Lifestyle Strategies, Travel, Adventures--Todd's Wanderings

Lifestyle Strategies

Proof it All Works Out in The End

Sep 052011

I think apologies are in order. No, no, not you to me. I owe YOU an apology. I thought I was being honest with you You see, I have always tried to tell you the truth about my life. I have tried not to hold anything back…even my finances. I thought I was revealing myself through my wit and story craft By giving you Travel Narratives I thought my personality would shine through when you read about my adventures in far off lands (well far off for you). I worked hard to embarrass myself, or share stories that might get me fired from work, accounts of when I almost died, and even times when I have saved others from dieing. I thought that you would get updates on my Facebook Page You see, I started my Facebook Page to help fill in the gaps here in on my website. There Read full article…

How I Paid for 12 Years of Continuous Travel

Feature, Lifestyle Strategies 104 Responses »

Aug 122011

How I Paid for 12 Years of Continuous Travel

Recently a number of people have written me to ask EXACTLY how I have been able to travel the world for the past 12 years. After reading a friend’s wonderful post explaining in detail how he has traveled for over 10 years as well at Wandering Earl (yes, people with Wandering names have to stick together) I decided to post my own account. For those of you who don’t know my background, I left the US in 1998 to visit Japan. Coming from a middle class family, it was my first time on an airplane and I was 21 years old! Over 40 countries (I’m sure I’ll forget to mention a few below) and various different jobs later I’m still on the road, now with my wife and my recently born son. WARNING: This is a long post. For word nerds, it is exactly 2,382 words long. For time nerds, Read full article…

How to Manage Uncertainty- Don't

Lifestyle Strategies, Planning 34 Responses »

May 232011

When life kicks you in the teeth, smile back. When life gives you a present, good or bad, say thank you. When life changes, accept it as the one rule in life that never changes, things change. This is not meant to be an inspirational post, if it gets wishy washy then I give you permission to click away, shut down your computer, and walk away. Actually, if it’s a nice day out, go ahead and take a walk now, I’ll still be here when you get back. Things change. Life changes. We change. Our significant others change, our family changes. Jobs come and go. You get the point. But how do we manage all this change? Uh, er, did you read the title? We don’t manage the change, we should just accept it, adapt to it, and move on. I know, easier said than done. But if nothing else, Read full article…

Lifestyle Design the Logical Way

Feature, Lifestyle Strategies 30 Responses »

Feb 072011

It’s difficult to imagine our perfect life. It is surprisingly harder than one would think at first. If you had the chance, could you do it? Could you design your perfect life? Lifestyle Design is a term created by Tim Ferris in his wildly popular The 4 Hour Work Week. I had never actually heard any about the Lifestyle Design World when I started blogging here at Todd’s Wanderings, even though I had already Designed my perfect life. The funny thing about designing your perfect life, is that it’s a non stop process, you are never done. Freedom of Time and Freedom of Location I came to the conclusion during my Shikoku Pilgrimage that my ideal life was one of freedom, where I was free to engage in my passions, and following my interests. That led me to San Francisco, then Timor-Leste, Sri Lanka and currently Kosovo. I love my Read full article…

Want a location independent life? 23 ebooks and courses to help you

Lifestyle Strategies, Travel Product Review 4 Responses »

Nov 302010

Want a location independent life? 23 ebooks and courses to help you

This is a very different post than I normally write. I was planning to write about my new website that I’m about to launch called the Travel Blog Challenge, along with the 1000-1000 Blog Challenge experiment. But since the website and the challenge are geared toward helping all us wayward travel bloggers gain more visitors and earn more from our websites I decided I needed to let you know about a great sale going on that lasts only 72 hours (well 48 hours as of time of posting, it ends at 10am EST on December 2). I’ll write about the Challenge next post. OK, so basically there is a huge sale where you can buy 23 Business Courses and Ebooks for only $97 that would normally cost $1,052 if you bought them separately. I’m usually skeptical about these types of things and I passed over the links to this for Read full article…

6 Amazing Travel Bloggers

Business of Blogging, Lifestyle Strategies 65 Responses »

Nov 162010

I don’t do this often enough. Usually I’m tooting my own horn, or at least the horn of a destination or event. Today is a day to give back, to highlight 6 of my favorite travel bloggers. Each of these writers has inspired me and my development of Todd’s Wanderings in a different way. I’m also proud to call them my friends. Well, friends that I’ve never met face to face. But friends that I talk to more often than my friends back home thanks to the addictive power of twitter, facebook and RSS feeds. OK, OK, friends might be too strong a word, but what else do you call an obsessive compulsion to read everything about someone on the internet, check out where they are day in and day out, and spy on their conversations with others in the bushes of a comment box? For those of you humming Read full article…

5 Steps to World Travel and Getting Paid to Do What You Love

Lifestyle Strategies 98 Responses »

Nov 102010

(Warning: there are no pretty pictures in this post. You’ve been getting distracted too easily recently and this is important) Shhhhhh, come closer. I have a secret. Many of you may think you know me through my blog. I try to be open, transparent and honest about my life on the road. But I still have secrets. Recently people have begun to associate me with the recent trend of travel and lifestyle bloggers who have dumped their corporate world and stifling cubical for the freedom of the open road. It’s a compelling story, a dream of millions. It tugs at the emotional triggers of the reader for a life of endless beach cocktails, far away romances, and awe inspiring moments as you stand in center of a 10,000 year old monument, feel the ancient dirt shift between your feet, breath in the scent of accumulated history and finally make a Read full article…

The Happiness Chart (psst It's really simple)

Feature, Lifestyle Strategies 37 Responses »

Oct 202010

The Happiness Chart (psst It's really simple)

The Happiness Chart The Lifestyle Strategies section is all about helping you find your perfect life, showing you there are alternatives to what everyone else implies life should be (no one says it out loud). Being happy is probably the most important measure of a perfect life. If we don’t love what we’re doing, who we spend our hours, days, minutes with, how can we expect to treat others well or help make the world a little better? May people have told me to grow up, stop being so naïve. Life is harsh, it sucks sometimes and you have to just bear it and move on. True, but move on to what? You also have a choice to work hard to not fall into a pattern you’re not happy with. It may sound selfish but our own happiness is the most important thing. Without it how can we hope to Read full article…

Use Travel to Make You Happy

Lifestyle Strategies 12 Responses »

Aug 192010

I know, it seems rather intuitive and obvious. On the surface it may be. After all why would we do things that don’t make us happy. But I meet a surprising number of people who aren’t happy. Some people think that travel is the answer to their happiness. Other people think settling down, having a steady job and a house will make them happy. Others think making an extra $1,000 USD a month will allow them breathing room to feel happy. If you are already happy with your life this post may not be for you. Then again you will be happy enough to continue reading as well Last week a collective atomic bomb was dropped on the travel blogging and lifestyle design community. I consider myself a part of both, and yes there really is a Lifetyle Design sector (although I use Lifestyle Strategies). The bomb was released by Gadling Read full article…

Enough about ME let's talk about You!

Lifestyle Strategies 9 Responses »

Jul 302010

Instead of highlighting a Travel Photo this Friday I’ve decided to do something completely new, I want to highlight YOU. I can talk about myself and my travels forever, well at least I have been doing it for the past three years. Now it’s time to hear from each of YOU and to start getting to know each other. This is the first Blog Party (think Block Party without the pony and clowns) here on Todd’s Wanderings, with hopefully many more to come in the future. Note, this idea comes from my friend and fellow writer Alexis Grant over at The Traveling Writer. Please do go and check her site out. So, what is a Blog Party? That’s a great question! Basically it’s a chance to tell us who you are, what you do, and where we can find you. It’s a way for us to meet each other, discover areas Read full article…