The absurdity of the situation struck me. I’d never even been to Europe until a few days ago, and now the French Police were going to arrest me. If I was still in Austin with my friends and family, I would probably be grocery shopping right now. Or maybe watching the latest episode of The Office at a friend’s house.
Our world offers an amazing and limitless wealth of experiences and knowledge[1], laid out for your personal consumption, and it’s important to be ready and willing to take advantage of what it has to offer.
Before visiting a new country, I try to at the very least read the Wikipedia entry on it to get a sense of what the country is like and how it got that way. The GDP figure gives a good sense of how much money locals are living on.
Before visiting a new country, I try to at the very least read the Wikipedia entry on it to get a sense of what the country is like and how it got that way. The GDP figure gives a good sense of how much money locals are living on.
For no apparent reason, a thought crossed my mind: Why do I live in Austin? It’s a great city, of course, and all of my friends were there, but why was I there? My work was portable. I could be anywhere. I added up the years I’d lived in Austin. Twelve. That was a lot of time to be in one place. I thought about all of the cities in the world that I’d never seen and, if I stayed in Austin, maybe wouldn’t ever see. The thought froze me in my tracks. It occurred to me that if I chose to, I could move anywhere. I had friends and family in Boston – maybe I should live there for a while, just for a change of scenery? Or maybe Los Angeles, where I lived for a year and still had a lot of good friends? What about somewhere totally new? Maybe New York or Chicago? I’d been to both cities a few times and liked them. Why was I constraining myself to the United States, I asked myself. It’s a great country, but plenty of people live in other countries happily. I hadn’t done much international traveling, just a trip to Japan, a trip to Taiwan, and a few quick jaunts around the Caribbean. There was a lot left to see. And then a final epiphany hit me. I didn’t have to choose just one country – I could live nowhere and everywhere at once, as a modern day nomad. As soon as I had the idea, I knew that it was the answer.
For no apparent reason, a thought crossed my mind: Why do I live in Austin? It’s a great city, of course, and all of my friends were there, but why was I there? My work was portable. I could be anywhere. I added up the years I’d lived in Austin. Twelve. That was a lot of time to be in one place. I thought about all of the cities in the world that I’d never seen and, if I stayed in Austin, maybe wouldn’t ever see. The thought froze me in my tracks. It occurred to me that if I chose to, I could move anywhere. I had friends and family in Boston – maybe I should live there for a while, just for a change of scenery? Or maybe Los Angeles, where I lived for a year and still had a lot of good friends? What about somewhere totally new? Maybe New York or Chicago? I’d been to both cities a few times and liked them. Why was I constraining myself to the United States, I asked myself. It’s a great country, but plenty of people live in other countries happily. I hadn’t done much international traveling, just a trip to Japan, a trip to Taiwan, and a few quick jaunts around the Caribbean. There was a lot left to see. And then a final epiphany hit me. I didn’t have to choose just one country – I could live nowhere and everywhere at once, as a modern day nomad. As soon as I had the idea, I knew that it was the answer.
You Don’t Have to Do What Other People Are Doing
“If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.” Jim Rohn
Ninety nine percent of the world is off the beaten path, both literally and metaphorically. It takes effort to get off the beaten path. Modern life is set up to keep you on it.
I went to school at the University of Texas and I hated it. The school was fine, but I wasn’t. None of the things I dreamed of doing in life were dependent on a degree. I was there by default, because society and parents told me that going to college is what you do when you graduate from high school. I was scared to drop out. Staying the course was the easy decision, but it was also the kind of decision that slowly rots the soul from the inside. The path of convenient compromises is a dangerous one.
People will always warn you of the dangers of veering off the beaten path, but in their warnings you can see the fear that you might prove their worst nightmare true: that living your life on your own terms is not totally impossible. It’s a possibility that most people would rather not confront. The stakes are too high.
The end is never as satisfying as the journey. To have achieved everything but to have done so without integrity and excitement is to have achieved nothing.
Being a nomad requires you to simultaneously have a rock solid and stable inner life and a flexible and unpredictable outer life. This is true for both your emotional state as well as your discipline.
Becoming more emotionally resilient and disciplined is almost involuntary when you become a nomad. If you already have these skills, then you’re all set. If you don’t, there’s probably no better way to build them.
Fresh off a seven month trip around the world I was flying back to Austin, Texas. I loved traveling, but was still excited to see everyone back home. Best of all, everyone thought that I was coming home months later, so I had the opportunity to surprise them all. I spent the day setting up elaborate scenarios to surprise my friends, like convincing the manager at a restaurant to allow me to be my friend’s waiter[1]. At the end of the day, after everyone had gone to bed, I realized something. Nothing had changed. My friends were all the same, in just about the same jobs and relationships they were in before.
And then there’s the language. Without even trying your proficiency in any language you can “get by with” will skyrocket. I hadn’t hired a tutor or taken classes, but as I left Panama after living there for two months, it occurred to me that I could understand pretty much everything anyone said to me in Spanish. It had become second nature.
There’s this misconception that luxury is sitting on the beach doing nothing. It’s not. Luxury is having the ability and lack of encumbrances to do whatever you want to do. In that way, a minimalist nomad has the ultimate luxury. He has his time and his choice and can make of them whatever he pleases.
The title of my ad on Craigslist was, “Come to my house and take everything I own for free.”
My parents moved that same year, and I was conscripted to help them[2]. I think I probably officially became a minimalist sometime during the third day of lugging mostly useless stuff from one house to another
Remember that all success and most happiness comes from pushing your comfort zone and taking risks.
We must travel in the direction of our fear. Berryman, John
The more I traveled the more I realized that fear makes strangers of people who should be friends. - Maclaine, Shirley
The world is packed full of people, and the overwhelming majority of them are good honest people who want you to enjoy their country. This goes double if you seem like you are actually interested in participating in their culture, and not steamrolling over it with your Western values.
A friend of mine lived in Rio De Janiero for a year. Despite it being a dangerous city, he was never once robbed. His friend’s parents came to visit for a couple weeks and were robbed twice. The difference is that they looked like tourists, spoke none of the language, and probably stuck out like a sore thumb. If you want to be safe and be respected by people in their country, walk confidently, don’t wear flashy jewelry, smile, and say hello.
“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” Dwight D. Eisenhower
Read this section even if you intend to plan short term, as a lot of the information will still apply but won’t be repeated.
Create a list of every place you’d like to stay for a month or two. Don’t worry about how much time you’re going to be gone for, just make the list.
One suggestion I’d urge you to take is to spend at least half of your time in places you’ve never been before. Once again, strike back against the urge to stay in your comfort zone.
The best of the bunch is Schwab High Yield Investor Checking.
Earth Class Mail,
when your mail comes in, they scan the front and back of the envelope or postcard in full high resolution color. You then log in to your account and decide what to do with the letter.
If you travel with a friend, designate days or hours where you agree to only speak the foreign language. Yes, it’s a bit cumbersome and can be really annoying when you want to talk about something technical, but it’s also effective.
The key is to focus on functioning language rather than fluency. People are smart and will figure out what you mean.
Our society, or segments of it at least, have glorified the spending of money. Rappers brag about how much they spent on their jewelry, not how the jewelry has improved their lives.
Elance.com is a site that is specifically dedicated to freelance contractors, complete with ratings and searchable listings. The site is perfectly designed and I can’t imagine anyone going there and not finding something they could do.
Transitioning from being a stationary employee to a nomadic one is tougher than starting off as a nomad from the get go. Your boss will probably be a little bit jealous of your freedom, and will worry even more about jealousy you may generate amongst your former coworkers. They key is to become so invaluable that they really don’t have a choice, and be ready to walk away. Don’t ask if you can do it, tell them it’s your only option.
The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist see what he has come to see. Gilbert K. Chesterton
Our society has become comfortable. Too comfortable. Everything is so easy and convenient that we don’t actually need to do anything anymore. We live our lives vicariously by watching TV. Our food is formed in factories and reheated in microwaves. We don’t even like to be troubled to talk on the phone anymore, let alone in person. We send text messages and emails instead.
Exhausted, frustrated, and not eager to negotiate the terrain in the dark, we scoured the area for shelter. It was impossible to go back, and by now was the middle of night. We didn’t even get the cell phone service that could have gotten us out of there. And so we did what anyone would do: We climbed on top of the bathroom and set up camp.
If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness and fears. Glenn Clark
The only real determinant of one’s happiness is the permission he gives himself to be happy.
Travel with an open mind. Accept invitations and extend them as well. Indulge in other cultures and appreciate the best in them.
After a humbling tour through Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Cambodia, I now try to at least learn the most basic dozen words or so, as well as the grammar structure of any other country. Please, thank you, no, yes, hi, how are you, and goodbye go a really long way.
In Japan it’s common for people to say that they speak no English, but then once they realize your Japanese is worse, they’ll open up and speak English. It’s often surprising how good “bad English” is.
Although he’s now dead, his system lives on through a series of audible language lessons called The Pimsleur Method. Each language consists of ninety half hour tapes, divided into three units. You do one a day, every day, for three months. It’s a minimal time commitment, but you leave with the ability to hold some sort of conversation. The level of fluency you’ll achieve is based mostly on the difficulty of the language. Spanish is a lot easier than Russian, and thus you come out of the program with a comparatively good grasp of the language.