Vagabond Insider

As we change, people don’t like how we change because the ways they use to manipulate us don’t work anymore.

Habits are powerful, they can either work against you, or work with you. A habit is something we do without thinking about it. We brush our teeth usually without thinking about it. The way we use the bathroom, the really awesome technique we do it with is usually automated. Now, if we spend the required [...]

Is it really worth it sacrificing long term pleasure for this short term pleasure? Is it really worth sacrificing their future to look good in the short term? Nope.

You can’t take everything with you. (Photo: BrittneyBush)

The act (or is it art?) of packing light is different for everyone. In my previous article about being prepared for being unprepared, carefully choosing the gear in your packing list is worth the time spent.

Packing light to some people might be just going around the world with just a jacket like Rolf Potts (I’ll do this within one year).

To others, it may be having just two full suitcases of clothes and gear. I don’t recommend this approach at all because even if you are not going from place to place, it becomes a reason to stay where you are.

Think why you may have not moved yet. Wouldn’t it be a pain to get all that stuff you have to your new home? Buying boxes, buying tape, getting movers or renting a truck yourself. Packing the boxes, and moving them onto the truck and moving them off the truck and unpacking them, and organizing it all.

Some people love the process of moving. Is it a really effective use of time? Could you be building your business? Spending more time with your kids and loved ones?

Wait, what does this have to do with packing light? Well, everything.

Are you ok with having an apartment full of stuff while you are trekking the world? This choice I leave up to you, but I didn’t want to have stuff to worry about while traveling.

If you decide to pack light (I say one medium sized back pack and one small bag works just fine) you’ll gain mental freedom [...]

Posted 6th November 2010.

Ni Hao.

Ok, I haven’t talked about this much. I moved around California a lot, even to big weird cities like San Francisco. It was a fun experience, though not the place for me.

I didn’t really plan where I was going, I just found things which interested me and choose to seek out the areas.

I’m now across the ocean in a far time zone away from the places I called home. I packed my 28L bag, and side bag and flew away.

This awesome tropical island I’m at is called Taiwan. I don’t speak Mandarin at all. Doy-ba-chi.

I have to say the people here are very friendly. It started raining and I stood there in my shorts and no umbrella near a jewelry shop. I took the rain cover out of the bottom of my backpack and covered my backpack. The shop owner walked out side and beckoned me to come over to him, he handed me an umbrella. He made the motions to throw it away when I’m done with it. This was awesome.

I went to the local 7 eleven (they are on most corners, literally 1 block away from each other) and bought an umbrella. I brought back his and thanked him.

I didn’t come to Taiwan prepared for a lot of things, I took the time to figure it out while I was here. I prepared myself with clothes, and the ability to reach the internet, though beyond this, all I did was book a plane and a hostel (the day before the flight) and figured my way around as soon as I landed.

Some folks I talk to here say I’m really prepared when it comes to my gear. Not really. I just put a lot of research before hand to have stuff which works great around the world. I’m not prepared for everything, just most things.

It basically boils down to this, be prepared for 20% of the important stuff, and you’ve covered 80% of the important things. Of course this is the 20/80 principle or whatever, just apply your numbers in whichever way works for you.

This 20/80 principle basically applies to all of life. The numbers might look like 10/90 or 5/95 or even 30/70.

If you focus on the important aspects of ANYTHING, the rest usually falls into place or is worth putting mediocre effort on [...]

Posted on October 31st 2010.

Leverage yourself to change your world (and others). (Photo: alicepopkorn) Hey there. I’m writing this from LAX airport in Los Angeles. I just finished a seminar by Eben Pagan. It was the GURU Business Plan. Eben charges $4997 to attend this seminar. I got in free. Almond Butter! It was about managing self and doing [...]

Changing the world is easier done than said.

This is a series of posts about changing your world. How do you change your world? Easier DONE than said (challenge yourself to believe this phrase instead of the normal “easier said than done”).

In the later posts in the series, I will elaborate on the main details below.

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One of my favorite phrases comes from a video game, Xenosaga I (which I recommend if you like Role Playing Games).

“Perception and pain are one in the same.”

The “current” main enemy says this as he blows his head off with a weapon, and grows it back. The main characters watch in this event with disgust.

If we think about these words, it says we don’t all feel the same pain and we don’t all see the same things. Our idea of how much a punch hurts can mean something completely different to a martial arts fighter or [...]

Posted on February 16th 2010.

Anti-social is the new social.

Have you seen a group of people typing away on their phones instead of talking?

I have. I use to be one of these people in fact. I had my blackberry (aka crackberry). Now seeing these people waste precious time they have with their friends to type away on their phones, allows me to value my time spent with others.

It isn’t just about being anti-social either. It is a big time waster to type away on these phones most of the time. I know a lot of people who use unproductive behavior as an excuse to not be productive. Do you find yourself tweaking with your new iPhone App instead of finishing that paper or making that sales call? Do you press on the iFart application and laugh in the corner?

I would find myself wasting time on my phone doing useless things like tweaking settings here and there instead of working. When hanging out with other people I would pull out my phone every few minutes to check email or other items. Now, with a few tweaks, I can focus on the important things in my life. Dinner and special time will be interrupted no more. To me as a Vagabond, these few steps allow me to focus on relationships more.

I’m actually planning to experiment life with no phone and only use Skype. Though I would actually want to keep a phone just to keep in touch [...]

Posted on January 26th 2010.

Enjoy this view.

What do you worry about when you travel? Your car? Your house? Your possessions? Where you will stay? Your safety?

I was looking to purchase a house a couple of months ago. I looked at it as a good opportunity to build equity and have roommates pay for my mortgage.

What I didn’t want was the head ache of having a bunch of stuff, the remodeling, the collecting of rent from roommates who don’t pay. It would also tie me down to the house until I could sell it, at a loss if sold early. It would also mean joining an earning treadmill I see a lot of people on.

Keeping up with the Joneses

As a college graduate, I saw how my purchasing habits changed when my income tripled in one year. My desire for certain cars changed. I was getting ready to buy a [...]

Posted on January 19th 2010.

Our friends determine who we are.

When growing up, my mom would be concerned who my friends were. I thought my mom was just being nosy. I’m sure many people reading this had the same situation before.

If you have kids now, you are most likely concerned who their friends are.

The reason for the concern of friends? Sometimes we are not able to explain it without thinking about it, though to put it in words, we are who our friends are.

I’m not saying we’ll only be as good or as bad as our friends, though we’ll be very near their level. Rich people can have poor friends and poor people can have rich friends, though it usually doesn’t mix. If we want to make success inevitable, shouldn’t we associate with the people we want to be like?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.

“We are who we are going to be for the rest of our lives after college or high school, except for two things, the people we meet and the books we read.”

I’m definitely going to repeat the important concepts a lot, to reinforce it into my head, and into yours.

I can tell you from my experiences, the friends I’ve had, and the friends my friends had, how similar they were to their friends. The friends who did drugs, their friends usually did drugs. The violent friends [...]

Posted on January 14th 2010.