Chris Guillebeau's Blog, page 29

Top 5 Credit Card Signup Bonuses for Miles and Points: June 2016

Every year I earn well over one million Frequent Flyer miles and points. About 250,000 of them come through actual travel, but the rest come through travel hacking: the art of seeing the world on a budget.

One of the easiest ways to earn a lot of miles all at once is through credit card signup bonuses. This post contains the best current card offers as of Friday, June 3rd. If getting every card from this post, you’d earn more than 175,000 points or miles. Happy travels!

In this edition:

Cha...

Get the “Born for This” Audiobook FREE with Your Audible 30-Day Trial

Link: Free “Born for This” Audiobook with Audible Trial

Hey, everyone!

I had an amazing time on the road over the past couple of months, speaking to audiences almost every night (I don’t take many breaks…) about how to find the work you were meant to do.

Personally I love print books, and I also read some Kindle titles on my iPad—but I also know that there’s a large group of people who enjoy listening to books.

With that in mind, we recently released the audio version of Born for This. It c...

Reflections at the End of a 30-City Tour (At Least For Now)

Just a couple of weeks ago I was going from city to city, a different one every day.

I had the routine down: each afternoon I’d roll into a new place, usually arriving by air and then transferring to Uber or taxi to my hotel. Settling in, I’d do an hour or so of work and catch-up, then change my clothes and head to the venue.

Sometimes the venue was a bookstore, other times a co-working space, and every now and then a theater. The 6pm-10pm time slot was usually fully occupied with the event...

It’s Not About Overcoming Your Fears; It’s About Acknowledging and Moving On

How do I overcome my shyness?

How do I conquer my fears?

I want to take a big leap, but Ican’t bring myself to approach the ledge… what do I do?

These and similar questions fill my inbox on a regular basis. Many of us long to overcome fears and limiting beliefs, because we think that these are obstacles in our way.

And here’s the thing: it’s not about overcoming. If you’re shy or introverted by nature (I am, too) you don’t “get over” these things. In fact, they aren’t things that you’re sup...

Do You Have a Side Hustle? Tell Us About It!

Out of everything I wrote about it in Born for This, readers have responded the most to two things:

“Winners never quit” is a lie. Winners actually quit all the time. They aren’t afraid to walk away from something that isn’t working to try something else. Not everyone should be a full-time entrepreneur, but everyone should learn to think entrepreneurially.

On the second point, one of the best ways to learn entrepreneurial skills is through a side hustle—a money-making project you work on...

When You Need to Escape, Build Your Own Countdown Clock

*My brand-new book, Born for This, is all about helping you find the work you were meant to do. This series explores some of these lessons.

Lesson: When you’re trying to escape a dead-end job or any other undesirable situation, create a calendar and count down the days to freedom.

My dad worked as an aerospace engineer for several decades, but the final years weren’t as enjoyable as the earlier ones. It was probably my fault: I wasn’t there to help test the space shuttle (like I did when I...

“Turning 50 Is Extremely Liberating”: One Woman’s Path to Her Dream Job

This is a Born for This case study. ( Read others or nominate a friend or yourself .)

I love second act stories! It’s never too late (or too early, for that matter) to create a new life for yourself and change the world while you’re at it. Tonya Hobbs took a big risk, and she couldn’t be happier.

Here’s her story:

Finding the work I was born to do was the result of a full-blown, midlife-crisis. I had changed careers and returned to school for a master’s degree in social work at age 40, but as...

Limited Time: Get 60,000 Points (Worth at Least $750!) on the Best Small Business Card

Chase Sapphire Preferred. I put personal charges on Sapphire and business charges on Ink Plus. You don’t have to use the cards this way, though—since many people are s...

Hope, Expectations, and Winning the Lottery

Most people know that the lottery is not a good investment plan. It’s not rational to invest large amounts of money in lottery tickets, because you’re almost certain to lose no matter how much cash you spend at the gas station or convenience store.

Buying a single lottery ticket or two, however, is actually quite rational. Most of us don’t play the lottery as an investment in anything other than dreaming. For a few minutes after you buy the ticket and before you scratch off the numbers, or...

How to Start a Blog or Any Website for Less Than $5

Link: Start a Blog for $5/Month

*We’ve had a lot of new readers join the blog recently from my new book and book tour. Welcome, new readers!

Since starting The Art of Non-Conformity eight years ago, I’ve been writing and posting regularly on the blog. A lot of things have changed since those early days, especially the way that people communicate on different networks, but my love of the format remains.

When you write a blog, you can publish immediate, unfiltered information to the world at...