Explore Your Hometown Like A Tourist
By Cheval John
Photo courtesy of taoty
Travel gives people the opportunity to explore a culture that is different from their own.
It breaks the preconceived notions of how people in a foreign country live.
Unfortunately, many only travel as a tourist to escape the rigors of work, especially here in the United States.
According to a report by CBS News, the average American only get two weeks of paid vacation time.
That same report by CBS said 25 % of Americans use the entire two weeks of their paid vacation time.
It is not surprising because we have the mindset of “Living To Work.”
We are really focused on getting the promotion we will sacrifice living just to achieve the promotion.
In reality, we were raised to believe that we had to go get good grades in school that we could get into college.
Once we get into college, we should choose the major that will get us that job and from there work until retirement.
We don’t think that it is possible to spend time in a foreign country and explore a different culture.
Another belief is that the only ones who could spend an extended period of time overseas are college students.
The truth is this type of lifestyle in overseas travel is open to anyone who really want to experience a different culture.
However, it doesn’t hurt if you start living abroad during your time in college.
According to the National Association of Foreign Student Advisors (NAFSA), 289,408 U.S. students studied abroad during the 2012-13 school year.
That is only a small percentage of about 18 million students who attends universities in the U.S. according to the Statistic Brain report.
What this shows is that if you studied abroad and are looking to enter the workforce or try to gain an overseas assignment with a company, you will stand out from the millions of people who did not studied abroad.
And if you did studied abroad or lived abroad, you will experience re-entry culture shock.
You will start to feel like things are boring in your hometown, will feel sadness because you can’t relate to your friends or family because they have not spent time overseas.
I can tell you that if you feel that way, you should try to find people who have studied abroad themselves and learned how they overcame re-entry shock.
Also, you can start exploring your hometown like a tourist.
You can visit the museum, attend a symphony orchestra concert, go to a sporting event, etc.
That will allow you to maintain your sense of adventure when you traveled abroad to your hometown.
I can tell you that while I spent three months in Chile, (the majority of the time in Vina del Mar), I walked around the city and explored it.
Prior to spending time in Vina del Mar, I had a preconceived notion that it was going to be touristy because the city is the tourist capital of Chile.
However, I was happily surprised that it was not too touristy because I had arrived during their winter time and the weather changed a lot like here in Texas.
After returning and experiencing re-entry shock, I decided to read up on stories of people who lived overseas.
I also realized that I could walk around the city of Huntsville, which is a small town, and get around easily.
Now that I am in the Houston area, I will aim to explore Houston as much as possible while I am here.
I know that I will learn something new about the city of Houston and will also maintain my sense of adventure for travel.
Have you studied, interned or lived overseas? If you did how did you overcome re-entry shock and how have you maintained your sense of adventure in your hometown? You can leave your comments below.
This post is in response to Natalie Sisson’s question, “What is the one thing you will do to make you feel alive in your hometown as a tourist #paraphrased as part of her “15 Days To Freedom Blog Challenge.”
Developing Successful Habits
By Cheval John
Photo courtesy of krishna arts
Many believe that those who are rich or achieved ultra-success were lucky.
They might wonder why they are not achieving the same success like the rich.
One of the things that make the rich so successful is the fact that they are always learning new things that will help them maintain their success.
They use their time wisely in reading self-help books, listening to inspirational podcasts, surrounding themselves with other successful people who are smarter than them, etc.
Another example of how the rich achieve their success is setting goals.
According to the Business Insider article, “9 Things Rich People Do And Don’t Do Everyday,” 62% of the rich agreed that they focus on their goals everyday.
That is just one of the many habits that the rich do everyday.
However, the same ones who are saying that the rich are lucky do not develop the same habits that the rich does.
The same article from Business Insider says that only 6% of the poor believe that focusing on their goals is important.
In other words, the ones who are saying that the rich are lucky, are waiting for their breakthrough to happen instead of putting in the effort to make their dreams come true.
They have already put the wheels in motion of settling for the mediocre because they believe in their minds that nothing can go their way.
Also, they are feeding their minds with negative energy, a.k.a. the news which is mostly negative.
I am not saying not to watch the news because it is important to be informed.
However, watching too much of it will set you up for negative thinking.
They also surrounding themselves with people who only have negative things to say and wants to bring others along with their pity party.
If they could just for one second start saying positive affirmations, read a lot of self-help books, listen to inspirational podcasts, etc., then they will start to see some positive changes in their lives.
As for me, I have already surrounded myself around people who are more successful than me to learn from.
They understand that the only way to be really successful is to serve others, solve their customers/clients problems, and treat people right.
My goal everyday is to continously share other people’s content that will make everyone’s life better and to be fair to others.
The one thing that I want to make into a habit is to write a gratitude journal because I do not want to fall for the pity party trap if I experience failure in achieving my goals.
I want to keep in perspective that things happen for a reason and it was a lesson for me to become a better person everyday.
What is the one thing you will do that will help you to develop a successful habit? You can leave your comment below.
This post is part of Natalie Sisson’s “15 Days To Freedom Blog Challenge.” which I had the honor to respond to Natalie’s questions.
Letting Go Of The Clutter In Our Lives
By Cheval John
Photo courtesy of Victor Habbick
Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate and I get a commission from recommending books on Amazon. I only recommend books that I have read or I believe that will benefit you, the reader.
This post is in response to Natalie Sisson’s question, “What work and life clutter are you going to remove in order to be a minimalist? #paraphrased.
It is part of Natalie’s “15 Days To Freedom Blog Challenge.”
We were “raised” up to believe that we needed things in our life in order to be happy.
If someone has a new iPhone 6, then you need to get one.
Or the fact that you need to have a house in order to believe that you have made it.
The problem is that once you accumulate a whole lot of stuff, then you have less choices.
In the case of owning a house, all that will do is put you in a bind because of mortgage, maintainance, and limited choices.
Plus, they will have to work even harder to make more money so that they can keep the house and hopefully pay off the mortgage.
James Altucher elaborated further with this quote in his LinkedIn article, “Why Entrepreneurs Should Not Buy Homes,”
“Corporations didn’t want their employees to have many job choices. So they encouraged them to own homes. So they can’t move away and get new jobs.”
The most interesting thing is that people had second thoughts on owning a home after the 2008 Recession and wondered if it is viable to own a home.
Some of those people are deciding to not stay in one place and travel the world.
People like Rolf Potts, who spent over 18 months traveling throughout Asia and the Middle East after making about $20,000 dollars from teaching English in South Korea for two years.
Mr. Potts was a globe trotter when the economy was booming in the United States.
Another person is Ms. Sisson, who runs her online business from anywhere in the world and lives out of her suitcase.
Or Rob and Nadine Pisani.
The Pisanis had what seemingly were “successful” careers as chiropractors and was living the American Dream.
However, they both realized that they needed a change of scenery, so they moved to Costa Rica in 2007 and are now living life to the fullest.
Nadine documented their journey to Costa Rica in her books, “Happier Than A Billionaire: The Escape Manual” and “Happier Than A Billionaire: The Sequel.”
Reading these stories on how people like Mr. Potts, Ms. Sisson and the Pisanis shows everyone including me that it is possible to enjoy life and be happy without having the big houses, college degree or the 9-5 job, though it is not bad to have the 9-5 job.
However, you must be very careful of not falling for the trap that the big houses, a college degree or the 9-5 is the only way to enjoy life.
So for me, I am already trying not to have too much stuff in my life.
However, the one stuff I will declutter is printed books.
The reason is because I can read these books on Kindle and I don’t have to worry about carry them whenever I move somewhere.
And I have already decluttered people who are always negative about the world and always feels sorry for themselves.
As for traveling, my goal is to spend a year on 6 different continents because I got a glimpse of living overseas after spending a month in Mexico and three months in Chile.
What is the one clutter/s are you going to get rid of in your life? You can leave your comments below.
Setting Some Time For Yourself
By Cheval John
Photo courtesy of 2nix.
This post is in response to Natalie Sisson’s question, “What One Thing You Do Each Day To Get More You Time This Year?” #paraphrased.
It is part of Natalie’s “15 Day To Freedom Blog Challenge”
The blog challenge is very close to being over, so if you still want to join, you can visit here.
However, you will have a really tough task of catching up.
People have different hobbies that allows them to relax and recharge from their work.
Whether it is going for a walk, spending time with their friends or even going to the rodeo, these activities will keep them from burning out.
The one thing I will do to get some me time is sightseeing at airports twice a month.
The reason is because it allows me to relax and enjoy the view of airplanes landing and taking off.
I love traveling because it allows me to experience new cultures and see how people live differently from the way you live in your hometown.
Sightseeing at airports is one way for me to see the possibilities of travel.
What is the one thing you will do each day to get more you time? You can leave your comments below.
The World Is Our Oyster
By Cheval John
Photo Courtesy of khunaspix
As today is the last day of Natalie Sisson’s 15 Days To Freedom Blog Challenge, I want to say that it was an honor and a priviledge to participate in this blog challenge with many others from around the world.
It was a fun challenge because of the discipline of putting out quality blog posts everyday during this challenge.
As I mentioned in the first day of the challenge, I was blogging consecutively from the first day of this month because I thought that Natalie’s blog challenge was a 30-day blog challenge.
I guess you can call me an over-achiever.
However, I needed to start the year off right and blogging everyday was the right energy booster to make sure that 2015 was the breakout year for me.
You can look through this website and see all of the post that was written during Natalie’s blog challenge.
My favorite blog challenge was Day 14, “What’s One Thing You Are Going To Do To Make You Feel Alive And Be A Tourist In Your Hometown?” #paraphrased.
The reason why I loved that blog challenge was because I love to travel and I feel that the world is out there for everyone to explore.
The thing is that there is no excuse for anyone not to travel because the internet has given us the opportunity to run an online business from anywhere in the world.
You might think that you do not have the time to travel because of your work.
The truth of the matter is that we are heading towards a time where the majority of workers will either be self-employed or remote workers.
According to this article by Meghan M. Biro in Forbes, 30 to 45 percent of employees work from home.
What this means is that a person does not have any excuse on why they can’t travel the world.
If you are looking for inspiration on running a business from anywhere in the world or you want to work remotely, you can follow Ms. Sisson’s blog, “The Suitcase Entrepreneur.”
Ms. Sisson is the shining example for anyone who wants to run an online business from anywhere in the world.
If you agree or disagree with this post, you can leave a comment below.
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