Blog

goals

23 essays

1. 36 Ways to Live Differently

   To live better means that you’ll live differently—somehow, you’ll make some kind of change. Your life will be different tomorrow than it is today.

2. Just Because It Works … Doesn’t Mean It Works

   After I wrote that the first WDS operated at a net loss—financially speaking, not in terms of anything that matters—I was immediately pitched by a number of

3. The First Day of Your Life

   Here’s something to consider: Today is the first day of the rest of your life. You’ve heard that before, right?

4. Lifestyle Design and Your Ideal World

   Warning: this will be a long post! There are no funny pictures of cats, comic strips, or post-election opinions in this one.

5. How to Write a Life List

   What if we could come to the end of our lives with true fulfillment, looking back on a rich history of experiences, relationships, and accomplishments?

6. Mountain Climbing, Motivations, and The Deep-Seated Fear of Failure

   When I first started doing media interviews in 2008, I noticed that one question would almost always come up: “Why are you so obsessed with travel?” (I

7. Are Goals Necessary?

   I asked that question on our Facebook page recently, and got a lot of great responses.

8. “We’ve Got Plans for You”

   Amy returned from a working trip abroad. “Welcome home!” her boss said on the first day back at the office.

9. The Goal

   1. To wake in the morning full of life and energy, awaiting the day with anticipation and purpose.

10. Too Late: Notes from LHR T5

    Greetings from LHR Terminal 5, where I’m getting ready to fly to my final country. Yeah. I know.

11. 7 Alternative Ways to Evaluate Your Life Every Day

    As regular readers know, I’m all about setting goals and working toward big projects over time.

12. To Succeed in the New, New Economy, Don’t Mail It In

    Ever since I wrote about The New, New Economy, I’ve been having lots of interesting conversations with people about it.

13. The Unconventional Strategy in Action

    Most of the time, the obvious way around an obstacle isn’t the only way. Looking for another option is called the unconventional strategy —when you have the same goal as anyone else, but you fin

14. How Goals Change Over Time, and What to Do About It

    The other day I was cleaning out my home office, and I found some old notes. The notes were from more than eight years ago before starting this blog.

15. Don’t Make a Bucket List; Make a List of 100 Dreams

    OK, it’s kind of like a bucket list. But it’s a really big one! From Laura Vanderkam: In 168 Hours, I recommended creating something called a “List of 100

16. Many Dreams Aren’t That Hard to Achieve

    Toward the end of Up in the Air, the character played by George Clooney calls up American Airlines and asks to transfer some of his Frequent Flyer miles to

17. Why Focus on the Numbers?

    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

18. “How Could You Go Back To Living A Mundane Life?”

    Cassie de Pecol is on a quest to become the fastest woman to visit every country in the world.

19. Decide Now How You’ll Evaluate Yourself Next Year

    Originally posted December 4, 2016 — For the past 10 years, I’ve conducted an Annual Review each December to look back on the year and plan ahead for the

20. Start Your Resolutions on January 6th

    View this post on Instagram A post shared by Chris Guillebeau (@193countries) Resolutions can be powerful, and they don’t have to begin on any given day.

21. What is Your Personal Moonshot?

    A moonshot, according to the ubiquitous WikiPedia, is a “is an ambitious, exploratory and ground-breaking project undertaken without any expectation of

22. Return of the Annual Review! Let’s Do This! (I mean, if you want.)

    Over the past eight nine ten! years, nothing has helped me to accomplish big goals and stay on track more than a single exercise I complete each December:

23. A Visit From Your Future Self

    PART I INT. YOUR LIVING ROOM—LATE EVENING. After a long day, you’re winding down with your beverage of choice. Perhaps it’s bourbon, perhaps it’s herbal tea.