Nomad Challenge

Matt Harding’s “Dancing 2006″ (The 2nd video)

I think this is really the natural choice to lead off Dance Week here at Nomad Challenge.  Many of you are perhaps already familiar with Matt Harding and his worldwide dancing videos on his website Where The Hell Is Matt?.  Simply genius stuff!  Here’s my perspective.

Ironically, I first heard of his videos a couple years ago while traveling.  I was sitting at an airport terminal waiting for a flight and Matt was being interviewed on the television that was at the gate shortly after his second trip around the world, this time paid for by his sponsor, Stride Gum.  Well, since I enjoy travel and have been known on occasion (read: all the time) to be a really bad dancer (and not afraid to show it), this really caught my eye.  I kept note of the interview in my mind and as soon as I got back home that night, I went to the website to check it out.

Instantly it became my favorite video on the internet (still is).  I remember telling my roommate about it the next day and saying, “this guy beat me to it!” because this definitely seemed like something I would do!

Many people throughout the world have been inspired by Matt’s videos for all sorts of reasons.  And you can see many of his fans in his latest video he just completed this year.  Here are three ways in which I have drawn inspiration and put Matt’s website and his videos to good use:

1) I tend to do my best work early in the morning, so I would get up at around 5 am and watch this before I went for a run, worked out at the gym, or if I had some work or reading I wanted to do.  Watching this would help me wake up and get me pumped up to start the day.  (Honestly, I’ve since gotten out of the routine of doing this and I want to get back in the habit because it was really good!)

2) Similar to No. 1, if you dance along with the video, it is a good warmup to exercise and is quite fun too.  And if you are a bit strapped for time, you can dance to two of his videos back-to-back for a decent all-around quickie exercise!

3) When I first went to his website, took in the videos, read his story and the FAQs, this was really the first time I realized that seeing the world wasn’t so much of a far-fetched fantasy that I previously believed.  This really helped to get the ball rolling for me, so thanks, Matt!

While these are good, there are many other ways in which people find inspiration in Matt’s videos.  What are some of yours?

Please feel free to share your thoughts about the videos in the comments below.

YAAARRR! Meself and a pirate I came across on a rainy day in St. Augustine, America's oldest city.

After a week on the road I have finally arrived back home and now I have a LOT of work to do between unpacking, cleaning and catching up with the Thirty Day Challenge!

I didn’t originally plan to take all that time to drive here, although I’m glad I did. Before I left, a couple friends of mine invited me to stay with them along the way, so I spent some time with each of them. Remarkably (and also unplanned) I never ended up staying at any hotels during the trip, so I am very thankful that my friends let me crash at their places for a little bit.

I made one other stop just a little bit out of way to visit a friend of mine at her new cupcake store she just opened last month along with a friend of her’s in Wilmington, North Carolina. I brought along a box of their cupcakes for the ride, and both myself along with my friends whom I stayed with afterward agree that those were by far the best ones we had ever had! Yea, I may be a little biased, and yet my friend says she’s been getting a lot of high praise on her cupcakes. So, a bit of shameless promotion, if you ever find yourself in Wilmington, head on over to Coastal Cupcakes, they are REALLY GOOD!

As I mentioned before, I have a LOT of catching up to do regarding the Thirty Day Challenge. Between all the traveling, I am still only on Day 2’s lessons and the challenge is already up to Day 8! Ooops! I will spend a lot of time tonight and this weekend catching up on the lessons.

I am excited from what I have seen thus far. They have given all of us 40 days free access to a new software program called Market Samurai which looks amazing! It is a tool which basically automates a lot of keyword research for use in determining whether or not a particular keyword would make for a profitable niche site.

More to come once I have put in my overtime in catching up!

Exit sign for the Likelike Highway from my visit to Hawaii a few years ago.

Quick update. After days of packing and cleaning, I have left my apartment and am now on the second day of my 1,500-mile road trip back to my parent’s house. Normally I could do this trip in a couple of days, but I am not in a rush and will be stopping by to visit some friends here and there.

I have mixed thoughts of moving back in with my folks. First, I am grateful for the opportunity. After living on my own for the past five years though, I am sure there will be quite an adjustment. I think some people I know may be placing bets on what happens first, me getting sick of the cold up north or sick of living with my parents! They are great folks though so I’m sure all will be fine. Of course I will miss all my friends that I have made here over the past five years, although I’m sure I will be back to visit every now and then.

The timing isn’t great with the start of the Thirty Day Challenge today. At least I have my USB modem and I can get online pretty much anywhere along the way. My lease was up yesterday at the apartment and it just made sense since who knows where my next job will be (I will be a very happy man when I get to the point of not relying the dreaded J.O.B.). At least I can search now back home without having to worry about rent for a little bit.

Now, some people may look at the thought of moving back home for a little bit as not ideal, freeloading and as a step backwards. I think there is nothing wrong with this though. Sometimes you just need to step aside to get a better look at the bigger picture. The way I see it, this is taking one step back to take two steps forward. This will help me launch into something bigger and better.

This road trip is a bit of a metaphor of my current situation. On the highway of life, there are many exits (choices) along the way. Which one am I going to choose? I seem to remember something similar to that being a tag line to a car commercial once. Anyone remember what it was?

Since I’m likely moving back in with the folks (temporarily at least) in a few weeks time, I decided this past week to take some time off to do some nomad practicing, if you will. I figured, I’m not working right now and there are a few things I would like to do in Florida before I left.

I’d been meaning to go some of the theme parks in Orlando and just never set any plans, and trying to coordinate with friends who are working would’ve been too much hassle, so I just up and left on my own one morning and decided to just wing it. I figure I’ll be doing a lot of that anyway in the future, so might as well get a little practice in now.

I drove up with no hotel or tickets purchased, and decided to just figure it all out once I got there. I guess I was inspired a bit by Rolf Potts’ Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel book, which I am currently reading, as he more or less suggested that taking this sort of approach really adds value to the adventure.

The other reason I decided to go last week was because of a seminar that was in town that I had been to before (past attendees can go for free), so I was going to see if I could get in at the last minute and just combine a little business and leisure. The seminar didn’t work out, so I just did a couple theme parks instead. Afterall, I’ve been wanting to go before I left the state anyway.

The first day I went to Sea World and then I went to Disney’s Epcot the following day. I’m not really into roller coasters and other thrill rides of that ilk, so I tend to gravitate toward the educational-type entertainment (I know, I can be a bit of a nerd sometimes!). It felt a little weird just going there on my own at first, but it was also very liberating. No having to deal with family or small kids and different people wanting to do different things – no offense to my family and friends

Gotta love pengiuns!

Overall it was enjoyable, plenty to do for the adults at these parks. The shows at Sea World are amazing, especially Clyde and Seymour (the sea lions). Very funny! Plus anytime you have a chance to see penguins, I think it’s a good thing. The Shamu and dolphin shows were also great to see, one has to appreciate the training that it takes to put these shows together. Of course I would be remissed if I didn’t mention the free beer at the Anheuser-Busch pavilion!

Epcot was also good. Where else can you go through Mexico, China, Norway, Germany, America, Morocco, Japan, France, the UK and Canada all in one afternoon? I particularly enjoyed the circle-vision videos on China, France and Canada. The French one I think is the same from when I was first there probably 15-20 years ago, but the classical soundtrack with the likes of Debussy and Saint-Saenz adds a great touch. The scenery of China and Canada was awesome. I did a lot of the attractions in Future World, although I didn’t get a chance to do Soarin’… lines were too long (80-120 minutes). Some people I was talking with while I was there said that was the single best attraction in all of Orlando.

Entering "China"

I decided to drive back that night after leaving Epcot, but got tired on the way back home and stopped at a hotel for the night. I knew I was nearby some friends of mine so the next morning I gave them a call and spent the day with them, then went back home the next morning. Not a bad little trip.

Now that I’ve had a few days to reflect, I’m thinking that going to those theme parks was a good reminder of how to be a kid again. Among the themes at these two parks are following your dreams, believing in ourselves and taking care of our environment. Of course when we are little, everyone tells you to never give up on your dreams, which is exactly the opposite of what many of us end up doing once we reach adulthood. I hope the kids are able to learn the lessons in all the messages being delivered about culture, attitude, science and the environment. I know I did when my parents took me there when I was little.

So yea, all in all, it was a good experience and good nomad practice, albeit on a very small scale. Nothing really like the mini-retirements I have in mind for the future.

Greetings!

I figured I would take a little time today to get you all caught up to speed as to how this blog came about. I’ll try to keep this as concise as possible…

First, as you can probably guess, I want to do a lot of traveling around the globe. And as I alluded to in my previous post, my first destination of choice is Australia, although there are many others. Ever since I was little, I’ve always had that bit of wanderlust. I’ve met plenty of people from all over the world, competed in an international sporting event, have a bachelor’s degree in international business, and yet I somehow have only gone out of the country once, and that was to Toronto (not very far outside the U.S., actually, so that doesn’t really count).

Over the years that itch to move about and see the world keeps getting stronger and stronger. I have no regrets over how I have spent the first 10 years of my adult life. Most people who study international business do a semester or two studying abroad. I was on the college’s tennis team and didn’t want to miss out on any of that experience, and I made the right choice. Overall, I’ve done some cool things and met some amazing people during this time. I wouldn’t change a thing.

Second, I recently resigned from my job that I had been at for the past five years (it’s now been a week since I left), and I am taking a little time off to reevaluate where I want to go from here. I won’t to go into all the details. There were a lot of things I liked about the job. It involved one of my bigger passions, I got to travel a good bit around the country to places I probably never would’ve gone to otherwise, and I got to know a lot of great people. What’s so bad about that? Nothing, I’m very grateful for having had that opportunity.

I am also grateful that I finally, after mulling this over for a long time, decided to get out. It was time. I was burnt out (something that happens to people all too frequently in that profession, and many others for that matter) and was really struggling to stay motivated. Long hours and low pay, among other frustrations, got to me. It isn’t even so much the pay. I think if it were a six-figure job I would probably feel the same way. It just wasn’t the right lifestyle for me, not enough balance. I look at where I was headed five, 10, 20 years down the road, and at the people who were already there, and it scared the hell out of me.

For the past few years, I’ve been thinking of ways in which I could work for myself. There was a big craze in real estate and I grabbed every bit of info that I could find on the subject before realizing that it wasn’t really for me. Now what?

If I could pin point the two things that helped me advance in my career it was writing and having some sort of uncanny ability with computers and the internet. Hmmm… why didn’t I think about that before????

Well, now I’m here at a bit of a crossroads. I gave about five weeks notice when I resigned (I’m such a good employee!) and knew this nomad project was something I wanted to work on, although I kept that from most people unless I already knew they were like-minded. I think people were a bit surprised about how calmly I told them that I had no idea what I’d be doing after I left and that I didn’t have another job in the works. I know it was the right decision even though the prospect of not having an income at the moment does scare me a bit from time to time.

So I decided back when I resigned that, while I would still look for a new job, I was going to journal about how I was going about my journey to follow my dream of working and traveling on my own (i.e. being a nomad, if you will, or what The 4-Hour Workweek author Tim Ferriss calls, the “new rich”).

I’d read other stories and how-to guides of people that had successfully gone down this path before, such as the Working Nomad Ebook, and it really excited me! This is what I’ve been looking for all along and I could totally see myself doing this as well! Then I thought, I’ll also journal about my path, except instead of telling my story at the end, I would detail all the emotions, triumphs and bumps along the road as I’m doing it, how unique!?!

Then after searching some more, I realized there are already people who are/have done that as well. AGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh well, I’m doing it anyway!!! I am learning a great deal and gathering tons of inspiration from these people, although I feel that each one of us have our own unique perspectives and experiences that I think anyone looking for guidance along this avenue can benefit from all of it.

Full steam ahead…