In a previous article, I gave some advice on how to succeed in traveling abroad: here is the article. In this article, I will share my experience and some tips to help you succeed in your travel project. Some advice may be quite extreme, but nothing comes without sacrifice.
Your choices shape your life
I will explain how my life choices have shaped my daily life: “3615 my life”.
When I returned from my world tour in May 2009, I was determined to leave again at the end of 2014 for a world tour during my 30th year. So I made choices that guided my life.
With no money upon my return, I decided to find a job since I had studied and hold a master’s degree in the industrial field.
Five months after my return, in September 2011, I started a new job at a consulting firm. For 6 months, I fell into a ROUTINE and a comfortable life where my work was the most important thing to me.
It was during this period that, deep down, a sense of lack gradually appeared. The fact of NO LONGER BEING IN CONTROL of one’s DECISIONS or having to endure those of others, working for someone else and being secure in a company is fine, but I wanted something else like when I was traveling.
So I decided to abandon my daily routine: watching American series (at least 8 hours per week), playing video games (3 to 4 hours per week), going out to see friends or seeing my girlfriend less. I took this time to create this blog at the end of February 2012. The goal was to develop a blog with an audience to find partners for my future trip in 2014.
I now had a GOAL and a PROJECT in my life. Then, I worked tirelessly for the first 6 months on this blog (35 hours per week after work, 100 articles in 4 months, now I have 220). After the 4th month in June 2012, I started to get the first partnerships which coincided with the arrival of a Google algorithm that penalized press releases. Blogs were going to be increasingly solicited by SEO agencies.
So in the months before, I created blogs (sites), 1 additional site in May 2012, then 4 sites in July 2012, 6 sites in August and September 2012. I have about 25 sites since April 2013. I now earn enough money to travel as I wish, which allowed me to travel for just under 3 months in 2013 (Bali, Dubai, Germany, China, Brazil, Lisbon, and Burma. I am aware, however, that this is short term.
Meanwhile at work, I had only one idea: to develop my web entrepreneur activities, I took advantage of every lunch break to work on my personal project and eat in 5 minutes with food I had prepared the day before. My motivation was such that it affected my professional duties daily. While my internet activities were developing rapidly, my professional career stagnated and I was given fewer and fewer responsibilities because I was not involved and did the bare minimum but it was MY CHOICE.
To date, the company where I work and I will come to an agreement to terminate my contract by mutual agreement. This suits me, to be honest, because I will leave with a few months’ salary while I had planned to leave a few months later to undertake THE TRIP for which I have worked these last two years.
Be ready to leave everything or go all in
After telling you my little story, I want to ask you: What are you ready to do to realize your project?
- Your personal project may be your career (not everyone wants the same thing) and in that case, give it your all but be careful about the lack of recognition for your work. I know several people around me who have responsibilities and whose work has taken up too much of their life and they feel suffocated.
- In my case currently, it is traveling that I want to fully commit to, but for you, it could be another project such as starting a business, creating a family, or any other activity you want to do.
Everyone is free to do what they want but take a step back on your situation.
How did I take this step back?
People often tell me: “you travel often” or “you are different.” If you read the article, you saw that it was not always easy.
YES, NOTHING IS SIMPLE otherwise everyone would know and everyone has a past behind them but we are all capable of changing our life if we want to.
You must not give yourself “ANY FALSE REASONS” such as “I have no money,” “I have no time,” “I have no motivation to do it alone,” etc.
- Everyone is master of what they do and if you have come to this point, it is thanks to you or even because of you.
- Take stock of what you really want.
- Think about what you are ready to do to achieve it and especially what you are ready to SACRIFICE (your time, your girlfriend, your professional career, etc.).
- Weigh the pros and cons. Maybe your situation is satisfactory and even if you are not satisfied, you cannot do otherwise because you have, for example: rent to pay, a girlfriend, a loan, etc. You are not ready to make a sacrifice so it will take time and your project may not come to fruition.
- Making choices also takes a lot of time. It took me 6 months before really starting.
- Get information about people who have done the same thing and on the internet (Internet should be taken with a grain of salt). Staying informed is essential and a guarantee of success.
- Stop having preconceived ideas and open your mind and learn to learn :D. For example, I am often asked “do you have webmaster training to make your sites?” No, I learned everything from scratch. Or “you have easy contact” or “you are multilingual, it’s easy,” not really, I participated for two years 1 to 2 times a week in meetings to speak other languages. Practice makes perfect.
There is no miracle recipe and those who have succeeded made choices at some point in their lives that conditioned their success.
And you? Will you be ready to make these sacrifices and leave everything to realize your dream?
