Greetings from Lexington Avenue on the small island of Manhattan. Since I haven’t slept much in the past two and a half days, I’m not sure why I got a hotel room—but I’m grateful for the coffee maker and connection to the outside world.

Today, my first book is available for purchase in bookstores everywhere. Get it on Amazon, at Barnes & Noble, Borders, Chapters, or support your local bookstore.

The price is deliberately low, and I’m giving 100% of my proceeds to our charity project in Ethiopia for every reader I meet this fall. (I’ll be carrying a notebook for the next 97 days so I can keep up with everyone.)

The central message of the book is:

“You don’t have to live your life the way other people expect you to. You can do good things for yourself and make the world a better place at the same time. Here’s how to do it.”

It’s AONC in a souvenir format, designed to be highly personal and highly practical. I also have a minor book tour that begins… tonight.

Unconventional Book Tour Begins

I came to New York to launch the book and begin the Unconventional Book Tour — a collectively-organized, epic adventure to meet readers in all 50 states and 10 provinces. The first event kicks off right here in Manhattan and ventures out from there.

NYC Launch
Tuesday, September 7th at 7pm
Location: Borders Columbus Circle, Time Warner Building
Central Park West

And here’s the schedule for the rest of this week:

• September 8: Mendham, NJ (Mendham Books, 7pm)
• September 9: Philadelphia, PA (Aweber HQ, 7pm)
• September 10: Wilmington, DE (Starbucks, 2pm)
• September 11: New Haven, Connecticut (Adventures in Wellbeing HQ, 7pm)
• September 12: Providence, RI (Books on the Square, 2pm)
• September 13: Boston, MA (Harvard Coop, 7pm)
• September 14: Portland, ME (Longfellow’s Books, 7pm)
• September 15: Manchester, NH (Barnes & Noble, 7pm)
• September 16: Burlington, Vermont (U. of Vermont, time TBD)

And then 56 more cities over the next few months as I make my way to every state in the union… and then every province up further north. Sign up here and come out—I’d love to see you on the road.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

One of the main reasons why I started AONC was to write a book. It only took two and a half years (publishing is indeed a sloooow industry), but here we are.

A few of the best people in the world are helping me out today, and I’m very grateful for their support. Our “Small Army” reader campaign is also out in full force, with 99 additional reviews and commentary going up around the internets throughout the next 60 days.

Well, that’s it for now… but it’s kind of a big thing. See you again soon, and thanks so much for your partnership. Here’s to the next two-and-a-half years!

###

In the time leading up to a big day, you do everything you can. You make plans. You consider contingencies. You supply, you restock. You practice, you rehearse, you try to anticipate. You ask for help… a lot of help.

Good planning goes a long way. Giving a speech is a lot easier if you know exactly what you want to say. Laying the foundation for maximum impact comes through careful work done over the course of weeks, months, and years.

But some of the plans, you already know, will need to be adjusted on the fly. “No plan survives contact with the enemy on the battleground,” as they say. And in this case, the enemy is Taliban-like: hard to pin down; hard to predict. The enemy is tight schedules, dozens of unknown venues, places you’ve never been, and countless variables outside your control. (Not to mention your own fears and doubts… ultimately the most challenging enemies.)

In the interim between calm and storm, it’s good to take a long run early in the morning, preferably up an extinct volcano near your apartment. Or if you don’t run, just walk. Go outside and look up at the sky and say to yourself: “Whatever happens, things will be different after this is over.”

Process is important. It’s not the big event; it’s what led up to the event to bring you there. It’s not the finished product; it’s remembering what you put into it. Worldly success is fleeting, so if you can focus on what will be different in your own life after it’s done, so much the better.

Looking at the work from a distance, you see some things you’re impressed with, and others that you’d change if you could. But it’s too late to change, because in the end, an artist has to deliver. An artist has to be able to say, “Here it is, world! It’s your turn now.” Ultimately, that’s what it all comes down to.

And In This Case

You spend a year writing a book, then you spend a year waiting for it to come out. You ask your publisher about book tours and hear that no one does them anymore because there is no money, and no one buys real books these days anyway. So you decide, what the hell, we’ll do our own book tour. And because nothing worth doing is ever easy, you decide to make it the most epic book tour you could possibly think of.

Then you get on a plane and fly to New York City, home of big dreams, small hotel rooms, and Dunkin’ Donuts. And then, the next morning, it all begins.

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Image: SM

Have you heard the news about the death of publishing? Books are going extinct! Paper will cease to exist! Buy stock in digital ink.

Seth Godin, a mentor to me and the rest of the internet, recently announced his retirement from traditional publishing. Seth is perpetually ahead of the curve, so as usual, most people completely missed the point in responding to the news.

When I read his interview, I thought “Wow, I need to catch up.” If I had twelve bestselling books, I’d say farewell to traditional publishing too. So everyone else in publishing, traditional or otherwise, who doesn’t have twelve bestselling books needs to get to work.

Then I read something on a publishing web site with another author complaining that “The only authors who sell books anymore are those who have popular blogs.”

This puzzled me. Where does a popular blog come from—does the blog fairy descend from the sky with a passionate group of readers, all eager to support a new writer? Or does it maybe have something to do with consistent, dedicated work over a long period of time?

Speaking of Books and Strategy

A few days from today I’ll head out on the world’s first Unconventional Book Tour to 63 cities. Venues are now posted over here… at least for the cities I have lined up so far. I get a lot of credit for being strategic, which is overstated at best—or more likely, completely untrue. I really don’t have a strategy besides what anyone can see on the site.

But yes, friends, there is indeed a method to the magic. The method is called: Dream very big. Decide to do big things and then set them in motion.

My strategic plan is: say yes to everything.

The tactic is: get up early and stay up late.

Whoa, so strategic! I know, I know… I’m really giving away the secrets to the store.

Next, get very smart people on your team, like Reese the Superstar Design and Nicky the Genius Developer. Together they do things like make the Unconventional Book Tour site come to life, where people can sign up, post directly to Twitter, and even volunteer to bring cupcakes. (And just wait till you see the World Domination Summit site… coming next month. They’re raising the bar even higher for that project.)

The point is that you don’t have to figure everything out before you get started. Dreaming comes first; details come later.

Which leads to another very important point: If you have a big dream, you should find a way to pursue it.

Derek calls it the hell yes moment – when you hear about something that sounds amazing, don’t worry so much about what else you have to do to make it work. Just say hell yes. You’ll be scared about it in the beginning and happy about it as you work it out.

Now, the process of following a dream is not without stress and tension. The point is not to retreat from the tension, but to embrace it and live in it. I am frequently reminded of this quote by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi:

“The best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times… the best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.”

By the way, I’m also encouraged by Csíkszentmihályi because if he can be successful with that name, Guillebeau should be no problem. But I think the point at hand is: If you feel discontented, change it up by doing something challenging instead of something relaxing.

So for the book tour that begins next week, some things are good to go and other things have yet to be finalized. I have no idea where I’ll be in Wilmington (Delaware) and Manchester (New Hampshire) and those stops are on the very first leg. I finally decided if nothing else, I’ll show up at a Starbucks somewhere and we’ll go from there.

But it’s OK. It will be fine. I try to take everything step-by-step. Get on the plane and fly to New York City. Have a fun book launch with all of Manhattan at Borders on Tuesday night. Figure out how to get to New Jersey. Look up the locations of Starbucks in Delaware.

No worries. We’ll make it happen with the help of a small army.

I’ll apologize now for writing a lot about the book and book tour for the next few months. It won’t be all book, all the time for 97 days while I’m back and forth on the road. But I’ve always written this blog based on what I’m doing, and “all things book” will be what I’m focusing on for a while.

The fun thing about blogs is if you decide you’re no longer interested, you can vote yourself off the island by unsubscribing. No hard feelings! And for everyone who sticks around, I really appreciate your support. The dream is much easier to pursue when other people are a part of it.

So, back to you over there…

What’s your plan? How can you embrace tension and pursue a big dream? What can you say hell yes to?

###

Image: Jim

Jolie and I went down to the Portland Art Museum for a meeting with the Events Planner last week.

We looked around at rooms that seated 350+ people. We talked about projectors and coat rooms and WiFi and catering—and everything else you could think of related to holding a major event.

“Look,” I said as we walked past a wide corridor. “That looks like a nice place for the bloggers’ lounge.” The corridor in question also contained a large statue of a naked man, but hey, it’s an art museum.

“We don’t allow red wine in this room,” the planner told me as we walked by another room with 500-year-old paintings. “But white wine? As much as you want!”

Normally I’d be taking notes on all these things—we looked at ten different rooms, all with different seating capacities and red wine vs. white wine specifications. But I didn’t take any notes at all, because I was simultaneously thrilled and terrified, caught up in the Big Idea of what this was all about.

“What do you think?” the cheery Events Planner asked as she walked us out.

I looked up at the impressive building, pictured above and over here. “I’ll take it,” I said. “Let’s do it.”

And thus began the planning…

The Unconventional Book Tour kicks off in just eight days, with my goal of meeting every person who reads AONC in the U.S. and Canada. But as much fun as it will be going from Kansas to Nebraska to meet with 63 small groups, I also thought:

What if we could also bring everyone together in one place? That would be even more epic than me going around from city to city.

So that’s what this is about, and I knew that the “one place” had to be Portland (PDX), World Domination HQ and my hometown of choice. We’ve been scouting event spaces for weeks, trying to find the best location to host an amazing group of people. A place like the Marriott isn’t the right fit, but the smaller hotels were, well, too small.

So I made a big financial commitment to rent the Portland Art Museum, and everything that goes with it—A/V, permits from the city, insurance to make sure no one breaks the naked man statue, and so on. As I suspected, renting out the Portland Art Museum for an entire weekend isn’t cheap. I’m taking a big risk in committing ten months in advance, but nothing worth doing is ever easy.

So, friends: here’s the proposal.

Next June, I propose we take over Portland, Oregon with our first annual World Domination Summit, and I’d love for you to be a part of it.

The summit will be a gathering of remarkable people from all over the world. Other authors, bloggers, and interesting people will be speaking from the main stage, a 376-seat theater where we’ll meet for about a third of the time.

The second part of our time will be in small groups, where we talk about travel hacking, microbusinesses, how to do what you love while changing the world, and all kinds of other important topics. (You’ll sign up for the groups you want, and there will also be a voting system to nominate your own group.)

The final third of the time will be all about community. We’re working with the Mayor’s Office to put together tours of Portland. You can visit the city’s famous food carts, check out the vegan tattoo parlor, head back to the theater for a special Charity: Water screening we’re putting together, or whatever you want.

And mostly, you can hang out with people who see the world in the same way. It will be insanely epic, and I’d love for you to be there.

So here’s the second part of the deal.

The summit will have a cost associated with it, but I’m spending my time thinking about how it can be amazing instead of how it can make money. (“Not many people can guarantee awesomeness, but we’re stepping up” as I say in the Unconventional Guides business.)

It will probably cost about $300 a person or so for the whole thing—much cheaper than SXSW, BlogWorld, or any other major conference that doesn’t have a ton of advertisers. We’re also working with hotels to offer a discounted group rate, talking to both hostels in town to completely book them out, and planning to coordinate some kind of couchsurfing option for people who prefer that.

I’m not 100% sure how everything will work yet, but I have a team of advisers here in Portland helping me to make this much more awesome than I could do on my own. And if you come, you’ll be a big part of making it even more awesome.

The goal is to publish the registration site in mid-September—live from the road as I’m touring America. But before then, I wanted you to be the first to know.

Will you save the date, and set aside June 3-5th 2011? I hope you can make it.

###

A few weeks ago in Miami I only had a $5 bill when it came time to get out of the airport shuttle.

I’d love to tell you I gave the driver five bucks instead of the usual $1-2, but I kept it in my pocket and just said “Thanks.” Generosity fail.

When it comes to generosity, the general rule with me is: Win some, lose some. It’s funny how I don’t often regret being generous, but when I choose to be stingy, it comes back to me later.

It’s like dropping keys: some days I drop keys, some days I build cages. The goal is to keep tipping the balance toward key-dropping… more empowerment, less selfishness.

I really like the idea that “Generous people have more to give.” I’m not sure it’s always true, but it’s one of those things where it’s probably better to act like it’s true. Then if it turns out to be wrong once in a while, well, at least you were generous.

Another thing I’ve learned through numerous failed attempts at generosity: it’s easy to get hung up on why not to do something helpful. Self-justification has been around for a long-time, so if you’re looking for a reason to avoid generosity, you’ll probably find it. Thus it can be an uphill battle, but hopefully one worth fighting.

Freely receive, freely give. How can you try out that idea today?

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Inspiration: Danielle
Image: D1109

Thanks again for all your input on the four burners theory. That was fun.

I should say first that all is well in my life—I’m not concerned about falling off the edge or anything. I sometimes say that I’m going to start a “maximalist” movement because I don’t believe in limits or shutting ourselves off from the world.

So it’s all good. But nevertheless, I wonder about things sometimes, and the Sedaris quote was an interesting way to look at the issues of balance and focus. As a couple of people wisely said, the point is that we all have the same 24 hours every day.

No one likes the idea of turning off burners. But the question is: how can we best use the time we’ve been given?

A couple quick points before I share some of the comments from last week:

Someone said that Sedaris could think this way because “he must have a wife taking care of the home.” No offense, but I thought that was odd—first, because he is gay and therefore has no wife, and second, because it’s an odd idea that successful people “must” have someone else who is responsible for their success behind the scenes.

The second thing is that a number of people made comments about work being expendable and “what really matters” are the other three burners. Ah, but see, this is the reason for the post in the first place. It’s fine if you don’t care about your work and see it as a means to an end, but what about those of us who actually value the work we produce?

As I say from time to time, it’s good to ask yourself the question, “If time and money were no object, what would I do?” So for some people, perhaps they really would leave their jobs and spend all day surfing or hanging out. But for others of us, we’d want to build something; we’d be driven by the desire to find meaningful projects to fill our time. Surfing all day does not leave a legacy.

I’m not saying that work is more important than family or friends; I’m just saying I don’t see why it should be relegated to… wait for it… back burner status. And that is the crux of the issue. As a few smart people noticed, many of the comments address a side issue. The main issue is balance, focus, how to do it all with limited time and energy, etc.

Anyway, that’s it for me. Take a look at what some smart people said below, or read 200+ comments here. You guys are geniuses, really. I’m in your debt as always.

***

Sandy said:

For me, it is not so much about turning off the burners, as much as it is turning them down from time to time. When I am working on trying to finish a project or even start a new one, that burner gets turned way up, and the other burners, family, friends, health, etc get turned down for a bit.

When I have a day scheduled to spend with my nephews or nieces, I turn that flame on high and give them my undivided attention, living in that moment. All the others burners are turned way down or off.
I guess it’s not so much, turning on and off the burners, as much as turning them up and down and using the energy more efficiently.

Josh said:

I like to think that it’s possible to have it all. I make my living, along with my wife, as a photographer. We have 3 small children. We have very close relationships with our family and friends. We travel 3-4 times a year. And, while we aren’t rich in the monetary sense, we make enough money by taking pictures of wonderful people in love to pay the bills and feed our children. Honestly, if that’s not success, I don’t know what is.

Christopher said:

This very idea has been on my mind a great deal of late and I’ve come to the conclusion that it isn’t that we totally sacrifice one of the “burners” over any others in a permanent sense. Rather, we temporarily sacrifice 3 of the 4 at almost any one time. In general, we can only focus on one of these at a time – in a given moment. Of course, there is some overlap – we can build relationship with both family and friends at the same time at certain events, or sometimes a portion of our work could actually be so enjoyable that it creeps into “play.”

Gayle said:

If success is defined as some kind of extraordinary achievement–above and beyond the standard job, family and going through the motions of comfortable, middle class life–my experience is that “something has to give.”

I experienced it as the child of someone successful in sport and community development and, later, working for an organisation doing great things to make the world a better place. In most cases, family has to give. When your parents are changing the world, you just don’t see them as much because the rest of the world wants a piece of them, often.

Nelson Mandela is an extreme example. His children had less time with him than those related to his cause.

Daisy said:

The first visual that came to mind was my stove. If I’m cooking on all four burners at once, it works, but it’s mighty crowded, and there’s a danger of the cook getting burned. Creating a balanced meal on a four-burner stove is safer and more productive if the cook makes one item ahead so that he or she is only concentrating on three burners at a time.

I’m a full time professional (teacher), a disabled adult (hearing impaired), raising a disabled teen son (blind, on the autism spectrum), along with a neurotypical college graduate daughter and an equally busy husband. Balance is elusive, but it is attainable. Sometimes one burner has to be set to low or turned off temporarily.

Craig said:

The problem with the 4-burner analogy is that it focuses too much on the individual. Sure, 4 burners is more than enough to handle when going it alone, but hopefully we all live and work as part of a larger team.

Barbara said:

Here’s a question. What if you have two kinds of work? For a paycheck, I do one very businessy thing that I do like. For love, I do a completely different kind of work that could not support me at all unless I went back to school for a long time to get the credentials to teach it, which I don’t want to do. I think a lot of people are in this same situation. Do we have two pots on one burner?

Becky said:

It’s not about the burners. They’re the straw man. It’s all about choices and consequences and trade-offs. What matters to you? What are your goals? Where do you want to be? You want to travel, you have a goal. The trade-off is you aren’t in the USA to see everything your friends see, or do all the things you could do if you were here. You know you are trading off something to get what you want. As long as you’re happy, who cares if others think you travel too much. Ultimately knowing what makes US happy, whether it’s burning four burners or eight, is what is important.

Mandi said:

As with anything, I think the key to this theory is relative to the individual. First it depends on your definition of “success”. For some people success is working hard for 12 hours a day. For others it is small genuine accomplishments. And some people consider genuine happiness to equal an all around successful life. Sometimes my “successful” day is one where I have gotten out of bed.

Michael said:

What works in my life is keeping a clear mental image of what I want to have, be, and do. Then I bring my complete attention to whatever I’m working on at the time with the determination to create what I want. Living the creative life means taking life’s raw materials and using them in ways that meet the have-be-do equation. So, even if my house burns down, I can draw with the charcoal.

Kieran said:

Only four burners? I run ultramarathons, play ten instruments, speak a half-dozen languages, am in a relationship, have good friends, have a close relationship with my family (in the US and in Ireland), and am a lawyer at a pretty intense law firm.

To me, if you love what you do, when you do it, that’s the greatest accomplishment. Will I win these ultras? Hell no. Am I a spectacular musician? Not really. But I’m a decent runner and I can make music that sounds pretty good. My main goal is to enjoy the moment and the experience when I’m doing it — where I end up in relation to others is not my concern.

Tara said:

Where most people fail at this is not recognizing all the low quality things they put energy & time into. They spend hours watching TV in the name of relaxation. They force family time that results in little engagement and no bonding. They grind away at tasks that have very little influence on their world.

Steven said:

I think the four burner theory is true, but it doesn’t consider momentum: if you get a burner hot enough, you can turn it off and still cook for awhile. If you build strong relationships with friends and family, you can neglect them a bit without losing the core. If you build healthy habits, such as running a marathon, you can fall into running as a past time and still be healthier than most. If you build a reputation in your work, you earn the ability to coast a bit.

Sara said:

I’m a juggler. It doesn’t mean that I juggle very well, but I do know that the moments I enjoy the most are when I’m dealing with the stuff that most matters. I would say that I have three burners: Me, Work, Friends and Family. My friends are also my family so it makes sense to loop them together.

Christine said:

Are we talking success or happy? The two are not necessarily the same thing. To me, if you want the experience of being alive to your success, you need to attend to the things that make you happy, and these things need to harmonize with one another. And, forget balance, that’s just a corporate term that’s aimed at keeping people in jobs.

Rob said:

Nobody ever did anything extraordinary unless they were marvelously obsessed with their passion. If you want balance in your life go ahead and become marvelously obsessed with living a balanced life. If you want to become the greatest writer, blogger, artist, businessman etc. etc… it takes an unwavering focus on that one thing.

John said:

Interesting topic. What is absent in the excerpt from the theory is how success is defined and how long of a timeframe is being used to evaluate success. For me, the theory is also tempered by age – being able to declare I am successful in all areas at the age of 47 is very much different that what I perceived as being successful at the age of 22.

***

Thanks again for all the input.

Next week, fingers crossed, I’ll be heading out for Algeria and FINALLY Belarus (attempt number three). Then I take a quick side trip to Thailand, then I’m home in the great PDX for three weeks before touring America. Until next time, thanks for reading.

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Image: CuriousIllusion

I did an interview for the nice people at The 99 Percent last month, and Jocelyn shared an idea that has stayed with me ever since.

Here’s the idea —

I like this quote from a David Sedaris article. Sort of an adapted ‘carpenter’s triangle’:

“One burner represents your family, one is your friends, the third is your health, and the fourth is your work.”

The gist is that in order to be successful you have to cut off one of your burners. And in order to be really successful you have to cut off two.

The question that followed was something like, “Is that really true?” I wasn’t sure what to say, so I made something up that sounded halfway intelligent, then moved on. Except I kept thinking about It later, and more than a month later, I’m still thinking about it.

I’ve said all along that life-work balance is overrated. If you’re not happy with your life, you should change it like plenty of other people have done. If your job sucks and you’re miserable, you should quit.

These ideas always strike some people as offensive, as if we should be grateful for bad jobs and unhappy lives. Maybe things will magically get better! Meanwhile, other people are somehow able to embrace change and pursue lives of meaningful adventure. (We tend to focus on the second group over here.)

But then again, perhaps the four burners theory is another way of looking at the same concept. I’d like to be healthy, and I’d like to have good relationships with my family and close friends, while also being successful at my work. I don’t like the idea of choosing or cutting off one of the burners.

I also know that success is what you define it to be. You can define “success at work” to be something very small, and then say you are successful. You can decide to group friends and family into one burner to save space on the stovetop. You can compare yourself to other people who aren’t as healthy as you are, and then decide that you are, in fact, healthy.

These days I don’t run marathons anymore, but I still run. I don’t go to yoga class very often, but I try to stretch before I go to bed. See what I mean? Slippery slope, meet non-conformist writer.

Another word for comparison is “rationalization.” We’d all like to think we can be successful without cutting off one of the burners. But when you start deconstructing it, I’m not so sure.

What about all the ambitious people of the world? Many of us aren’t satisfied with redefining success to suit a small vision; not everyone wants to be well-rounded or average. I know I’m not alone in wanting my four burners to be all-around amazing, and my life to be amazing all-around.

So I thought I’d put this tough question to all of you smart people. What do you think? I’d really love to know.

I could bribe you with Frequent Flyer Miles or Lufthansa Amenity Kits, but instead I’ll offer fame and glory by reprinting some of the best comments in a follow-up post next week. Just don’t cut off one of your other burners to answer it, OK?

Happy Monday, everyone.

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Image: Sherbet

I didn’t write an Independence Day post last week partly because I’ve been on the road. Burkina Faso is a fun enough place to visit, but there were no fireworks displays at night to celebrate America’s intent to withdraw from King George’s Britain.

But the other reason is that I think of a celebration of independence much like the Thanksgiving holiday. The holiday later in the year is all about eating pie and being grateful. I like both of those things; I just think that being grateful (or eating pie!) shouldn’t be reserved for one special day.

So while it’s nice to reflect on a country’s independence from foreign powers while waiting for the pizza guy to arrive, just as our forefathers did, I think it’s better to think about independence on a more personal and regular basis. What is independence, really?

To understand independence, let’s look at the opposite principle of lacking freedom or otherwise being restrained—non-independence, let’s call it. What is non-independence? I can think of two parts.

Part I: People who lack freedom due to no fault of their own

After starting in Burkina Faso, I’m now writing this post from Niger. Burkina and Niger are both beautiful countries, well worth coming to if your world tour takes you this way. They are also countries where a very large percentage of the population is desperately poor. In Niger especially, about 50% of the people are struggling due to a recent famine. It’s hard to sit around thinking big thoughts when you’re wondering if you’ll have enough to eat next week. If you can’t feed your children, you’re not very independent.

From the other side of the glass, the best thing us rich people can do is work to create a world without absolute poverty, not through patronizing, but through empowerment. Personally, I’m a big fan of clean water. Even though I’m in Niger, I can afford myself the extravagance of drinking water that won’t make me sick.

That’s a nice freedom to have, and that’s why we should all do what we can to help everyone achieve the luxury of choice.

Part II: Our own, self-created non-independence

The other kind of non-independence is what most of us in the non-poor world are more familiar with. This is the self-created kind, where we end up giving away our independence in exchange for perceived security. We get sucked into routines and patterns that aren’t at all what we hoped for, but to turn around and make a big change is too difficult.

Inertia and comfort are the greatest hindrances to independence. Some people manage to do it, like Jodi who saved for years to leave her job as a corporate lawyer and travel through Burma, or Audrey and Daniel who have made a career out of international development consulting from the road. And sometimes a camel really does go through the eye of the needle.

I love the exceptions. But most of the time, we limit ourselves in the name of obligations and responsibilities.

Action Plan! (It’s not just something you read)

So I recommend we do two things on this non-independence day, or whatever day it happens to be when you come across this.

First up, do one thing for someone else.

It’s easy to pretend that big, global problems don’t exist; I do it most of the time too. I ignore a lot of people, from beggars on the street in West Africa to people brandishing countless petitions on the street in Portland. I ignore them because I know I can’t help them all, and therefore I make the false choice to help no one.

But why not decide to reach out to the next one who comes along? I’m staying in a hotel and drinking all the clean water I want. The least I can do is buy rice for someone.

Back at home, I don’t really enjoy being accosted by petitioners for every imaginable cause in my neighborhood. But I know that plenty of other people will be rude to them, so I might as well be someone’s happy customer. Where do I sign?

Perhaps you’re not in Niger at the moment, or maybe you don’t have relentless petitioners out for blood and signatures in your neighborhood. But what do you have? What can you do?

If you’re not sure or just need the turn-key plan, join forces with our Ethiopia campaign. 100% of the money goes toward providing wells with local organizations in two communities. We haven’t promoted it much since launching it earlier in the year, but rest assured I’ll be going all-out this fall as I tour North America. It’s a project worth investing in.

Secondly, do one thing for yourself.

It’s not all about everyone else; your independence is worth fighting for too. Don’t give it away!

What can you do to take one step toward greater independence? Career independence means that your own competence is your security, whether you work for someone else or not. Financial independence means you understand the values that guide your income and expenses. Relational, spiritual, intentional, and so on—take your pick of independence-building. Just do something.

Fireworks, pie, celebrations—I could take them or leave them (well, except for the pie). But independence itself is the best prize. Let freedom ring!

Whatever independence means over there in your world, it’s probably up to you to make it happen. Happy non-independence day, everyone.

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Fireworks Image: SandCastleMatt
Pizza Guy Forefathers Reference: Brett Kelly

Many of us are on quests, either real or representative. Since my quest is real, I like the metaphor of journeying.

Going on a journey involves unexpected surprises, challenges, setbacks, and rewards. And I tend to think that any good journey is as much about the process as the destination.

Kind of like how the Greek poet Constantine Cavafy put it, almost exactly one-hundred years ago:

***

When you set out on your journey to Ithaca,
pray that the road is long,
full of adventure, full of knowledge.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the angry Poseidon — do not fear them:
You will never find such as these on your path,
if your thoughts remain lofty, if a fine
emotion touches your spirit and your body.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the fierce Poseidon you will never encounter,
if you do not carry them within your soul,
if your soul does not set them up before you.

Pray that the road is long.
That the summer mornings are many, when,
with such pleasure, with such joy
you will enter ports seen for the first time;
stop at Phoenician markets,
and purchase fine merchandise,
mother-of-pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
and sensual perfumes of all kinds,
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
visit many Egyptian cities,
to learn and learn from scholars.

Always keep Ithaca in your mind.
To arrive there is your ultimate goal.
But do not hurry the voyage at all.
It is better to let it last for many years;
and to anchor at the island when you are old,
rich with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting that Ithaca will offer you riches.

Ithaca has given you the beautiful voyage.
Without her you would have never set out on the road.
She has nothing more to give you.

And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not deceived you.
Wise as you have become, with so much experience,
you must already have understood what Ithacas mean.

-Constantine P. Cavafy (1911)

***

There are a lot of things we could say about Ithaca. The journey—the road to Ithaca, which represents the final stop. The Cyclops—people who distract you—are ultimately more powerful in your mind than in their physical presence. To arrive in Ithaca is the ultimate goal, but don’t hurry the journey. Pray that the road is long.

This week the journey takes me back to West Africa again. Today I’m in Burkina Faso, waiting to head over to Mali in a few days. The road is long and the journey goes on and on… for which I’m grateful.

And how about you over there—how is your journey coming along?

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Image: Rupert

I’ve heard the question in various forms over the past couple of years: Why not just travel around the world without trying to go everywhere—in other words, why focus on the numbers?

My answer is that the numbers give you a goal—something to keep in mind as you go through a challenging process. The numbers can’t be your sole motivation or identity, but they can be a big help.

Pursuing something meaningful and keeping track of it with numbers is fun and addicting. The numbers help to keep things in context. In my business I have goals based on numbers (sales per day, for example). For the blog I have goals based on numbers (new readers joining every day, for example). I don’t do the work for the sake of the numbers, but the numbers provide a good benchmark.

***

Numbers also make the project more interesting to others. In my case, no one would care if I wanted to visit “as many countries as possible.” Come on. We need a goalpost! 192 is the goalpost—not just “a bunch of countries,” but all of them.

Thomas Hawk has a goal of publishing one million processed photos. Nearly all of them are released to the world under a Creative Commons license, and they’re all good photos too. Why one million? Because it’s an audacious number, which makes it compelling to Thomas and interesting for those of us who are following along.

Sean Aiken worked one job a week for 52 weeks across Canada. Isn’t that interesting? I think so. What if he worked five jobs in a year instead of fifty-two? I’d think: good for him, but not as interesting for the rest of us. When you hear “one job a week for a year,” the story becomes much more engaging.

When times are hard, a goal based on numbers also helps you keep perspective. Is it really worth it to go to random places like Equatorial Guinea? For most people, probably not. But for me, yes—because how could I be satisfied with visiting only 100+ countries?

“Well, that was fun—no need to see the rest!”

I don’t think so. What’s a quest without a challenging objective?

Numbers aren’t everything. But under the right conditions and aligned to to the right vision, they can be a lot of fun. My current number is: 143 down, 49 to go.

And how about you—what do you think about numbers?

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Image: Fragmented