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Life lessons learned in travelling the world for 8 years straight

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Re: Life lessons learned in travelling the world for 8 years straight

#81

Post by rodh »

jasonkester wrote: post #76
rodh wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do see your point, and agree to a certain extent. Having spent some time in south-east asia, I have experienced first hand how cheap life can be compared to what I'm used to (a factor of 10, for a comparable lifestyle). In fact at one point I would consider that I pretty much ran out of money but still managed to get by. However, I still see this type of travelling as a luxury. I would not fly off to another countr…

You're arguing against an Existence Disproof here. Right this minute, there are tens of thousands of people travelling the world slowly from a backpack, picking up casual work as needed to get them to the next place. No special skills needed. Most of them you'd consider unskilled, which is just fine for waiting tables or running the front desk at a hostel. It's less common to see Americans doing this, but you'll be h…

As a brit who has had a gap year, and worked for it. I don't deny the existence of gap years, or people working on the road, by all means. But taking my past travels, for example, I now realise that I was fortunate to be at a particular point in my life (still living at home) and had parents which were not rich, but well enough off to be a viable backup should a problem arise. I also worked hard for it.

Gap years aside, I'm referring to sustainability when trying to do the work you want to, travelling and living frugally. Perhaps the author of the blog post was waiting tables for 8 years, in which case I apologise. But I'm assuming that, like me, they're a person who might have a bit of savings, and has a skill set in an industry that is location-independent. As such, doing work we are qualified in, on the road, is an option that is available to us. However, I acknowledge that doing so is a luxury. I do not believe I would be able to do so if I was penniless and didn't have a fair amount of work experience.

I didn't mean to be a killjoy. Doing what the author of the blog post did is something that I aspire to do. And as someone working hard towards that goal (work fulfillment + location and financial independence + guaranteed retirement income), I feel that presenting the bigger picture is important.

Re: Life lessons learned in travelling the world for 8 years straight

#82

Post by impendia »

rapind wrote: post #58
swores wrote: post #3

More money will NEVER solve your problems That just isn't true - the problem is that people realised that being rich isn't the same as being happy, and it was a good point. But then people took it too far, and it stops making sense. Sure, for some people, having more money wouldn't improve things, but for many people, it definitely could. And I'm not just talking about people who are starving or homeless. You don't n…

In the end it's all relative to your expectations. For example let's take 2 different people; "A" and "B". "A" has rich parents (few hundred million). "A" has rich friends. "A" enjoys expensive past-times. "A" currently lives off around $1,000,000 per year (mortgage, food, entertainment, etc.). Most of "A"'s associates have a similar lifestyle. If "A" loses all of his money and is forced to take a job at $150,000 a y…

+1, I think all of this is true and wise, but I will offer a contrasting perspective. I think it is good to have high expectations, not so much financially but in general.

I was working a stable, dull job, had a quiet social life, and was reasonably happy and content. But I decided that I could be living much more. I quit my job, moved cross country, started and finished a Ph.D. program, got an academic job, and also got much more adventurous in my social life. Across the board, my life was characterized by a lot more hardship, failure, and painful exposure to things which I wanted but were out of reach.

My life has been much, much better as a result. I am actually making much less money than I would be if I had kept on at my old job, but I raised my expectations relative to the life I was living, and this made all the difference.

Re: Life lessons learned in travelling the world for 8 years straight

#83

Post by impendia »

mburney wrote: post #10

Most of these life lessons have nothing to do with travelling. Most people I know (especially in their late 20's) would come up with a similar list even if they've barely travelled. I think this is just merely the blog poster's world view articulated into 29 points, and incidentally he has travelled the world instead of living in one place.

> Most of these life lessons have nothing to do with travelling.

Very true. But I think they have everything to do with questioning your assumptions, breaking your routine, and experiencing something unfamiliar. One can do all of these things without leaving home. But showing up to a foreign country where you don't speak the language or know anybody seems like a particularly effective way to do all of this.

Re: Life lessons learned in travelling the world for 8 years straight

#84

Post by lhnz »

matthewlyle wrote: post #71
lhnz wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You see, that's my point, as soon as you have to cut the costs of other parts of your life you've clearly started doing something which requires large amount of money...

What costs are you cutting? No, vacationing in 5-star hotels for 8 years would not be cheap but that's not a necessity for travelling. You probably don't rent a 5-star apartment at home.

People are talking about buying less stuff, and going out for drinks and nice food less often.

These are costs that would be decreased.

My thought was that: you have to make concessions beyond what you would normally have in your life and that, to me, is proof that you are undertaking in a luxury which you can not easily afford.

Which brings me to my original point: when it's clear that the ability to travel requires money can somebody then genuinely advise others that more money doesn't solve a problem?

Re: Life lessons learned in travelling the world for 8 years straight

#85

Post by lhnz »

kd0amg wrote: post #53
lhnz wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A life lesson with context wouldn't be a life lesson. The context is life, if the context is more specific and not fully applicable to life then it is no longer a life lesson.

A "life lesson" may still have a non-universal set of (common) situations to which it applies.

You don't agree that the more specific a situation is, the less applicable to 'life' it is?

Re: Life lessons learned in travelling the world for 8 years straight

#86

Post by jason_tko »

stayjin wrote: post #68
bemmu wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where in Japan are you located? I'm in Tokushima.

Hi thanks for replying, I am in Kobe, close to Osaka. Do you ever come to Osaka, by any chance?

Hey Stayjin, I'm coming to Osaka next week actually on Friday. Let me know if you have time for a coffee! My email address is in my profile. Cheers,

Re: Life lessons learned in travelling the world for 8 years straight

#87

Post by CarolineW »

impendia wrote: post #82
rapind wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the end it's all relative to your expectations. For example let's take 2 different people; "A" and "B". "A" has rich parents (few hundred million). "A" has rich friends. "A" enjoys expensive past-times. "A" currently lives off around $1,000,000 per year (mortgage, food, entertainment, etc.). Most of "A"'s associates have a similar lifestyle. If "A" loses all of his money and is forced to take a job at $150,000 a y…

+1, I think all of this is true and wise, but I will offer a contrasting perspective. I think it is good to have high expectations, not so much financially but in general. I was working a stable, dull job, had a quiet social life, and was reasonably happy and content. But I decided that I could be living much more. I quit my job, moved cross country, started and finished a Ph.D. program, got an academic job, and also…

Just out of interest ...

My life has been much, much better as a result.

How do you know this? You didn't live the other life, so you seem just to be speculating about how the other life may have turned out. You know know that the life you chose really is better.

Or do you?

Re: Life lessons learned in travelling the world for 8 years straight

#88

Post by muhfuhkuh »

pinaceae wrote: post #77
irishpolyglot wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If after spending many hours watching TV you feel your life has been enhanced in some way, then by all means keep it up. In my opinion people don't feel this way (I certainly never did and grew up glued to my TV) and would have spent their time better in other activities rather than following hours of reality TV shows etc. Doing "whatever you like" doesn't necessarily enrich your life. It's just immediate pleasure. S…

why do i need to "enrich my life"? can't i be happy with how it is? who are you to tell other what's BEST for them? how about you get a little older? how about staying in a place for a little longer, say 10 years and see how time makes a difference? your zero impact runaway life is a narrow experience - ever thought about that? maybe you'll realize that all your travels, all your experiences don't make your life a jo…

First off, you're really defensive about some person's blog post. I mean, seriously. He's not working on your spleen.

Secondly, it's "lessons learned", not commandments. Just stuff he picked up whilst traveling, not universally-accepted, committee-approved advice for everyone on planet earth and those who aren't born yet.

Finally, what on earth does age have to do with conveying general observations? What would staying 10 years in Portofino tell me that I couldn't get from open exploration and friendly/social interaction in a few weeks? That they actually ship their sardines live from China and throw them into the Ligurian? Good to know, but I'm a traveler. Why do I need to know that?

"your open mind - isn't."

I don't think he conferred himself any type of honor or status about his travels that assumes he is open-minded, except to say "I had an open mind while traveling and learned some stuff. Hope you can appreciate it." He isn't bigoted against people who do or don't do anything from what I could read in that article. When he says "don't defer your happiness" he means just that: Appreciate what you've got while you're planning on attaining more if that's the goal."

Re: Life lessons learned in travelling the world for 8 years straight

#89

Post by darklajid »

stayjin wrote: post #31
mburney wrote: post #10

Most of these life lessons have nothing to do with travelling. Most people I know (especially in their late 20's) would come up with a similar list even if they've barely travelled. I think this is just merely the blog poster's world view articulated into 29 points, and incidentally he has travelled the world instead of living in one place.

However it is amazing what an impact does living at a place away from were one grew up in have in the perception of the world. I had already traveled a lot ( as a tourist ) before I left Greece to come and live in Japan, when I started to make a life here, I practically had to rediscover myself. It is not so much the big things, it's the small ones : habits that I took for granted, jokes that do not sound funny, if y…

Thanks for sharing. I just (a month ago) did a relocation and while I'm not as far away from my former home as you (we are talking about 3.000km here) I certainly notice the first free-fall encounters.

I'm glad to read that you recommend it. I hope one day I'll give out the same advice, from another perspective.

Re: Life lessons learned in travelling the world for 8 years straight

#90

Post by gcb »

srgseg wrote: post #75

> 2. Deferring your happiness to the future is a terrible idea Every time I see this, I ask myself, how is this advice reconciled with the famous Marshmallow experiment? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_marshmallow_experiment There surely must come a point where enough deferred future marshmallow gratification makes deferred gratification a recommended life strategy. If I were always to choose not to delay my ha…

no life changing advice survives any form of analysis.
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