Chris Guillebeau's Blog, page 106
October 28, 2013
When You’re Happy, You Don’t Have to Tell Anyone
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“If you really want to be happy, no one can stop you.” -Anonymous
As I was editing a new book manuscript, one story caught my attention. A man makes a lot of changes in his life. He adopts a new lifestyle, sells his possessions, and spends his time on intentional experiences. So far, so good.
But then, he doesn’t just make the changes—he wants to tell people about them. He tells everyone he meets, even people who are busy with their own lives and don’t want to hear about it.
He’s so happy!...
October 24, 2013
Rainy Season in Monrovia
I did an interview about Liberia with the people behind Maptia, and I liked the introspective questions they asked. You can read the full article here, or check out an excerpt below.
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Monrovia certainly sounds like a complex and unusual place, affected deeply by both the geographical and political climates. We imagine that you must have experienced many sides of the city while you were there. Was there a single place or region in Monrovia that you felt was the heart of the city? Somewhere th...
October 21, 2013
The Past Wasn’t Better. Choose the Present Instead
“The past always seems better when you look back on it than it did at the time. And the present never looks as good as it will in the future.” -Peter Benchley
Back in the days when I still had hobbies, a few friends used to come over to the house for weekly gaming sessions. When my brother was in town, he’d join in too.
One week we ordered an emulator, which allowed us to play many of the games of youth on the modern gaming console of the time. Most discs or cartridges contained only a single g...
October 17, 2013
On the Road: 7 Hours of Travel Hacking + Reddit “Ask Me Anything”
On Sunday I went down to San Francisco, met up with my friend Stephanie and began preparing for the day-long CreativeLIVE workshop on travel hacking.
The session was fun and intense! Comments and questions for the #travelhackLIVE hashtag were so numerous that the course began a trending topic on Twitter. Viewers crashed Stephanie’s website at one point after she shared a travel hacking road trip story.
How to Access the Course
More than 10,000 viewers tuned into the free live broadcast, which w...
October 14, 2013
Top 15 Travel Hacks (and a Free Workshop!)
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in Canada!
Tomorrow I’ll be teaching a day-long workshop on Travel Hacking. You can enroll here and watch for FREE from anywhere in the world.
In preparation for teaching the course tomorrow, I thought I’d compile a few—okay, many—notes on the best current travel hacking opportunities. If you’d like to see the world, or at least travel without spending a lot of money, perhaps something in this extended post will be helpful to you. Enjoy!
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Round-the-World Ticket...
October 10, 2013
Free Class on Travel Hacking: Tuesday, October 15
I’ll be teaching a day-long session on travel hacking next week, and you’re invited! The session will be filmed in San Francisco but you can watch it FREE online from anywhere in the world.
During the live session I’ll show how you can take advantage of Frequent Flyer miles and other travel hacking strategies to a) see the world on a budget, and b) have experiences that would otherwise be inaccessible.
I earn more than a million Frequent Flyer miles and points each year, a...
October 7, 2013
Opportunities and Missing Bicycles
The sun came out over Portland on Saturday morning in what felt like the first time in weeks. It was a beautiful fall day, and I decided to ride my bike to lunch. Except for one problem: when I walked into the garage, my bike wasn’t there. Dolt! Where had I last left it? I couldn’t remember.
See, I ride my bike all over town. Most of the bike adventures are round-trip, but when I only need to go one-way and then head home via bus or car, I leave the bike somewhere on the street and pick it up...
October 3, 2013
The Crunch
You’ve been here before. The weeks and months have gone by, and now you find yourself at the point where something big is due. The deadline you’ve been ignoring is now staring you in the face.
Sup, the deadline says. Did you forget about me?
You didn’t forget, of course. But you didn’t entirely take it seriously either. It was hiding out in the background, and now the background has planted itself directly in front of your desk.
Maybe other people are starting to worry. “Will she get it done...
September 30, 2013
If You Don’t Like the Menu, Leave the Restaurant
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“Don’t settle: Don’t finish bad books. If you don’t like the menu, leave the restaurant. If you’re not on the right path, get off it.” -Chris Brogan
I used to feel obligated to finish bad books or stay in restaurants I didn’t like. Then I adopted Chris’s rule, which I’ve used for years but recently noticed that he phrased more elegantly than me.
If you don’t like a book (including mine or any other), give it 50 pages max. After 50 pages, you know where things are going. Happy? Keep reading....
September 26, 2013
Win 50,000 Frequent Flyer Miles (+ Die Empty + WDS 2014)
In this post:
Win 50,000 Southwest Rapid Rewards Miles (comment to enter here)
A New Book You Should Read (get it here)
WDS 2014 Tickets Now Available (sign up here)
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Win 50,000 Southwest Rapid Rewards Miles
A few weeks ago I began my latest Frequent Flyer Challenge, where I regularly attempt to earn 200,000 or more miles and points in a single round of credit card applications (without negatively impacting my credit score).
Another new card came out after I wrote the original post, and this o...
