His passion for linguistics and cultures has led him to nearly twenty countries, and also led him to seek out online work that would enable his full-time travels. He calls himself a “technomad”—a technology-enabled, location-independent freelancer, combining his electronic engineering degree from University College Dublin with his deep linguistic knowledge translating technical documents and picking up different jobs anywhere he travels.

I had the pleasure to spend some time with Benny on his recent trip to Bangkok, and sat down with him to talk about his travels and his unconventional approach to learning languages. He stresses the importance of confidence in your speaking abilities, and insists that it’s not necessary to speak perfectly at the start, but it is necessary to start! He also has unique tips for making the time to learn a new language, and assures people that you don’t have to travel to learn or maintain languages.

If you’ve ever been interested to pick up even a little of the local language when you travel abroad, or to reach fluency in a second or third language, give our video a watch below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

• 1:20 – All about Benny’s 3-month language missions
  
• 2:00 – How a blogs can help you achieve your goals
• 2:56 – Language hacking versus academic language learning
• 5:15 – The importance of attitude; Is your language half full?
• 6:45 – Language-learning methods, image-association
• 8:10 – 3 top language-hacking tips
• 11:40 – How to keep a language fresh when you aren’t actively using it (Benny recommends using Couchsurfing.com, Meetup.com, LiveMocha.com)
• 13:40 – Travels & tech nomad experience
• 15:20 – Get specific with your language-learning objectives
• 16:25 – Confidence and re-framing your mindset about languages

Here’s a quick video of the Thai he learned (in a matter of days) while he was here, which also illustrates his emphasis on “filtering”:

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you’re interested in languages, be sure to keep your eye on Benny. You can follow his travel-hacking videos (in seven different languages) at IrishPolyglot.com, and follow his 3-month language missions and language-hacking tips by subscribing to his blog FluentIn3Months.com. Some of the best:

• How to take as much as you like in your hand luggage
• How to speak Portuguese as if you were from Rio
• Burning Man – a week in the desert
• How to survive as a traveling vegetarian
• How to practice a foreign language for free without traveling
• How to speak a language pretty well, starting from scratch, in just two months
• The smartest decision you will ever make to achieve fluency

Feature photo by Benny Lewis.

Saturday night in a local nightclub, I witnessed firsthand how possessive men out here can be with women. While trying to make friendly conversation with a friend-of-a-friend, I guess I must have violated some unspoken rule or sufficiently intimidated this guy into thinking I was competition. After clinking glasses with me and acting all buddy-buddy, out of nowhere, he assured me that the three young ladies he came with belonged to him and I should back off—when I hadn’t even spoken a word to them! Later, on the dance floor, I was merrily acting a fool, dancing by myself, and one of the girls—along with another male friend—joined me. There was no touching, not even any flirting going on—I was very aware how hostile this crowd was and we were having a respectful Sunday school dance here. But I watched as this Cambodian asshole later came over to pull her off the floor and then smack her right in the face because she’d danced with me.

I’ve spent a good amount of time with some new friends I’ve made from Nigeria and Ghana. A couple of them are soccer players on the Cambodian team even, and these are the kind of guys who go in a club and drop lots of money on bottle service and know how to have a good time—fantastic, friendly guys who know everyone. But I’ve passed right through security and then seen them be denied entry because of the color of their skin. Instead, we found a nearby outdoor seating area and had our own party on the sidewalk—just good, clean fun—as military-style security guards suspiciously eyed them, fondling their Kalishnikovs and all the while ignoring all the prostitutes, and the opium and cocaine pushers that fill the streets. Talk about having your priorities backwards.

I’ve sat in the comfortable, three-story, waterfront Foreign Correspondent’s Club while children sit hungry across the street with no shirts on their backs and no beds to go home to. I’ve written about the extreme poverty and the aftereffects of unimaginable genocide here before. Cambodia is one of the poorest and most corrupt places in the world; the sexism, racism, and other socio-economic trends are tough to swallow.

Last week, back in Bangkok, I went twice to visit my friend Ryan in the Immigration Detention Center. Strangely, even though Thailand attracts probably the largest number of political refugees and asylum-seekers from all across Asia, the Middle East, and Northern Africa, the government doesn’t recognize official UN refugee status, and so Ryan and his family had to turn themselves in and spend five nights in prison before they’d be allowed to fly out of the country to be relocated to the United States. Ryan and his father were separated from his mother for 23 hours out of the day—only allowed to see each other and visitors from 11am–noon on the weekdays. They were kept in small cells no bigger than a small studio apartment, sometimes with up to a hundred prisoners; fed rotten chicken and rice soup through the small crack under the bars. You can smell the open-air toilets from 40 feet away as we visit—shouting over all the other prisoners and visitors between two fences, separated by a span of about five feet. He says they’d thrown a senile leper in the cell, who’d ran around like a madman, yelling and vomiting all over until he passed out and died before their eyes. They are treated like animals, not people.

Sometimes parts of Southeast Asia feel like the wild west in the very worst of ways, and I feel powerless to do anything about the injustices I see because I’m an outsider here and the problems are very deep and convoluted. If you’re a conscious traveler at all, it will test you to your limits at times, but it will also open your eyes with strange new experiences and teach you a lot about the world—whether you like what you learn or not.

The world is a clusterf#@%! So what can we do about it?

Sometimes I feel like I’ve lost my direction—spending too much time on Facebook and Twitter, contributing to every project under the sun without feeling like I’m really adding to the legacy I want to leave, worrying about money, tweaking my online businesses in the most insignificant of ways, going out and dancing the night away—while people face all this suffering. A lot of young people want to help make the world a better place, but we don’t know where to start, and we often feel like it’s completely beyond the scope of our abilities.

But don’t fall victim to that line of thinking. Start where you are now. Support the things you care about. Don’t lose the desire to do something you’re truly passionate about and make a difference in your lifetime.

I recently tried a test: I used this blog as a platform to see if I could help a friend in need. I wrote about my good friend Ryan Lei, who’d fled religious persecution in China four years ago, lived as an illegal immigrant in Bangkok for four years (even with official refugee status from the UNHCR), and has now finally been relocated to Los Angeles. You guys responded with a great show of support, and I was able to connect him with at least seven or eight friendly new contacts in the LA area. (Thank you!) Through Facebook, he raised enough money through friends to pay the immigration fine and get a start on teaching his parents to speak English. These are small steps—but in little pieces we can help change people’s lives for the better.

I also recently had the pleasure to help plan Thailand’s first TEDx event two weekends ago in Bangkok. For anyone unfamiliar with the 25-year-old conference, it’s a pillar in the technology, entertainment, and design community and brings together innovative thinkers, researchers, and changemakers from all pursuits to share ideas on how to build a better world. TEDx BKK turned out to be an incredible day-long conference, with over 200 eager attendees from around the world.

We featured incredible speakers including former Bangkok governor Apirak Kosayodhin, dive journalist Chris Mitchell, performing artist Ronley Teper, actor James With, and many more. But my favorite topics were those given by Brooke Estin, who spoke about her experience at Kiva and ChangeFusion working on microlending and social innovation; Daniela Ruby Papi, who works with PEPY in Siem Reap, Cambodia, and talked about responsible giving and sustainable community development as opposed to charity; Prae “Fluke” Sunantaraks, who suffers from Retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a progressive vision loss disease, and works with visually impaired children in Bangkok; and Bruce Poon Tip, founder of Gap Adventures, who discussed responsible adventure travel and giving back to local communities. (You can expect a valiant return in 2011!)

To return to my Personal Mission Statement, I strive to constantly seek personal growth through continued learning and new experiences (travel, entrepreneurship, and other assorted weird adventures); to increase my sphere of influence by building quality, lasting relationships, and leveraging creative synergy with like-minded folks; and in the end, I hope to use the business I build and the influence I have to leave a positive impact on the world.

I will continue to promote worthy causes when I come across them; I will continue to use my online presence as a test platform to help friends and those in need; I will continue to involve myself in conferences and fundraising mixers that bring together creative, thinking people; I will continue to collaborate on inspiring campaigns with influential folks; and I will do my best to build and expand a business that helps remarkable people build awesome online projects that change the world. I’m not anywhere near where I want to be yet; but if I can make a difference in the quality of the lives of those around me and instigate innovative thinking about the world’s problems, then I will have succeeded.

You don’t have to wait until you have the money, influence, prestige, or any of that to make a difference. Don’t wait until retirement. Don’t wait until you’re wealthy. Start now.

If you’re reading this, chances are that you were fortunate to be born in the “developed” world. We have our own problems, but most of us are in the top 5%, we’ve received an incredible education, and have been given a lot of advantages in this life. How will you put those things to use? Don’t settle for passive consumerism. Don’t veg out on the couch and ignore the world outside.

What direction are you going? How will you make the most of the life you’ve been given?

P.S.: To be clear, Cambodia can also be a very stunning place, with many friendly, wonderful people. I owe special thanks for the inspiration of this article to Brittany Sims, who reminded me where I’m supposed to be going.

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Please take my special survey for the Thrilling Heroics Community to help me learn more about what you love, what you want more of, and how I can best help you with what you want to accomplish. As an added incentive the first 100 people who complete the survey (and include your email address) get a free invite code for AwayFind, a useful productivity tool to help you get outside your email inbox, currently in invitation-only beta. Take the survey here!

Feature photo by Allie Caulfield

Success is being able to live and work anywhere you want.

Success is making a difference in other peoples’ lives.

Success is unique for every individual, and you have to define it for yourself.

There is no dollar-amount on your paycheck, no job title, no luxury car or status symbol that objectively demonstrates that you’ve “made it”. Success, above all, requires that you set your own unique, meaningful goals and work hard to achieve them.

Jonny Gibaud from TheLifeThing.com has been working hard over the last month to bring together an awesome lineup of young bloggers from around the world and asked them two simple questions:

What is Success? and How Do You Achieve It?

Jonny asked me to contribute something to the book, along with these cool friends of Thrilling Heroics:

• Greg from Rock Star Lifestyle Design
• Colin from Exile Lifestyle
• Ashley from The Middle Finger Project
• Carlos from Owl Sparks
• Matt from Life Without Pants
• Bud from A Boundless World
• Gordie from Lifestyle Design for You
• Henri from Wakeup Cloud
• Sid from SidSavara.com
• Jun from JunLoayza.com
• Raam from RaamDev.com
• Brenton from BrentonGieser.com
• Diggy from Unleash Reality

And many more.

The SUCCESS ebook brings together 30 great perspectives on what Success really is and most importantly, how you achieve it.

“Written by successful people, for successful people, ‘SUCCESS’ was created to bring together and form a group of incredible global individuals united by a shared passion for Success.”

Dowload the new ebook here for free.

Network with others and win a copy of Source Control

Additionally, you can join the Facebook group or participate in the group’s Twitter contest from Monday, February 1st, through Sunday the 14th for a chance to win a copy of Source Control, which focuses on teaching you to outsource your life to make you more successful.

Interested? Here is how to enter a Twitter submission: Just tweet in fewer than 140 characters what your idea of success is.  Your tweet should look like this: “#SuccessIs:  _______  www.downloadsuccess.info”  (don’t forget the hashtag and the link so Jonny can track anyone who participates)

Enjoy the free ebook, leave your feedback on the Facebook page, and share what your definition of success is in the comments below.

In your own words: What Is Success and How Do You Achieve It?

Photo courtesy of nattu

But unfortunately, the reality is that not everyone is so fortunate. We live in a broken world where children are abandoned or orphaned—even worse forced into sex slavery or child armies—entire communities fall victim to genocide, and all kinds of people are deprived of their basic rights to freedom.

Governments haven’t caught up yet—they pose challenges and restrictions on those of us who choose to travel and live beyond the borders of our home countries, and more importantly, they don’t provide enough protection or allowances for those who are forced to leave their homes either.

My good friend Ryan is a Chinese refugee who’s been living in Bangkok for nearly four years waiting to be relocated by the UN. He’s originally from Xi’an province, where his family faced religious persecution and was forced to flee.

“We were persecuted by the government because our faith in Christianity and my father’s association with Christian organizations outside of China, combined with his involvement with the house-church movement in China. We were constantly harassed, mistreated and interrupted in China. We were forced to move from place to place, living like exiles in the country we’re from. It was unbearable living like that.

The reason we chose to come to Thailand, was because we heard on the Radio Free Asia (an U.S. government founded non-profit radio station) that in Thailand some organizations could provide international protection to people who are persecuted in their own country. We didn’t know they were referring to UNHCR at that time. Another reason was because coming to Thailand from China was financially affordable and the distance was relatively short.”

Over the last year, Ryan has lived with my friend Dwight and spent considerable time with us—nearly every day—working with us, traveling with us, learning from us, as well as teaching us and opening our eyes to another perspective on life.

“A refugee will never have a real life in this country, the only hope for them is to rebuild their lives elsewhere.”

Ryan is 21, and because his family fled China when he was just 17, he was never able to finish high school. He has been working and supporting his parents while they’ve unfortunately stayed cooped up in their apartment fearful of being caught by police.

“Every day, living on the edge of bankruptcy, is how I would describe the general financial condition of a refugee in Bangkok. Because refugees are not allowed to work, it is particularly hard to find a way to sustain yourself in this country. Fortunately, I was able to work as volunteer at the Bangkok Refugee Center because I could speak English. As a refugee we also receive a monthly allowance from UNHCR, but this income only allows a very limited living standard.”

You can read more about Ryan’s background and his experiences in this interview on In Search Of Sanuk. (also part 2)

After long awaiting approval and word that he and his family would be relocated, Ryan will finally be moving to Los Angeles, California, in about three weeks. We have two more weeks with him, business-as-usual, before he and his family have to go spend 7 days in a detention center and pay a hefty fine before Thai immigration authorities will let them leave the country.

Ryan wants to go to college and excel, and I know he can. He’s the brightest young kid I know—he was a top 5% student in his province (tens of thousands of students). Before coming to Thailand, with it’s large expat population, he didn’t know any English. But he taught himself to speak the language fluently within three years. He is working on his GD and SATs. Being restricted from traveling freely, not being allowed to work, and many other challenges take a huge toll on the human spirit after so much time, but so far Ryan has had the tenacity to overcome these disadvantages.

He has a ton of potential, but also will face many challenges. It’s one of my biggest goals to see that he can one day live a normal life like you and me and actually experience the freedom he deserves.

So why am I telling you this? I wanted to see if I can call my community to action to help make someone’s life better—to somehow start to build a support network for when he arrives. The family already has a sponsor who will be receiving them when they arrive; they have housing; they have a small stipend for a short time. But Ryan is already working hard to find employment (he’s worked as a Mandarin/English interpreter in legal cases, document translator, language tutor, fundraiser, coordinator of volunteer programs and events, medical assistant, and more). He wants to find a great school where his parents can learn English quickly and effectively, so that they can also seek employment and start to support themselves. And he would benefit from any networks or groups in Los Angeles—Asian American student groups, networking groups, church groups…

If you have any ideas or feedback, please leave your comments below. And if you or any friends live in the LA area and would be willing to talk with him if he ever has questions, please contact me at cody at thrillingheroics dot com and I would be very happy to introduce you.

Sincere thanks for your help and generosity.

If you travel in certain circles, you definitely know what TED is. If you aren’t familiar with it, TED is a nonprofit foundation best known for its conferences which focus on Technology, Entertainment, and Design, first held in Monterey, California, in 1990. Curated by former publisher Chris Anderson, TED’s popularity soared and it quickly spread to Europe, Asia, and around the world, hosting high-profile speakers including Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Gordon Brown, Bill Gates, John Doerr, Muhammad Yunus, and Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

TED is all about “ideas worth spreading”—it has a wide interest in science and culture and has opened my eyes about a range of things including black holes, how we’re affected by the sounds around us, unconventional design inspired by nature, how nations can use “soft” power, when China and India will overtake the West, new ways to think about philanthropic aid, and post-crash consumerism. TED believes strongly in the power of ideas to change minds, lives, and ultimately the world. TED Talks offer free knowledge and inspiration from the world’s most inspired thinkers, and the conference gives curious souls a platform to engage with ideas and each other.

Rob Newberry speaking at TEDIndia University

Photo by James Duncan Davidson.

It has always been one of my dreams to attend or speak at a TED conference, which is where TEDx comes in—a new program that enables local communities, schools, businesses, libraries, and other groups to organize, design and host their own independent, TED-licensed events. My colleague Rob Newberry spoke at TEDIndia University in late 2009 and holds the first Bangkok TEDx license, so I was excited to get involved with the TEDx organizing committee to bring this open exchange of ideas to Thailand for the first time!

TEDx BKK will be held on Saturday, February 13th, at Ruamrudee International School in Bangkok. Thailand’s first TED-related conference encourages attendees to bring “Minds Wide Open” and will be a platform for sharing ideas openly. All who attend are guaranteed to go home feeling inspired!

We will feature the former Bangkok governor and advisor to the Thai Prime Minister Apirak Kosayodhin, social innovator Brooke Estin who works with Kiva.org and ChangeFusion, Gap Adventures founder Bruce Poon-Tip, actor James With, Prezi community manager Zoltan Radnai, dive journalist Chris Mitchell, and many more captivating speakers. If you’re interested to hear these profound speakers and interact with others who share your passion for ideas, take a look today:

• Learn more about TEDx BKK
• See our confirmed speaker list for our 2010 event
• Apply to attend the conference
• Follow event developments on Twitter and Facebook

Application deadline is January 31, 2010

That’s only 10 days from now, so get your applications in if you’re in Bangkok and you’re interested to attend this one-of-a-kind event!

I’ll leave you with this video: one of my favorite TED Talks so far: Stefan Sagmeister discusses how a sabbatical can help rejuvenate your creativity.

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Love Haiti Charity Party

Saturday the 13th will also coincide with the next Bangkok Tweetup which is set for February. Nothing official yet, but word on the street is that the BKKtweetup will be co-hosting a charity mixer with QBar Bangkok to raise money for earthquake victims in Haiti. So, even if you can’t make it to the conference, if you want to rub shoulders afterwards with some speakers, meet others from around Bangkok, and help raise proceeds for Haiti, come find us there from 8–11pm Saturday, February 13th.

You’re already en route to your thrilling lifestyle so why are you still giving the same way? In the footsteps of Jesus, Ghandi, Spiderman and all four Ninja Turtles, here are three steps to make your giving as revolutionary as your lifestyle.

Stop Giving Only When It’s Convenient

The template lifestyle dictates that you should probably begin thinking about what you can give back a few years before you expect to die. How much have you bought into that mentality? Have you repeatedly postponed giving until you have more money, more stability, and more success? My first big project last year was to design a fundraiser for Bangkok’s Refugee Center. I ended up throwing an art show that provided much needed funds for the center and got more people in the city talking about my initiative. However, had I let the unpredictability of my personal life govern the decision to be involved, it would have been scheduled for 2030. To play a role in social change, we can no longer conceptualize giving the same way we think about clipping our toenails or doing our taxes. Break the mold and transform giving from a mundane task to a part of your thrilling lifestyle.

Embrace Risky Giving

As a society we have bought the idea that giving should be feel good and secure. Sometimes it can be, but we are wrong to believe putting others’ well being before our own will be all smiles and rainbows. My hunch is this is because we’re not giving for the right reasons to begin with. I cringe when I hear, “Give and you WILL RECEIVE.” How much of what you give is steeped in what you’re hoping to receive? Are you doing it so more people will buy your product or read your blog? In reality, the people giving the most are hardly recognized or rewarded. Stop and think about your teachers and I know you’ll get my point. Why then do you expect some selfish reward for doing what we know is right? Really want to be an unconventional giver? Try this:

Give when no one is looking. Give and expect nothing. Be risky, be taken for granted and give purely.

Give From the Bottom of your Hurt

Your parents tried it. You tried it. So where did giving from the heart get us? Well, besides forcing smart non profits and NGOs to scramble, rearranging budgets or compromising their services for overpaid marketers who know how to tap into our vanity. To our detriment we’ve created an environment where cause marketers have to dupe us into repeatedly buying a latte laced with ‘feel good’ to do something noble like saving the rain forest. It works, so everyday we fall out of bed and into line for innumerable magic lattes until we’ve purchased such a monstrous caseload of feel good that we honestly believe we can end poverty without ever changing our daily routine. Nothing wrong with a laced latte, right? But, if you’re reading this it’s because you’ve already fallen off the bandwagon. So I challenge all former bandwagon riders to start giving from the bottom of your hurt. You don’t have to be hungry for long to have enough of an idea of what starving might be like. Likewise, you don’t have to travel to countries where every meal is an appetizer just to realize more should be done to relieve the suffering of those less fortunate than us. Pain is universal. Give when it hurts and because it hurts.

Dwight Turner is the crazy changemaker behind grassroots volunteer organization In Search of Sanuk. Thrilling Heroics Consulting is a regular supporter of ISOS and fully sponsored his December teaching initiative in the Bangkok slums. Find out more about his project and begin your unconventional giving by donating today.

Work where you want… Live how you want… Be who you want to be.

Untemplater is the culmination of nearly four months of hard work with some incredibly cool co-founders: Jun Loayza from Viralogy.com; Adam Baker, nomadic family man at Man Vs. Debt; the philosophically-brilliant Carlos Miceli of OwlSparks; published author and consultant Monica O’Brien; and our rad web developer Andrew Norcross. We’ve also got dozens of fabulous writers lined up—young entrepreneurs, lifestyle designers, digital nomads, and more—who will share their personal stories and guidance on how to design your ideal lifestyle and career.

There are many blogs and books meant to teach and inspire you to leave your corporate existence in order to pursue a venture that you’re “passionate” about. Most of these sites mean well and are inspirational, but they’re written by gurus who’ve already “made it” and aren’t in touch with your reality, or they’re written by pure theorists—people who haven’t actually put their lessons to action—they talk the talk but don’t walk the walk.

Untemplater, on the other hand, is composed of real people who are in the trenches, working hard to live the life that we want to live. It’s not easy, nor is it glamorous. You’ll see our pain, struggles, successes, and failures as we create an existence that we are proud of and enjoy 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

We are MBAs; we are husbands, wives, and fathers; we are scrappy entrepreneurs, authors, and freelancers. We live all over the globe. We’re a small group of unconventional folks who hope to build a thriving community for anyone who ever sought more out of life—and we hope to help you learn how to sidestep the traditional life to find the career, relationships, and lifestyle that makes you come alive!

Grab a Bunch of Awesome Free Shit!

Jump in, read the free download we’ve put together for you that examines the Untemplater lifestyle and shows you six unconventional, remarkable lifestyle case studies.

[Also check out my first feature post at Untemplater to watch my lifestyle design video success story since reading The Four Hour Workweek in 2007]

We’ve also partnered with some incredible folks like Seth Godin, Gary Vaynerchuk, and Chris Brogan to give away tons of great business books, as well as a few $500 seats in Josh Kauffman’s Personal MBA Business Crash Course! Starting tomorrow and for the rest of the week, we will be hosting giveaway contests to win all kinds of stuff, so sign up for our exclusive Untemplater Insider email list and stay tuned to Untemplater.com throughout the week to participate!

Join our rebellion against the status quo at Untemplater and learn how you can Work Where You Want to Work, Live How You Want to Live, and Be Who You Want to Be in 2010.

To all my readers, I wish you a very happy New Year! Last week I shared my Christmas letter to my friends and family and shared a lot of the great things I’ve been fortunate enough to do this year, people I’ve met, and places I’ve seen.

Since this time last year, my visitors, subscribers, and revenue here at Thrilling Heroics have increased fivefold. My photography was published in Frommer’s Bangkok Day By Day guide. I helped my friend raise thousands of dollars for charity and get coverage from CNN. I officially became a regular, paid freelance writer with my staff writer position for SocialMediaMarketing.com. I interviewed social media heavyweight Gary Vaynerchuk. I’ve been involved in planning the TEDx conference coming to Bangkok in February. I traveled throughout Thailand, to Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, and near the Burmese border. I hung out with lots of cool kids that put smiles on my face, I met tons of extraordinary people from around the world.

I even got to spend my Christmas day out sailing with friends in Railay, Krabi (my favorite place) and cooking up a fresh fish dinner!

2009 has been a great year for ThrillingHeroics.com too! The Top Performing Articles in 2009 were as follows:

1. Steal My Blog Design: Announcing the Free ThrillingTheme for WordPress
2. 22 Inspirational Quotes for Living the Rockstar Life
3. 49 Tools for Living the Location Independent Lifestyle
4. Obey the Law Most of the Time (guest post by Colin Wright)
5. How to Turn Your True Fans Into Your Worst Enemies
6. 11 Incredible Positive Thinkers You Should Follow on Twitter
7. Choosing the Life Path Less Taken
8. 10 Travel Ninjas You Should Follow on Twitter
9. 14 Mandatory Manifestos for the Lifestyle Design Journey
10. Reach Your Dreams with Lifestyle Design (video)

[Interesting that half of these results are list posts. I'll definitely come back to the Twitter lists.]

I’ve also become Chief Marketing Officer for an exciting new startup with some truly incredible co-founders—Jun Loayza, Adam Baker, Carlos Miceli, Monica O’Brien and Andrew Norcross. We’re still keeping the project under wraps, but next week we’ll have a remarkable free manifesto for you all about living on your own terms and taking back control of your life in 2010.

I can’t top this 2008 article on how to set meaninful goals and reach your New Year’s resolutions, but on that note here are a few of my goals for the year ahead that I hope to share with you on Thrilling Heroics:

• Successfully build our new startup into a strong community for other twentysomethings that want to create their own “untemplate” lifestyle
• Participate in Josh Kaufman’s 12-week Personal MBA Business Crash Course (we’ll be giving away three free seats in this $500 program with the launch of the new site, so check back on Tuesday)
• Return home to attend the South by Southwest conference in Austin, TX in March, and the Coachella Music & Arts Festival in Indio, CA in April (make a small donation to help me get my SxSw ticket!)
• Increase TH to 50,000 monthly visits, 5000 RSS subscribers, PR 4, and break into the Alexa top 40k sites online with proper market research, SEO, and guest blogging on high-ranking sites
• Re-read Tim Ferriss’ new expanded 4 Hour Workweek and David Walsh’s SourceControl to systematize and automate my businesses as much as possible, and research outsourcing systems to virtual assistants & hiring service providers on Elance
• Spend 1+ months living in at least one of the following: Krabi, Philippines, Bali, Argentina.
• Implement the Bond Body exercise routine
• Increase passive income by releasing my first two ebooks, finding regular advertisers for Thrilling Heroics, getting my exclusive newsletter back up and running, building a portfolio site to showcase my photography, and possibly developing an online nomad school
• Check email only 4x per day at most, continue to eliminate distractions more rigidly, apply 80/20 principle at a regular interval, and increase productivity by applying principles from the 4HWW checklist for example
• Create an updated Dreamline worksheet every 3 months to define & make sure I’m on track to reach my travel & lifestyle goals

What are your goals for 2010? Will this be the year you take back control of your life? What is the one thing you most want to learn to achieve your dreams?

My year abroad has been an incredible experience. Although I miss home and all the people I left behind, I’ve had the time of my life, met fascinating people, been able to do some incredible things, and have grown in many ways. Since I moved to Thailand about 13 months ago, I have largely attained the travel goals I set out for myself and learned the things I’d wanted to learn. I’ve adjusted to the slower pace of life in Thailand, and the more laissez-faire attitude.

Mai Pen Rai

I watch tourists who just landed and can’t relax, can’t get off their Crackberry addiction, and get frustrated when the waitress (who can’t speak any English) gets their special order wrong. As a long-term traveler, you begin to understand the local customs, you learn to go with the flow, laugh at the vast language barrier and frequent mix-ups, take challenges as they come, and basically just enjoy whatever life throws at you. You learn to stop freaking out about misunderstandings, problems, and the unexpected. You learn to have a “jai yen”—a cool heart.

Failures

I failed at quite a few things this year. I attempted (mostly unsuccessfully) to reposition my social web development business to consult mainly with non-profit organizations and social entrepreneurs. I didn’t reach my income goals (not by a long-shot). Quite the opposite, I was very nearly a pauper for a majority of the year! But when you start to make friends, be ready for the right opportunities, and search for alternative ways to do what you want to do, you don’t need a lot of money to live well. Especially in Southeast Asia.

I sold nearly everything I owned last November and have learned to enjoy a minimalist life of simplicity, with few possessions. It’s a portable lifestyle with few distractions that allows me to spend more time concentrating on work, reading, writing, and spending quality time with my friends. I’ve been able to thrive with only about $700–1000 a month in living expenses, transitioned to a cash-only economy, and what money I do earn I typically spend on travel and other experiences, rather than things.

The Unexpected

I’ve had a lot of unexpected growth and unusual experiences. Come to Asia and you’ll see families of five crammed on clumsy motorbikes weaving precariously through traffic, elephants in the streets, quirky red-light districts where students, monks, and prostitutes share the same sidewalk, you’ll eat fried bugs, and much much weirder stuff I’m sure.

I live in the heart of Bangkok, in a building with five of my best friends. I hang out almost daily with a refugee who fled religious persecution in China (but you can call by his name, Ryan!) I pay extra for the fastest “high-speed” DSL in Thailand and spend most of my days at home working on the laptop. I know the minimart owner downstairs, the salon & massage shop owner up the street, and the owner of the wine bar/bistro across the soi. I couldn’t ask for more.

The Fun Part

I’ve dated a few beautiful Thai girls (and picked up a good amount of the language). I’ve dated a few travelers. I got to feel like James Bond. My friend Dwight Turner and I discovered a way to drink beer to benefit charity(!), catalyzed a monthly staple in the Bangkok event scene, and hosted massive parties at posh clubs way out of my league.

I worked with Dwight to develop a strong internet presence for his grassroots Bangkok volunteer organization, and spent a significant amount of time helping raise money, volunteer with kids, and make a difference.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Successes

Thanks to all of you guys, I built a real community of engaged, loyal readers here at Thrilling Heroics, with thousands of RSS subscribers, Twitter followers, Facebook fans, and over 12k+ visitors per month. I rank in the top 60,000 sites on the web, which is quite an accomplishment when you’re competing with thousands of millions.

I’ve experimented quite a bit with my businesses and work. I taught business English to masters’ students at Mahidol University School of Management for five weeks. I currently am involved in organizing the TEDx conference that we’ll be bringing to Bangkok in February, one of my dreams! The last few months, I’ve been working with some awesome awesome partners on an exciting new project/business for the new year (more on that next week).

Some other random stuff I’ve done while traveling this year:

• I climbed over 1,000 steps to reach a temple on a mountain top in Prachuap…



• …where I defended some girls from Coke-addicted attack monkeys.
• I’ve spent an afternoon learning from and sharing a meal with a Buddhist monk.



• I got stranded in the Thai countryside on the way to a friend’s hometown in northeastern Thailand when our car broke down.
• I dragged my parents to Asia and spent 2 weeks living in luxury on the gorgeous beaches of Phuket & Krabi with them.



• I took LOTS of jumping photos!



• I spent my birthday week celebrating at posh rooftop bars that would cost hundreds of dollars back home, and hanging out with gorgeous women!



• I traveled with good friends and saw the Mekong river in Laos, the breathtaking ancient wonder of the world—the Angkor Wat temples in Camobodia—and the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur—two of the world’s tallest buildings.



• I saw the skulls of tens of thousands of victims of genocide and witnessed school classrooms turned into torture chambers.
• I mastered the Asian squat toilet.



• I saw elephants dancing, and went elephant trekking in the jungle.

Click here to view the embedded video.

• I survived political protests in my neighborhood, with automatic gunfire, gasoline bombs, Molotov cocktails, and tear gas flying around.



• I visited home, roadtripped with some close friends from Northern California to the SoCal desert to go to my favorite three-day outdoor music festival—Coachella—to see Paul McCartney, The Crystal Method, M.I.A., The Killers, The Chemical Brothers, Thievery Corporation, Groove Armada, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and more play at the Empire Polo Fields (and we won VIP tickets for life!).



• I discovered paradise.



• I adopted a Thai mom who made us lunch on the beach in Krabi every day.
• I shook hands with people who lost their homes, their jobs, their limbs, and their families in the tsunami.
• I volunteered with a large children’s home in the Thai countryside and took all the kids to the beach in Pattaya.



• I dined on sidewalks and in alleyways for a year.



• I got to meet Chris Guillebeau, Nomadic Matt, Chris “Travelhappy” Mitchell, Chris “MyEggNoodles” Osborne, Jonny Gibaud, Mark Eckenrode, Caron Margarete & Brittany Sims in person. I also spent a lot of time with my blogging buddies Migration Mark and Brooke “Business Backpacker” Ferguson.



• I helped raise and deliver thousands of dollars to two orphanages near the Burmese border…and got to spend some cherished time with one boy a week before he lost his life to a struggle with sickness.



• With a diet consisting mostly of incredibly delicious Thai noodle & rice dishes and fresh papaya salad, I lost about 25 pounds without even trying.
• I added Beijing, Hong Kong, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, and Japan (although I didn’t see more than the airport) to my passport.
• I became close friends with many fun, eccentric Canadian, American, English, Swiss, German, Australian, Mexican, Italian, and Swedish expats—backpackers, climbers, divers, English teachers, aid workers, fundraisers, journalists, photographers, club owners, news editors, UN workers, artists, musicians, resort owners, technologists, lawyers, chefs, investment bankers, refugees, business magnates and beach bums.

Do I plan on quitting the untemplate lifestyle and moving home anytime soon? Hell no. I’ll visit California probably in March and/or April, return here to Thailand (as long as they’ll let me stay), and possibly spend some time in Argentina. More on that next week.

“The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.”

—Ayn Rand

Merry Christmas! Please let me know how your year was with a comment below.

I’ll be missing you all, but hope you have great holidays, and hope you come for a visit in 2010!

Cody McKibben
23 December, 2009
Ao Nang, Thailand

Last week my friend (and one of my co-founders on a new company we’re launching in early January), Monica O’Brien, published her first paperback book, Social Pollination: Escape the Hype of Social Media and Join the Companies Winning At It, and I wanted to give a quick shout for her. The book is a thorough guide to social media marketing for small businesses, entrepreneurs, and PR and marketing folks.

Social Pollination is about how small businesses can and should be using social media – starting with creating goals and strategy, to the optimizing the 12 social media success factors on any platform, to measuring social media ROI, all the way to building a social media team when you see that social media is so much more important than advertising for 2010.

In her introduction Monica explains what the concept of social pollination is, and details several common social media mistakes to avoid—not creating a strategy, thinking the tools themselves are everything, gathering followers versus building a network, being too impersonal, being overly controlling of your community, abusing permission, and more.

She goes on to explain the necessity of using social media, how it is changing the way businesses do marketing, and how to properly share your message in a way that consumers trust.

Monica reviews goals and strategy and shows how social media will help you raise brand awareness, demonstrate thought leadership, create a sales pipeline, increase the loyalty of your community, and give you new avenues for customer support, recruiting, and R&D.

She then breaks down the many different kinds of new media, such as blogs, microblogging, social networks, bookmarking sites, and many other kinds of special-interest site and sites for specific types of multimedia. She describes the importance of building a community founded upon relationships, the psychology behind why people will or won’t share your content, ideas for developing your content, keyword research, on- and off-page search engine optimization techniques, and how to measure and analyze your performance.

If you’re new to promoting your business on social media, check out the book on Amazon. And if you’re curious about the process of writing, pricing, and marketing a paperback, Monica has an interesting behind-the-scenes look at her new book on her blog.

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Additionally, I’ve recently become a staff writer for SocialMediaMarketing.com. You can follow my guest articles there for more about social media marketing strategy if you’re interested. Check out my first few posts at SMM and leave me your feedback:

• Why You Need to Start a Business Blog Now
• The 3 Different Types of Social Media & Why You Need to Use Them
• How Some Airlines Are Failing at Social Media…and Others Are Rockin’
• Social Media is a Blast from the Past

To get you guys thinking like proper renegades, today I share some of the absolute best manifestos I’ve come across. This is my guide to 14 of the best-available ebooks out there—some free and some not—that will help guide you through the long process of branding yourself, creating your own successful freelance business, outsourcing, automating, systematizing, and turning your business into a vast empire with the power of the web, easing into an unconventional nomadic or otherwise remarkable lifestyle and getting the best travel deals while you’re vagabonding around the globe.

Add these to your Christmas gift wish list or use them as stocking stuffers for that special nomad in your life, and check out my page of lifestyle design and digital nomad resources for more tools to help you on your journey.

A Brief Guide to World Domination by Chris Guillebeau

One of the world’s most traveled dudes—Chris Guillebeau of The Art of Nonconformity—offers you a clear alternative to being unremarkably average, giving lessons on how to identify the work you’re most passionate about and how to go about changing the world. Awesome!

Probably the first ebook you should download and consume, right this instant! Download it from The Art of Nonconformity.

New Economy Superstar by Corbett Barr

This isn’t a book about fame or celebrity or making millions. It’s about a new type of success that isn’t reserved for the lucky and well-connected few. This opportunity wasn’t available until just a few years ago, and you’re just in time to take advantage of it. Learn how the biggest opportunity of this generation will make you happy, wealthy and independent!

A great primer for making a successful living outside the corporate career, including interviews with many remarkable people. Download here and visit Corbett at FreePursuits.

Rockstar Personal Branding by Skellie

Personal branding isn’t very different than product branding, except that the entity being branded is you. Just like Nike uses its brand to attach a certain personality and uniqueness to the shoes it sells, your personal brand is made up of the qualities and unique traits you relay about yourself. Your personal brand represents the way you want other people to think about you.

Download for free when you sign up for Rockable Press’ free newsletter here. Also visit Skellie’s great blog Anywired.

The Unconventional Guide to Working for Yourself by Chris Guillebeau

The greatest benefit of self-employment, or even a side project that produces additional income, is personal freedom. When you can take more control of your choices, you’ll experience an independence that money can’t buy. No one will do this for you. If you want freedom, you’ll have to make it happen for yourself. This guide can help.

Let Chris teach you how to create personal freedom through your own very small business. Get the book here.

How to Be a Rockstar Freelancer from FreelanceSwitch

Covering everything from getting started to expanding your business, if you want to start your freelance career the right way, then How to Be a Rockstar Freelancer will give you everything you need to become the best freelancer in town!

Get 212 pages of expert freelancing advice from Collis & Cyan Ta’eed—the founders of FreelanceSwitch. Grab your copy here.

SourceControl by David Walsh

David is an entrepreneur who’s been pushing the limits of outsourcing for years to build projects and create companies—and he’s blown an absurd amount of time and money along the way. Anyone who tells you outsourcing is simple & cheap is lying to you. After all the chaos, the mistakes, the blown budgets and the wasted hours—yes, it’s simple and a massively profitable. Everything leading up to that point is anything but. He’s taken every lesson he learned over the last 3 years and put it into a 160 page, fully annotated, resource-packed book that is everything you need to start outsourcing successfully. No other resource available gives you this level of detail toward leveraging your time and money.

Get this incredible outsourcing framework for the dangerously ambitious from MuseLife genius David Walsh now!

Not By The Hour: A Guide to Making Passive Income from FreelanceSwitch

Streams of passive income can take a bit of work to get started, some even take a little work to maintain, however they are well worth it. Having a steady source of income is particularly useful for a freelancer as it helps mitigate risk and balance out some of the ups and downs of freelancing. Besides who doesn’t want a source of income that keeps generating with or without your input!

Another useful guide from Collis Ta’eed, founder of FreelanceSwitch. Grab this one for free here!

The Zero Hour Workweek by Jonathan Mead

Learn Jonathan’s story of liberation and his journey to getting paid to be himself (by doing what he loves). Discover why the world needs you to do what you love and how to find the intersection between what you’re good at, what you’re passionate about, and what people will pay you to do.

I was honored to be featured as a Zero Hour Case Study for Jonathan’s 0HWW book. Check out some of my thoughts on how to get paid to be you.

How to Be Remarkable by Colin Wright

Colin wrote this book to share some valuable tidbits of knowledge with everyone because he firmly believes that if the world has more inspiring, ambitious and remarkable people we’ll all be a lot better off. John Bardos, Diggy, Kristin Norris, Carol Segrave, Carlos Miceli, Anoush Rima Tatevossian, Amber Rae Lambke, Paul Smith, Christophe Galland, Jenda Michl, Alan Perlman, Sean Ogle, Robert Granholm and JD Bentley all contribute useful lessons to this great compilation.

Download this free ebook from Colin Wright at Exile Lifestyle.

Overcoming the 7 Major Obstacles to Traveling the World by Anil Polat

Anil’s blog series on overcoming obstacles to traveling the world turned out to span 2 months, generated over 100 comments, and had his inbox filled with messages from people who wanted to, had, or were currently overcoming the 7 obstacles themselves. Hear personal stories and advice from other world travelers … and build your knowledge of how to prepare for and sustain long-term travel.

Anil interviewed me to get my personal experience and advice for other long-term travelers too!  Download the book here and visit Anil at foXnoMad.

Life Nomadic: The Life Changing Guide to Travel by Tynan

Life Nomadic is a book that will change the way you think about travel. Rather than think of it as an expensive luxury, you will understand it for what it is: a surprisingly affordable necessity for fully experiencing life. In 2007, Tynan sold everything he owned and began traveling the world. He became a nomad. This book is a collection of the travel strategies, tips, and philosophies that he’s accumulated since then.

Download Tynan’s helpful and revealing guide to the nomadic lifestyle at Tynan.net.

007 Lifestyle: Living Like James Bond by Derek Johanson

This is a definitive guide to living a kick-ass, real lifestyle just like James Bond’s. Derek will share with you the essential ingredients of how he lives the ultimate 007 lifestyle. Follow this guide and you will feel like 007. Your friends will be jealous as they watch you travel the world with ease and take control of women’s hearts effortlessly. You will be able to design a lifestyle that rocks your boat. You will have more options and freedom to pursue your goals and ambitions. You will become a positive influence on others to live happy and fulfilling lives.

You can read more about the ebook and see Derek’s recent MI6 Report where he interviewed me for the 007 Lifestyle series here. Also find Derek at Live Uncomfortably.

How to Make Money with Your Travel Blog by Nomadic Matt

Matt makes over $3,000 dollars a month from his travel websites and has been for many months. That is enough to keep anybody traveling and being a digital nomad for a long time. Even if you don’t want to be a digital nomad, it’s still a nice side income. This ebook has all of his tips, tricks and advice on how to build a successful blog, rank high in Google search results, and how to make money through advertising.

Check out my recent interview with Matt Kepnes and see Nomadic Matt’s Travel Site for more info.

Frequent Flyer Master: Free Travel Anywhere by Chris Guillebeau

Chris has traveled to about 120 countries so far and has roughly 80 more to visit every country in the world. He has a war chest of Frequent Flyer Miles on eight different airlines and all three airline alliances. Between earning and redeeming, over the past year I’ve been through well over half a million miles. My current balance is 676,583 miles in eight accounts. Learn how to go anywhere in the world for nearly free using Frequent Flyer Miles, even if you don’t travel very often.

Chris even guarantees that his book will earn you at least one free plane ticket! Check it out here.

What are your favorite guides for creating a remarkable life? Be sure to check my resources page for more useful lifestyle design and digital nomad resources.

He put all his energy into finding a way to support a long-term traveling lifestyle and now he runs the hugely successful website NomadicMatt.com, where he shares his travel adventures and helps others learn how to live the nomadic life too. Matt recently got back from a long trip to the US for his birthday and then traveling through Spain, France, Belgium, Holland, Sweden and Austria, and I finally had a chance to sit down with him here in Bangkok to get his story about living the mobile lifestyle.

Matt also runs How to Travel and Backpack the World on a Budget and shares how you can earn a reliable income while you travel in his recent ebook How to Make Money with Your Travel Blog, released in May.

In the video below, Matt shares more about his book, as well as:

• What he was doing before he started living a nomad lifestyle & what inspired him to travel
• His travels throughout Thailand, why he loves it here, and some favorite spots
• His favorite city in the world
• How NomadicMatt.com generates $3000+ per month in income
• His philosophy on how to make money online with ebooks, affiliate sales, private advertising and Adsense sites
• About the June 2010 Travel Blog Exchange
• La Tomatina festival in Spain
• and more!

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you’re interested in Nomadic Matt’s ebook, How to Make Money With Your Travel Blog, now is the time to get your hands on it—it’s on sale through Christmas for just $17 (rather than the normal $27). He breaks it into six sections:

1. Starting a Blog—Basic but necessary information about picking a niche (what are you an expert in?), choosing what kind of travel blog to have (there is more than one), and the number of websites to run.
2. Installing Your Blog—All about choosing the right website name, picking a Wordpress theme, and installing SEO plugins.
3. Getting Traffic—How to use sites like Stumble Upon, gain followers, find other bloggers, and use Twitter and Facebook to your advantage to build a community around your blog.
4. Search Engine Optimization—Detailed information about SEO, how it works, site optimization, link building, and where to find those valuable links.
5. Monetizing Your Blog—Covers the main types of advertising, which work best for different sites, how much to charge, and where to find willing advertisers.
6. Putting it All Together—What to expect from all of this and how to best utilize your time.

Or if you want a simpler guide to starting your first site, download his How to Build a Travel Blog guide for just $4.

Find Matt at NomadicMatt.com, on Twitter, and on Facebook. If you have questions, please leave ‘em in the comments, and thanks for watching.