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On the 7th of June, 37 year old Andy Campbell and his team set out from The Royal Geographic Society in London. Over the next two years he’s making his way around the world without a distinctively planned route. Eight years ago, Andy fell while rock climbing and became paralyzed from the waist down. As an able-bodied person, suddenly loosing the use of your legs can come as quite a shock. Mobility takes on a whole new angle of thinking. But it hasn’t dampened his adventurous spirit.
photo credit: pushingthelimits.com
A few years ago I vividly remember standing in the doctor’s office blinking at X-rays of my spine hoping magically they’d look “normal” the next time-no such luck. My own gypsy spirit drifted beyond the walls as she said the words, “scoliosis” and “phase two, spinal degeneration”. Putting on the recommended back brace my view of the world changed. For the next year and a half it became part of my daily clothing. I began to take notice of little things like the weight of doors as my hand opened them. Seven months after I was told not to lift over 15lbs for a long while; our very own vagabonding inspiration, Rolf, traveled around the world on his “No baggage” journey.
“Disability does not mean inability” as one Michigan based Service Dog training facility promotes. And in that light, Andy of “Pushing the Limits” is making his way around the globe and would appreciate your ideas on where to visit! Check out his blog, drop an email and give him suggestions on where to go next!
I’ve applied to join the expedition when it reaches North America…
Traveling isn’t limited to putting one foot in front of the other—especially after the invention of the wheel–it’s all about attitude.
I remember reading a blog post before I left for my trip recommending that first-time travelers take a 5- to 7-week test trip to determine if long-term travel was right for them.
I disregarded this advice, as I didn’t really question whether I’d like traveling – I’d dreamed of it my whole life, and the pull to do it was strong enough that I was willing to quit a job I loved for it.
Three months later, here I am recommending a test trip – but for different reasons.
It’s not so much about figuring out if it’s right for you, but figuring out how it’s right for you. There are many styles of vagabonding – you could get a RTW ticket, you could work and live in one place abroad for a longer period, you could simply wander. If you haven’t traveled for more than a few weeks (which is likely the case for many career breakers from the U.S. like me) there’s no way of knowing your own travel style and what will work best for you.
I knew I couldn’t know the answers to these things before leaving, so I knew I had to just go and would figure it out from there. I didn’t specifically view every little thing as a test, but I found myself constantly learning what I liked and what type of travel could work for me. Now, I’m home on a pit stop (slightly unexpectedly but in a good way), planning the next phase of my journey, using all that I’ve learned to inform my decisions.
I don’t think a test trip necessarily means you need to leave, come home and then leave again; you can learn and adjust along the way without coming home, as long as you keep your trip flexible. That means holding off on buying the 1-year RTW ticket or taking the job teaching English abroad, if possible, until you know that style of travel is right for you.
Below are some of the things I’ve gained insight on in my first three months of travel, and while I still have a lot to learn, I know that I couldn’t have had answers to any of these things without first simply going and testing it out.
Fast vs. slow – I met a traveler whose style was go to as fast as possible, seeing all the main sites and then quickly moving to the next place, with plans to return in the future for longer periods in the places he really liked. While this format works for him, I learned that I would rather spend time in a place, understanding it as much as possible beyond the key sites. Other travelers fall somewhere in the middle. But either way, it’s hard to know without doing it, and this is a big dictator of how to set your itinerary so it’s important to know before setting out.
Tourism vs. immersion – After spending six weeks in a small town in Guatemala that sees few tourists, going to a big city full of “sites to see” was a bit of a culture shock that quickly taught me that I preferred the former. Of course, a big part of travel is seeing the sites – the natural wonders and historical buildings that only exist in that place – and I absolutely want to see them, but I have learned that I also enjoy immersing myself in smaller towns and cultural experiences for longer periods whenever possible. Again, knowing this can dictate where to go and how much time to estimate for each location for future trips.
Work and travel vs. work to travel – This remains one of the biggest questions, but after meeting so many different travelers and expats (including staying a few days in a suburb of Santiago, Chile, in an expat community) I now have perspective on the various options. It always sounds so dreamy to think about teaching English abroad or being a “digital nomad,” but seeing it in action can help you understand if it’s really for you, or if you prefer to have a “home” life and job that allows flexibility for travel. If you’ve quit your job to embrace the vagabonding lifestyle, knowing this before jumping in is essential.
Live abroad vs. travel abroad – Similar to above, traveling for a few months can give you insight as to whether you’d like to live in one place for a long period, or if you prefer to keep moving. Although I enjoy spending time in places, I also always get an itch for change and to see new things after a while – something I wouldn’t have known without traveling for a bit. Similarly, traveling for an extended period can help you know how long you like to be on the road for – some people can go for years, while others prefer a few months at a time.
Taking on a traveling lifestyle a big life decision, and just like we often test other life decisions – we get internships before jobs, rent before buying, date before getting engaged – it makes sense to learn how you like to travel before committing to a format. That doesn’t mean to go into your first trip timidly and strictly, assessing everything, it means quite the opposite – just let go and keep an open mind, and you’ll figure out the rest later.
Travelers, what do you think about staying flexible on the first trip?
Girl wearing sunglasses. Photo: Helga Weber / Flickr
When it comes to the vagabonding life, you’re quite literally going on the path not taken by most people. As we get older, sometimes the itch to answer the question “what if?” becomes more urgent.
Although not strictly related to travel, this GQ magazine article got me thinking: Eric Puchner finds the cooler version of himself.
On the surface, it seems like an impossible mission. Puchner surveyed his friends with one question: “Do you know someone who could have been me, but cooler?”
An excerpt from the piece explains his motivation:
Lately, though, perhaps because at age 41 I’d begun feeling less like the captain of my life and more like its deckhand, I’d started wondering if there was someone out there who embodies not your worst self, but your freest one—a person who encapsulates everything you’ve ever dreamed of becoming. Let’s call him your Cooler Self. All those dreams that got lost along the way, the ones that were casualties of chance or duty or cowardice: There’s a “you” out there—a mountain climber or war photographer or race-car driver—who brought them to fruition.
The ironic thing is that a “happy ending” would have been sad. He mentions having a bit of dread over the outcome of his search. What if he found someone who was living an awesome life that he could have had? If only he’d taken more risks, not given up sooner, the doubts would pile up on each other.
Getting back to vagabonding, it’s about making that choice to live the life you want much sooner. This can avoid the fountain of regret that can erupt later on in a mid-life crisis.
Upon reading that article, I couldn’t help but think of the reverse question: what would you have been like if you hadn’t traveled? The longer you live abroad, the more acutely you realize what you’ve given up. Have you reflected on things like this? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
Girl posing with a movie clapperboard. Photo: HerMorningElegance / Flickr
Travel is taking an active stance. Society funnels people from school to career to family. However, when you travel, you’re making a conscious decision to stop following the script that you’re given. Instead, you start to write your own script for life.
On the personal finance blog “I Will Teach You To Be Rich” (sounds scammy, I know) there was a great post on this topic: The invisible scripts that guide our lives. After reading that, I couldn’t help but think about the “script” that society says about going abroad:
Got any more you can add to that list? What’s the script you wrote for yourself? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
P.S. On a complete tangent, there was a terrific comment on there by woman who arranged a low-cost, high-fun wedding.
I was a guest on The Breaking Free Show with Marilyn Shannon tonight. We were talking about freedom and breaking free from the ideas and mindsets that keep us captive.
At one point in the interview, Marilyn turned to me and said, “So what are dreams for you? If you’re living your dream, then what do you dream about?”
It was an interesting question. If you are living your dream, then what are dreams?
I think the idea behind dreams is simply making conscious decisions and living intentionally. It’s waking up every morning and making a mindful decision about what to do with the next 24 hours.
And I think it’s possible to live that way now. Not just at some point off in the future.
I spent a total of four years cycling 27,000 miles with my family; three of them pedaling from Alaska to Argentina. We made it through by making conscious decisions each and every day. When times got tough, I knew turning around and going back home was an option, but I decided I wasn’t ready to give up yet. Maybe I was close, but I wasn’t quite at the quitting point yet.
Now that we’re living in Idaho, we’re living exactly the same. Each and every morning we wake up and decide what we’ll do with that day. If, at some point, we wake up and feel that our needs will be better met somewhere else, then we’ll move on.
Unfortunately, American culture and society tells us that we need to toe the line and live a certain way. We are expected to want the white picket fence and two cars in the driveway. Having the security of a well-paying job should bring us enormous amounts of satisfaction.
And if it’s doesn’t, then there must be something wrong with us. I beg to differ.
We can define our own American Dream. We can choose what kind of life we want to live. We can break free from the trappings of modern society that tell us we should want something we don’t.
We can live intentionally and purposely. We can make those choices. We can live the dream.
If you want to live the life of your dreams but aren’t sure how, please join me for a 3-month dream intensive boot camp to get you over the major hurdles and well on your way to living the way you want. Join The Dream Intensive at www.youcandreambigdreams.com
You want to live your dream. It’s there inside, bursting to be set free, but you’re afraid. Fear of the unknown, or of the reactions of others, or of future career implications… There are many fears that hold us back and prevent us from living the life of our dreams.
Cycling with bison in British Columbia
Every single one of us who has taken off to travel the world has faced those fears, and we’ve managed to overcome them. You can too.
More often than not, it’s the very first step that’s the scariest. It’s making the decision to do it that’s overwhelming and seemingly insurmountable. Once that’s done, the rest is easy.
When my husband first brought up the idea of riding bicycles from Alaska to Argentina with our children, I thought he was nuts. I was convinced he had lost it; gone over the deep end into the vast oblivion of insanity. Ride bikes to the ends of the world? That’s crazy talk.
Yet when I actually stopped to think about it, I had to admit to myself I would love to do it – if I wasn’t so scared. It was fear that was telling me he was crazy. Fear that was holding me back.
What was a scared of? When I was totally honest with myself, I admitted I was afraid of failure. I didn’t want to face the agony of defeat or the humiliation of having to say I had failed. It was, in my own perverse way of thinking, better to not start at all rather than to risk failure.
And then one day I sat down and had a serious talk with myself. “Self,” I said, “if you head out and take that first pedal stroke you might fail. You probably have a 50/50 chance of failing, actually. But a 50% chance of failing means an equal chance of success.”
If I never set out in the first place, I had a 100% chance of failing.
When I looked at it that way, it made no sense to try. It was crazy to stay home in my safe, comfortable environment that wasn’t my dream. I might fail, but I would at least fail trying.
The rest, as they say, is history. My family flew to Alaska and started pedaling south. We pedaled 17,300 miles through fifteen countries in the next three years. We cycled over mountain passes higher than the highest peaks in Colorado and battled headwinds for 1500 miles along the Peruvian coast. We sweated in the intense Central American heat and shivered through winter storms in Wyoming. But we kept putting one foot in front of the other until we reached our goal.
What fears are you facing? What fears are holding you back from living your dream? What would you do if you were not afraid? Do it. Now.
Let’s face it. There’s no use fighting the tourist industry. It’s exponential. My advice is to embrace it!
Many people ask me how I’ve funded my travels for so many years. The answer; I’ve been: a tour guide; paid to be outdoors, able to ride my own horses; and gain knowledge of an area by teaching about plants, animals, geology and history. The key to being a good tour guide is conveying information in a meaningful way. Sure, it is hard work. During the height of the season you’ll work long hours. However, being a seasonal guide gives you the opportunity to move to different locations every three to four months, make contacts, experience amazing places, as well as gain different skills. Depending on the companies, many are willing to train seasonal staff. For example, I love dogs but knew nothing about mushing Sled Dogs. Therefor I got a job as a Dog Sled Guide and learned about mushing while taking people out on tours. The company provided room, board and for the most part I used my tips as daily spending money and saved my other pay for traveling between seasons. Altogether I’d work only eight or ten months of the year and use the remainder to explore, travel or relax.
Trail office of Spirit of the North Dog Sled Adventures
Dogs ready to go on tour in Moonlight Basin, Montana
Pick an area where you’d like to go and a skill you’re good at or would like to learn.
For instance, if you love water, you could be a raft guide in Idaho or New Zealand or a whale watching guide in Alaska.
Working as a wrangler at Mountain Sky Guest Ranch, Montana
Right now the seasons are changing. These changes mean places are now hiring. If being a guide interests you; now is the time to start searching for opportunities.
Have you ever worked as a tour guide to fund your travels?
Revolution Apparel intro video
Sometimes it can feel like you’re torn in different directions. You’d like to start a business, make an positive impact on the world, and more. Is it possible to fold all your passions into one project? The fine women travelers of {r}evolution apparel are aiming to do just that.
An excerpt from their website:
We headed to Central America with no direction, no career path, and not much money. But we had an idea: a fashionable, minimalist clothing line for female travelers.
We were determined to do it right – we wanted to create a business that preserved the environment, cut down on pesticide and chemical use, and said “no” to the exploitative labor that keeps our clothing cheap in the Western world.
The star of their collection is The Versalette. Living up to the name, it’s a single article of clothing that can be worn in 15 different ways–including as a handbag! Check out the photos on the {r}evolution apparel website to see it in action. Quite a reversal from most fashion lines, which load up a collection with many kinds of clothing.
Have you worked on a social enterprise before? Have you used your clothes in more ways than the manufacturer intended? Please share your experiences in the comments.
A remote control. Photo: espensorvik / Flickr
Most career break literature out there is focused on the employee who requests a leave of absence from his boss. Rarely is it about the boss who takes a sabbatical from his own business. Inc. magazine had this story: Inside the mind of a runaway CEO.
While most office satire is about the workers being stuck in their jobs, this article illuminates that entrepreneurs can feel trapped by their companies as well. They may have started their business to escape the grind of working for someone else, only to realize they just created their own grind instead.
The social dynamics of a boss taking a sabbatical were interesting too. Entrepreneurs often fancy themselves as being leaders who are essential to the company’s survival. It can jarring to discover your employees are much happier when you’re away. Of course, it can be more humbling if the business actually does better when you’re not there.
One thing the article focused on is the complications of the CEO’s relationship with his No. 2 manager while he was gone. Initially, the deputy manager felt abandoned and afraid of not knowing what to do. As time passed, he became more comfortable with having that authority. By the time the CEO returned, it had come full circle: now he was afraid the boss would take away his newfound sense of leadership.
The employees are also greatly affected. Initially, they enjoyed the freedom of the boss being out of the office. However, what does it do for their morale, to read a steady flow of Facebook and Twitter updates of all the fun the CEO is having while the staff are still busy with work?
Have you had a business you left behind to travel? Or the opposite, you had a boss who did that? Please share your experiences in the comments.
Foreign currency and coins. Photo: Philip Brewer / Flickr
It’s the dream of many backpackers: to express our creativity through stories and photos on our travel blogs, and make enough money to keep traveling. Nomadic Matt is one of the more notable examples of people who have achieved this goal. In a recent post, he reveals the details: How I make money and afford to travel.
Throughout the piece, Matt addresses head-on how a blogger and his readers can clash over the thorny issue of monetization. The sad downside of success is that the bigger your audience, the more likely you are to attract critics and detractors. He explains his stance on ads, for example:
Just like you read magazines with ads, you’ll find blogs with ads. If you think I do this as some sort of insincere way to make money, I think you’ve found the wrong website to read. I love what I do and the ads help me do it just like the ads help keep National Geographic running.
Turning a profit from publishing content is nothing new, as Matt astutely points out. I think the main issue at stake is it’s easier to resent an individual vs. an organization. If your local bank makes a lot of money, it doesn’t bother you. But if you have a neighbor who constantly flaunts his Ferrari, platinum Rolex watch, and Neiman Marcus clothes, that might tick you off more. We react to personalities more than institutions. Not implying that Matt is blinging it up, by any means. He works hard for his success, and that’s to be admired.
There will always be self-proclaimed purists who insist that commercializing any form of expression will ruin it. If readers buy a blogger’s products (such as e-books), it gives the blogger real support and assures continued writing output. At the other extreme, some web publishers lose their way when “sponsored posts,” free press trips, and ad revenue gain priority over delivering value to readers. Is money the problem, or the love of money?
What’s your opinion on bloggers making a living from their blogs? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
