Chris Guillebeau's Blog, page 31

There’s No School for What You Need to Do

At one of the stops on my current tour, the bookstore host introduced me by saying in part “… and Chris earned a master’s degree in International Studies from the University of Washington.” It surprised me a little because no one else has ever mentioned that in any introduction that I can recall.

Sure, where I went to school is public information, but who cares? No one reads my blog because I went to college. No one buys my books or comes to an event because I earned an advanced degree, or...

How to Win the Career Lottery

If you won the lottery tomorrow, how would your life be different?

Maybe you’d buy a new car or take a dream vacation. Maybe you’d quit your job… or maybe you’d keep doing exactly what you’re doing right now. The point is that you’d have a lot of new opportunities and choices all of a sudden.

This short video, based on the lessons of Born for This, tells more:

How to Win the Career LotteryWinning the lottery isn’t the best retirement plan for most of us. Fortunately, the *career* lottery...

Dream Trip Student Earns 21,000 Points from Taking Free Surveys

Last year I co-taught a 28-day course on how to make your dream trip a reality. Throughout the course we heard story after story of people earning hundreds of thousands of miles and points. That was great, but what’s happening now is even better: we’re hearing lots of great stories of how students are using their miles and points.

As I say often, earning miles is great, but putting them toward free travel is much better.

Live a Remarkable Life in a Conventional World: Nominations Wanted!

I tend to ask a lot of questions. Why jump off the bridge just because everyone else does? What are “the rules” and who made them?

If your life is a movie and you’re the director, why did you add this scene to it?

Today, I have a question for you that might be even easier than those: Can you introduce me to an awesome person who’s doing something really special?

Maybe this person took the long way to finding the work they were born to do. Maybe their lifestyle or philosophy inspires you....

Ending Soon: 100,000 Hotel Points Bonus Offer (+ Another 75,000 Points Offer)

Link: Get 100,000 Hilton Points (with annual fee)
Link: Get 75,000 Hilton Points (with no annual fee)

I recently highlighted the largest current signup bonus in the travel world: 100,000 points with the new Hilton HHonors Surpass card. This is a limited time offer, meaning that the travel companies only put it out for a brief window of time before pulling it or lowering the bonus to a much lower amount.

There’s also an offer to earn 75,000 points, another limited-time promotion, without pay...

Fun Project: The 2016-2017 “Get to Work Book” Is Now Out!

Link: The Get to Work Book

Here’s a fun project that a wish I’d made it myself. But even though I didn’t, some very good friends of mine did. It’s like a journal or a planner, but better—and here’s how the creator describes it:

“The GET TO WORK BOOK is a daily planner + goal setting workbook designed to help you make progress on your big goals by taking things one day at a time. While (sadly) it can’t do your work for you, every inch of it was thoughtfully designed to help you get to work.”...

The Historian Who Couldn’t Escape from Alcatraz

In the introduction to one of the chapters of my new book, I wrote about escaping from Alcatraz. If you’re trying to get out of an unfulfilling job, it can sometimes feel just as difficult as getting out of prison.

I used the Alcatraz story as a metaphor, but a reader who wants to remain anonymous wrote in with a personal story that I really liked. Here’s what she said:

“My uncle was a historian at the Maritime Museum in San Francisco. He gave me a tour of their private collection once, it...

Dream Jobs Don’t Always Have Glamorous Beginnings

This is a traveler story. ( Read others or nominate yourself . )

Rosemary Behan has crafted a career in journalism that allows her to travel the world. In this profile, she shares how she got started—and how you can still break into the changing world of travel writing.

Here’s her story:

I’m a travel writer and editor based in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. I work as the travel editor of The National, an English language newspaper, and Ultratravel Middle East, a global luxury...

The Answer in Your Inbox

*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 win the career lottery, sometimes the winning ticket is right in front of you.

The answer to your most pressing questions—and the path to the work you were born to do—may come from those around you.

When you’re not sure what your “thing” is—when you don’t know quite where to look to find that job or career that brings you j...

Resign Your Job Every Year

*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: Make a commitment to resign your job every year, unless your current job is the best one.

When you’re stuck in a rut or simply not sure if your current job is the best choice, here’s an idea: once a year, on the date of your choosing, commit to yourself that you will quit your job unless staying put is the best possible choice for you at this t...