world becomes a different place when you start soaking up knowledge that actually excites you.

    When I started studying Spanish for the first time, I was electrified. It was so fascinating to me. For five weeks, I had class every day for four hours starting at 8am, and I never missed a single one. Not one.

    Do you know how many classes I missed in university? Almost all of them. If my grades had been based on attendance, I would’ve failed every single paper.

    Do you know how often I was late for work? Every day. Because I didn’t want to be there.

    Do you know how many days I would’ve gone to maths class if I actually had a choice? Zero. Because maths is dumb.

    Why do you think we need to have rules and laws and exams in place to force us to learn this stuff? 

    Because no one cares about them. And to get someone to learn something they don’t care about, you need to hold a gun to their head.

    Do you think anyone forced Jimi Hendrix to learn the guitar?

    Do you think anybody forced Michael Jordan to learn how to shoot a fadeaway?

    No. Because they loved what they were learning.

    That’s the difference.

    I loved learning Spanish. Life was so interesting again. I realised that suddenly, there were now 1 billion more people in the world I could talk to. How many stories could we share? How many new friendships could be made? It blew my mind.

    From then on, I developed an undying love for language. If I had the lifetimes, I would learn every language in the world.

    Then, I studied Chinese for a year. By the end of it, I had another billion new people to talk to. I couldn’t get enough.

    After that, I went to learn to fight in the Philippines. I’ve never been in a fight in my life, but for some reason, I felt this desire to learn how to break stuff. It was one of the best months of my life. I got hit in the face. I injured every part of my body. I got to stand in front of a bag and get as violent as I wanted. I spent my days with guys who beat people up for a living, and ironically, they were some of the nicest guys I’ve ever met. I learned so much from that group of fighters, and felt like a completely different person afterwards.

    I kept learning. I learned how to cook, how to make a website, how to ride a motorbike, how to make pizza, how to speak French, how to surf.

    And now, for the last three weeks or so, I’ve been learning to dance. Every day I head to the studio, and I learn how to connect my body with music. I’ve never learned a dance step in my life, but again, it’s breathed new life into me and given me eyes into a whole new world. Here in Ecuador, I wake up late, sit around and write, sometimes work out, sometimes cook, sometimes go sightseeing, but I never, ever miss dance class. I can’t wait to see what I’ll get taught in class that day.

    Read the full story about my salsa experience here.

    Learning doesn’t stop when you finish school. In fact, I believe that’s exactly when it starts. You’re done with the bullshit then. No more exams, and lectures, and “required papers”. You can finally start learning whatever you want. And you must keep learning, because if you don’t, if you don’t keep acquiring new knowledge, what are you doing? If you’re not getting better every day, if you’re not expanding your experiences, why are you even still alive?

    Let me ask you, when’s the last time you actually learned something you wanted to learn? Maybe you want to learn to sing? Or learn to tango? Or learn yoga, or French, or cooking, or painting? Maybe you wanted to learn to bake a chocolate tart? Or play the violin?

    So why haven’t you started yet?

    Isn’t it funny how we put off all the things we actually want to learn in life, but for some reason we have the time to go to work every day and learn how to write a fucking SUM IF statement on Excel.

    Madness, right?

    So that’s my message for all of you today. Start learning something you’ve always wanted to learn. Excite your mind again. Feel that sparkle inside yourself when you learn something new and realise you’re a little bit closer to the person you want to be. Do it now. Buy the course or sign up for the class. You might find it’s exactly what your life has been missing.

    Buena suerte!

    Bren

    P.S. Don’t forget to come back and tell me all about it!

  • Am I Suffering From Peter Pan Syndrome?

    Am I Suffering From Peter Pan Syndrome?

    “So, are you going to look for work when you get home?” she asked.

    The semester was winding down, and it was only a few weeks before exams wrapped up and we were all released from our year of studying Chinese in Shanghai.

    “No, I think I’m going to travel around Asia a bit and learn Muay Thai,” I replied.

    She laughed.

    “You’re really running away from grown up life, huh!?” she said, smiling.

    I didn’t really think about it too much after that, but sure enough, the semester ended and my classmates all returned home to their jobs and studies, while I somehow ended up in the Philippines, living on Boracay and learning martial arts, just like I’d wanted to.

    Yet as I lay in my bamboo hut on the first few nights, I began to wonder what direction my life was heading in. Back when I quit my job I had dreamed of travelling the world, and despite two years of full time travel, I still didn’t quite seem satisfied. Those adventures had only fuelled my wanderlust even more, and my bucket list had quadrupled in size. After my Africa, China, and South America journeys, I now wanted to learn French in France, Russian in Kazakhstan, jiu jitsu in Brazil, salsa in South America, Thai boxing in Bangkok, Swahili in Tanzania and of course, complete my cross country pancake tour of North America. When I thought about it, it seemed like travel was just a never-ending black hole of distractions, and a perfect escape from the life that was waiting for me back home.

    That’s when my friend’s comments began to press on my mind, and, quite unexpectedly, struck a sensitive chord.

    Was I running away? Why didn’t I want live the life of a ‘grown up’? Why was I trying so hard to not get a job? Was I just immature, or lazy? Did I somehow think I was just better than everyone else? Why did I feel such an impassioned desire to do things so differently?

    And then one day, an article popped up on Facebook. I don’t remember exactly, but it was something along the lines of “10 signs your man suffers from Peter Pan syndrome.”

    While the article itself was quite crap (just some middle-aged woman complaining her boyfriend didn’t want to marry her), the Peter Pan part of it intrigued me, and soon I discovered people all over the web were talking about it; 20-something men who refused to grow up, refused to hold down jobs, refused to buy houses and get married, have kids and basically avoid most of life’s “responsibilities” altogether.

    And, funnily enough, it seemed I fit the mould like a glove. Just 2 years earlier I had a great job and lucrative career in front of me. I’d been dating a wonderful girl for several years and marriage was probably just around the corner. I’d saved diligently and wasn’t far from being able to buy my first home. Mortgage, kids, a nice stable job; it was all waiting for me, whenever I was ready for it.

    And then I ran away.

    I boarded a plane to Kilimanjaro. I wanted to go as far away as possible, to a place where hopefully accounting wasn’t even invented yet (newsflash: it does exist there, and I actually ended up teaching it). After that came South America. Then, China. And then Hong Kong, Thailand, The Philippines. And then Africa again. And then Thailand again. And then Cambodia. And then New York. And then South America again, and on and on it went.

    I was running to as many different places as I could and, unsurprisingly, it made me the happiest I’d ever been.

    My life that was once confined to a cubicle not even wide enough for me to stretch out my arms was now a worldwide adventure full of possibilities. The road was my Neverland.

    And then I started to think, why was that a bad thing? What’s wrong with not having a regular job? What’s wrong with travelling? What’s wrong with not getting married at 25? People get the misconception that I don’t work and just piss around all day, but that is far from the truth. I work harder today as a blogger than I ever did at my 9-5, the only difference is I enjoy it, and I also enjoy the freedom to travel and live life on my own terms.

    I’m happier, healthier, more motivated and more excited about life than ever.

    Is that what Peter Pan Syndrome is about? Following your passion, not working a crappy job, not getting married before you’re ready and not settling for a life you don’t want? Well then, shit, you can make me the face of the franchise if you want to. I think all men should be Peter Pans.

    Every day I grow more and more amused at how powerful social conditioning has been. Somehow we all grew up with ideas ingrained into us that there are “good” and “bad” paths in life, and that if we don’t get jobs and pay taxes and have families that we’re irresponsible.

    Well, here’s my take on being irresponsible. The universe gave you one life. It doesn’t matter how ‘successful’ you are. You could be a serial killer or the president or the next Bill Gates, it doesn’t matter. You still only get one.

    So perhaps, instead of using your one, precious life doing what everyone around you says you should do, don’t you think you should probably use it to do what you want to do?

    It’s your life, isn’t it?

    Why are you letting someone else tell you what to do with your life? If it’s that important to them, they can use their own life to do it. But the life you were given is yours. So don’t you think you should be honest with yourself, and use it to do what you want to do?

    Remember, you’re only given one. That means you need to use it responsibly. And if you were to spend it doing anything less than what you truly want…well, in my mind, that would be incredibly irresponsible.

    They say Peter Pans should grow up.

    But what for? To be like you? To be like everyone else?

    I look around, and everyone else doesn’t look happy. Everyone else doesn’t smile. Everyone else is complaining all the time. Everyone else is in a horrible mood.

    I don’t think I want to be like everyone else.

    Peter Pan, he has fun. He smiles a lot. He’s happy. He has a lot of friends, and they do cool stuff all the time.

    Yeah.

    I think I’ll keep these Peter Pan shoes on a little while longer.

    What do you think? Am I running away? Are we seeing too many Peter Pans in the world? Is that a good or bad thing? Let me know in the comments below.

    Photo credit: ingermaaike@Flickr

     

  • The 7 Women You Will Meet On The Road

    The 7 Women You Will Meet On The Road

    Earlier this year, my friend Trisha wrote a hilarious article titled The 7 Men You Will Meet On The Road.

    Of course I could never let the boys endure this slanderous exposé (okay fine, most of it was true) without a response. So ladies, here is what it looks like from the other side…I got you, fellas!

    The 7 women you will meet on the road:

    1. The Broken Hearted

    543225395_b89863020d_z
    Photo: ckaroli@Flickr

    Profile: She’s in her 20’s, travelling alone, probably on a whim and is a little nervous about it. Her recent relationship of 2 (or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 or 7) years has just ended and she’s looking to the road for comfort and new beginnings. Why? Because she recently watched that famous horror movie, what’s it called again? Oh yeah, Eat Pray Love. Now she’s on her way to Bali in search of a personal sequel. She spends a lot of the time on the laptop, Facebooking with friends and writing emails. You find it weird how early she wakes up.

    Where you will meet: In the hostel dining room

    How you will meet: She’s reading a book and drinking coffee when you wake up for breakfast. You sit next to her and say hi, and soon find out she’s already been up for four hours.

    The scenario: You ask her what book shes reading (it’s a Nicholas Sparks novel), and that segues into all sorts of conversations. She’s fun to talk to. She’s not really a drinker, so the time you spend with her is spent chatting away in the hostel lounge, eating lunch or maybe even a visit to a few churches and temples. It’s been a while since she’s had to read signals so she might think you like her, but you really just enjoy her company. She’s a breath of fresh air, compared to those airhead 17 year-olds in your dorm.

    The ending: No tears here. Just a hug and a smile and off she goes. You’ll keep in touch.

    2. The Australians

    201583670_7d85edb6b7_zPhoto: joelyv@Flickr

    Profile: There’s two of them. One’s a blonde, one’s a brunette. They wear tanktops everywhere, but never the same colour. They know everyone in the hostel, and it won’t be long before you overhear them telling someone else the exact same story they told you two days ago. You’ll always know when they’ve arrived back for the day because you can hear them laughing as soon as they enter the front door. You probably won’t even know their names, you’ll just refer to them as “those two Australian girls”, and everyone will know who you’re talking about. One day, you’ll see one of them without the other and it will stop you dead in your tracks. It’s like seeing Mary Kate without Ashley.

    Where you will meet: In your mixed dorm.

    How you will meet: As soon as you arrive and sit down on your bed they’ll talk to you as if they’ve known you since high school. They talk super fast, and always seem to finish each others sentences. You’ll be wondering whether they’re high, but they’re not. They’re just really friendly.

    The scenario: You’ll be at the hostel for a week, and you’ll see them every single day. They’ll always stop and ask about your day when you see them in the hallway. Deeed ya go to tha temple today? Deeed ya? Oh how good izzit!? They’ll ask you to join them when they head out for dinner, and you’ll find them drinking in the hostel bar every night. Most likely they’ll be at a table with a group of guys, teaching them all their favourite drinking games. Each night while you’re chilling in the dorm they’ll bombard you with personal questions, and tell you all their travel stories. They have a lot of inside jokes, and they’ll laugh hysterically at every single one of them. The accent will grow on you, and you’ll eventually enjoy kicking back with their meaningless banter each night.

    The ending: You’ll be sadder than expected when it’s time to leave. They’ve actually been a lot of fun. You’ll give them each a long hug and they’ll leave you with a smile on your face. You still don’t know their names.

    3. The Solo Adventurer

    6962136935_5824e68645_z
    Photo: jorislouwes@Flickr

    Profile: She’s a machine. She’s travelled to over 50 countries and has every day planned out to a T. She’s older than you. She has a surprisingly small backpack but always seems to be wearing clean clothes and has an outfit for everything: sightseeing, gym, yoga, going out. You’ll notice she has really toned legs, probably because she’s obsessed with hiking. She reads every single night. For some reason you can’t quite put your finger on, you’re not really attracted to her. She’s pretty, though. And she’s probably the nicest person you’ve ever met. Oh and she’s a vegetarian too, obviously. But she still eats fish sometimes.

    Where you will meet: In the hostel bathroom, brushing your teeth.

    How you will meet: You’ll walk in and she’ll be flossing vigorously. She glances at you and smiles, and naturally you start to chat with a mouthful of toothpaste.

    The scenario: She’s way too cool for you. She’s been to places you’ve never even heard of. You’ll sit next to her a lot, especially during meals, because she has so many interesting things to share. You’ll invite her to join everyone for a drink, and she will, but she’ll only have one or two, and then the next morning, she’ll smile knowingly at you while you nurse your hangover like an idiot. She’s really easy to talk to, but conversations with her are different. They feel so serious all the time, but you find yourself learning something new from her every day. But eventually you stop asking her what she did today, because it’s always something like, well I woke up at 6, did some yoga, read 100 pages, wrote in my journal, went on the walking tour, ran 6 miles, climbed a mountain, submitted my research paper and now I’m here eating tofu with you, and it makes you feel dumb because you just woke up two hours ago. Even though you talk to her every day, she always seems to remain somewhat a stranger.

    The ending: One day, she just disappears. She left early and you were still asleep. You didn’t even grab her Facebook.

    4. The Charlie’s Angels

    KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA
    Photo: Tristan Bowersox @ Flickr

    Profile: There’s usually three of them, and they’ve been friends since childhood. There’s a 99% chance they’re still in university or have just graduated, and this is the big adventure they’ve been saving up for. Two of them look like sisters and the other one looks completely different, e.g two short blondes and a tall brunette. They do absolutely everything together – they wake up at the same time, drink the same drinks and probably even share clothes. They’ve planned their entire trip in meticulous detail, to the point where they’ve assigned specific ipod playlists to each of their upcoming bus rides.

    Where you will meet them: In the hostel lounge.

    How you will meet them: You’ll sit at their table and start chatting with them because one of them will be on “the laptop” and the other 2 will be sitting there looking bored.

    The scenario: You’ll become an honorary member of their group. They’ll always want to drink with you and will invite you to join them everywhere they go. You’ll become better friends with one of them than you will with the other 2, but that’s alright. Even before the trip is over, they’ll add you on Facebook and tag you in all their photos of their “Epic trip” album.

    The ending: Big hugs all round. Years later, they still send you stupid messages on Whatsapp.

    5. The How Did That Happen

    2503747029_ffdd7a5cb3_z
    Photo: pipiten @ Flickr

    Profile: She has a gorgeous smile. She’s from some faraway country, like Sweden or Brazil. She’s fun and bubbly, and has been on the road for a while. She works out, even while travelling, and you sometimes see her in her yoga gear as she’s arriving back at the hostel in the morning. She’s still in university, but already has her whole life figured out. You can sense her attitude the moment you meet. Something’s going on here..

    Where you will meet: At the gringo bar.

    How you will meet: You’re playing a drinking game and she calls you out on something. You study her eyes, wondering if she’s serious. Is she flirting with you? You don’t know. Next thing you know you’re all out on the town. She catches you at the bar while you’re topping up your drink, and it seems natural to offer her one. You stand there talking for a while. Now she’s flirting with you. Flash forward and you’re suddenly dancing with her. How did this happen? You have no idea. The cheap booze has bid your inhibitions goodbye. Before you know it, you’re kissing. Your friends are watching thinking you’re having the time of your life, but it’s all so ridiculous you’re actually trying not to laugh. As the night goes on, you somehow manage to exit the bar and find some privacy. And then it’s morning.

    The ending: You wake up. Where are you? Oh right, now you remember. When the two of you are finally conscious you start recapping how everything happened. It’s not even weird. You laugh about it. She’s really cute. But she’s flying out tonight. You spend the day together, nursing your hangovers and sharing a few laughs. Goodbyes are sealed with a kiss, and there’s no regrets. A few months later, you see she’s gotten engaged on Facebook.

    6. The Best Friend

    2573814491_2a7ab41ceb_z
    Photo: Jacob Enos @ Flickr

    Profile: She’s cute, and you click straight away. But it’s not the lustful, romantic, gaze into her eyes click. It’s the platonic, comforting, we’ve been friends forever click. Maybe it’s because she looks a bit like Natalie Portman, and your type is more Alicia Keys. She laughs a lot. She’s travelled a while and is comfortable on the road, which makes her easy to hang out with, and she never talks about her ex. It’s all very Haley and Lucas.

    How you will meet her: You arrived on the same day, and bumped into her while she was lugging her bag down the hall.

    The Scenario: You’ll talk for hours and don’t even realise it. You’re not really attracted to her, but the next day you’ll find yourself looking for her, wanting to hang out. Unfortunately she wakes up super early, so she’ll be out somewhere already. Later in the day she’ll find you when you least expect it. You’ll eat all your meals together, have D&M’s, you’ll probably even take a trip together. You’ll share a bed, since you’re both nearly broke. But the night will just be laughing at each others muddy feet and you falling asleep while she’s blabbing about something. Soon you’ll be such buddy buddies that you’ll start sharing water bottles and she’ll do your laundry for you when you pretend to not know how. After about two weeks, everyone you meet thinks you’ve been friends since childhood.

    The Ending: You might’ve wondered if you liked her, but you didn’t. Of course, nothing happens. The goodbye isn’t as hard as you thought it would be, and years later, you’ll still be in touch.

    7. The One That Got Away

    13562799954_f34172345c_z
    Photo: bertknot @ Flickr

    Profile: In the words of Taylor Swift, you knew she was trouble when she walked in. Her voice is strong and reassuring, yet vulnerable. Sexy. She has long wavy hair, just the way you like it. She’s tanned to a sun-kissed bronze. You love the way she dresses; simple yet sophisticated. You don’t want to admit it, but she’s taking your breath away. Eventually you crack a joke, and she laughs. Wow. What a beautiful laugh. That’s the moment you know it’s all over. You’re falling head over heels in like with this one.

    Where you will meet: Somewhere innocent, like a walking tour or a Couchsurfing meet.

    How you will meet: She’ll be travelling with a group of guy friends and you’ll shake hands amidst all the introductions. But she catches your eye.

    The scenario: She’s been on your mind from the moment you met. You get to know her, and she’s just as lovely as you imagined. After dinner one night, you take a walk. One hour turns into two, into three, into four. She hugs your arm as you wander aimlessly, arguing about who’s home country is better. It’s the most fun you’ve had since you left home. That night, you text her goodnight, but fall asleep before she replies. Turns out she stayed up waiting for a while, which is a great excuse to text her in the morning (to apologise, kinda). From then on you start spending the entire day together; breakfast, lunch and midnight snacks. You haven’t felt like this for a while. But you’re older and wiser now, and surely this can never be what you want it to be. Can it? But before you know it, you’re travelling together. One month. Two months. She’s smart, and funny, and looks incredible in that red and white bikini. Are you in love? No, you can’t be. Don’t be silly. But it’s slowly starting to feel that way. Maybe you are. Stop kidding yourself. You totally are.

    The ending: It’s time for her to go. She’s already pushed her flight more times than you can remember, and she’s due back at work in two days. You spend your final day together laying cuddled up in bed, wide awake, but silent. You don’t even know how to feel. And then she drops the B word. Baby? Bahamas? Bar Mitzvah? No, idiot, the other B word. That’s who she’s been Whatsapping with every night out in the hallway. She runs out of the room crying, and you’re too stunned to even move. Instead, you stay in bed and turn on the TV, catching up on the replay of last night’s NBA playoff game (the one you couldn’t watch, because she wanted to go to that night market thingy). The following day she disappears, and the next time you see her is in her wedding photos on Facebook.

    Now, where’s that Katy Perry CD…

    The good ones, the crazy ones, the beautiful ones - you'll meet them all on the road. Which ones have you met?
  • This Blog Is For Me, Too

    This Blog Is For Me, Too

    They say there can be too much of a good thing.

    Too much fun. Too much money. Too much travel.

    Too much travel? Really?

    Yes, really.

    As I sit here in my hostel in Quito, typing away on a rainy afternoon, I realise what a tired and jaded traveller I’ve become. I’m in one of the most diverse and exciting countries in South America. The coast is home to incredible beaches and parties. The Amazon is an hour flight away. The Galapagos Islands are home to some of the world’s rarest wildlife. The Andes are within spitting distance. And then you have the cultural gems of Mindo, Cotopaxi, Cuenca, Riobamba and Baños just a bus ride away.

    Yet all I’ve done for the last two weeks is sit in the hostel and watch TV. And drink. And play poker. And sleep.

    When you’ve travelled as much as I have, it’s easy to forget why you started in the first place.

    And so, for no reason at all, I started reading through my blog. I started with my About Page, and then my favourite stories, and then my e-book. I read about my walk on Wall Street, and my time in Africa. I read it all.

    And as I did, one quote hit me like a brick.

    “There is an incredible, mind-blowing world out there, more fascinating than you ever imagined it to be.”

    What caused me to write that? What was it, or who was it, that made me feel that way? What blew my mind? What was so fascinating?

    And suddenly, all the memories came flooding back. I thought back to all the people I had met, the amazing stories they had shared with me, the laughter, tears, anger, sadness, everything that had made my journeys memorable. I thought about the mixture of joy and depression that came with coming home. I thought about the friends I had since almost forgotten, the girls I had fallen in love with, the kids who had taught me life lessons with a single smile.

    I read my own words, and it all came back.

    And now I remember why I travel.

    Us long term travellers are spoiled on the road. We forget what we’re looking at. We get lazy. Unappreciative. Another rural town with beautiful colonial buildings? Snore. Seen one of them before.

    But if we stop being such jaded, stuck-up snobs, we might remember what this new town really represents; a new adventure. You might meet your next best friend here. You might hear a song that you would never hear anywhere else . You might fall in love with the girl who sits beside you at the coffee shop. You might eat a mandarin pie that is so perfect it will be seared into your taste-bud memory for life.

    But we forget that. All of us do.

    And that’s when I realised, this blog isn’t just for you. It’s for me, too.

    We all need a little inspiration from time to time.

    How else are we going to get through that 25-hour bus ride? Why else are we going to endure 36 hours of diarrhea? Why else would we sleep in a room that smells like feet with six other smelly backpackers?

    It’s because of the possibilities. When you move, everything is new. Anything can happen. Endure the journey and see what it spits out. That’s the spirit of travelling.

    If you’ve forgotten why you travel, look back through your photos. Think of your past memories. Listen to the local songs you fell in love with. Remember the people who inspired you, who changed the way you look at life. Think of all the lessons you learned. Try to remember the reason you fell in love with the road.

    Chances are, you’ve forgotten how incredible it all was.

    So take the time to remember. And then go do it all over again.

    Time for a new adventure? I think so.

    We all need, just a little bit, of inspiration.