Chris Guillebeau's Blog, page 71

How to Visit Cuba as an American (While It’s Still “Illegal”)

Like many of you, I was excited to hear the big news that the U.S. embargo against Cuba is ending. Wow! There’s probably a good life lesson in this news: if your government has tried something for more than 50 years and it hasn’t worked, maybe it’s time to try something else.

As part of this huge change, sooner or later it will be much more common for Americans to travel to Cuba with few or no restrictions. But you don’t need to wait until the floodgates open. You can go there now, just as I d...

This Free Report Tells You How 20 High-Achievers Plan for the New Year

Link: Free PDF from Michael Hyatt

As part of the relaunch of his Best Year Ever course, Michael Hyatt has just released a free PDF with lessons from 20 high-achievers (somehow I made the list) on how to prepare for a great year.

You can learn a lot from Michael through this report, the free videos, or the new course that just opened for registration last week. If you’re interested in the course, the limited offer for Early Bird pricing ends tomorrow, Dec. 19th.

Over here, I’m still hard at work...

Nostalgia for the Opposite

Jez Butterworth on writing a play about navigating the zero-sum world of opposing choices:

He described it as a kind of psychological holding place as ‘nostalgia for the opposite.’

Holding two options in one’s mind simultaneously enables an emotional state—of freedom or evasiveness, depending on one’s view—in which Butterworth’s characters tend to reside.

‘The idea of one constantly feeds the other,’ he said. ‘If you’re in one place, you long to be in the other. Which feels terrific.’

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It fe...

2014 Annual Review: Lessons in Entrepreneurship & Unconventional Work

And… the Annual Review continues! Today’s post builds on Monday’s, with some more specific lessons related to entrepreneurship, writing, and work.

You’re welcome to share your lessons too, and—new bonus!—we’ll award a $100 Powell’s gift card to the person who leaves the best comment by the end of the week, as determined by our cats and biased judges.

Previous Posts

2014 Annual Review Process & Template

Looking Back on a Complicated Year

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As is the case every year, 2014 was a busy and active y...

6 Discoveries from Near and far: Volume XXIV

I. Around the World

Things I found on long walks in foreign cities, or perhaps when someone posted them on Twitter.

Why Shark Tank Is Terrible for Your Business — Just because someone else has been successful in their business doesn’t mean they know what to do about yours
Why Have Over 2,000 NoPhones Been Sold? — I’m not trading in my iPhone yet, but this anti-phone has proven to be quite popular
Jogger Saves Columnist’s Life – Here’s What Happens 6 Years Later — They meet again, but this time un...

Barriers and Pre-Commitments: How to Modify an Environment to Support Your Values

From time to time, most of us suffer from a gap between what we say we do and what we actually do. This is especially true in everything associated with well-being: fitness, health, personal finance, and general self-improvement.

We know we should exercise, but we don’t always want to. We know we should save, but we reach the end of the month with nothing left over.

My longtime friend J.D. Roth has a good strategy for this. It’s called barriers and pre-commitment. Here’s how he puts it:

“Barrie...

2014 Annual Review: A Few (Embarrassingly Personal, Per Usual) Lessons Learned

Hey everyone, the Annual Review is here!

Note: This is a long post (2,500+ words) and also fairly personal. You have been warned. If you’re new here, be sure to also check out:

2014 Annual Review Process (including a new planning template)
Annual Review archives (all relevant posts from 2008-2014)
Share your thoughts (no need to write 2,500 words; just say something that went well and something that didn’t)

OK, let’s get to it! As noted in the process post, I begin the review by focusing on the an...

2014 Annual Review Is Here! This Updated Free Tool Will Help You Plan Your Whole Life (Seriously)

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

Tomorrow I’ll publish a long post with my successes, failures (which are always more interesting), and lessons learned from 2014. This will probably be my most personal review year ever, for a variety of reasons, and I promise to share much of it with you through the blog.

But Wait, You Too!

My favorite part about the review is tha...

Units of Momentary Happiness

“Everything we need to be happy is easy to obtain.” -Epicurus

I’ve long advocated that happiness is not entirely related to a feeling of a precise moment. Instead, it’s more closely related to the overall life we live, as well as the life we hope to have in the future.

If you quit smoking, you might still want a cigarette sometimes. And if you give into the craving, you might enjoy it at the time—but will you still feel good afterwards? No, real happiness is much better measured through meaning...

Giveaway: North to South Messenger Bag by Tucker & Bloom

Friday is giveaway day. Comment to win!

This week’s giveaway is a fantastic messenger bag from Tucker and Bloom, a father and son company based out of Nashville. David and Case Bloom took their experience in travel wear and design and used it to establish this small business after the travel wear industry went into a decline after 9/11.

These guys know what adventurers need from a good bag—and they deliver!

What you need to know:

This bag can hold all your things! Dimensions: 12.5” Long X 13.5”...