"First, goals for travel should be both generally related to abstract life goals — like becoming a better person, not accumulating stamps in a passport — but those abstract goals need to be broken into concrete steps to make them easier to accomplish. …Similarly, vacations are more effective if you use them to seek “desired...

I’m sure you’ve heard the excuses. I know I’ve heard more of ‘em than I ever thought existed. I don’t have time I don’t have money I have responsibilities I would love to, but… In the end there are a million reasons not to live your dream, but all you really need are a small...

“You and your husband are made of a different cloth,” a friend told me a few hours ago. “To take your kids and head out for a 500-mile hike… I don’t know how you do it.” And yet really, we aren’t made of a different cloth at all. We’re just normal people just like him....

As much as we want to say we’re not afraid, the truth is that we are. We might tell ourselves our fears are silly or that we shouldn’t be afraid, but we’re still paralyzed by those fears. It happens – whether we want it to or not. In many ways fear is a good thing....

How? In the end, I think the answer comes down to priorities. We will make time and money for the things that are highest on our priority list. I love to read and can curl up in bed and read until the wee hours of the night, but I haven’t hardly read at all lately....

Happy New Year vagabonders! As we head into 2010, let's think about going further than making New Year's Resolutions. Brave New Traveler advocates making your own personal manifesto . Start writing down goals, collecting articles and pictures, putting anything vagabonding-related into it. Instead of a new year resolution that's filed and forgotten, a personal manifesto...

I’m not a fan of once-a-year resolutions. I usually try to be mindful—throughout each week, month and year—to make changes and adjustments in my life as I need them. Just like those yearly resolutions, sometimes my intentions work and sometimes they don’t. That’s why, every Jan. 1, I try to set the tone for my...