About

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” – St. Augustine

This is a self-improvement have fun blog with travel on the mind. I am currently bicycling to Alaska while trying to build on online business. I want the dream and I want to share with you my trials and tribulations as they happen. I also hope to share some wisdom as it is tested on road and believe me it is being tested!

About Mike

I am a self-help junkie; you know, one of those people that quote Anthony Robbins and acts a bit like Richard Simmons. However, I am still a pretty normal guy, I do not consume organic almond nut butter while sending death vibes to the steak eaters. I am in the continual process of making a better life while still having one foot in joys of western society. I enjoy beer and the occasional chunk of raw flesh; I do recognize the danger yet I don’t believe it is necessary to become a monk in order to find happiness. I do not believe that you must make radical changes in order to become happy. Rather understanding and training the beautiful mind we are graced with can lead us to a better life nearly instantaneously.

The three foundational beliefs of Vagabond: Environment, Action and Focus

I. Environment

Every time I wish to create a positive change in my life I consider the power of environment. This is not necessarily about having a clean desk and a potted plant in the corner but a greater environmental stimulus. This stimulus is mainly the pressure exuded by people and culture you are in. It is also the physical environment you create for yourself, such as a refrigerator full of beer, the marathon you signed up for or the TV you own. I believe that designing and manipulating your environment is crucial to your success in life. Most of us rely on will-power to get through but end give up on ourselves, never understanding how someone like Lance Armstrong can be so amazing. This is what I usually hear, “Wow that guy has some serious will-power, I could never do that” and thus it is true. The secret that they don’t comprehend is the power of positive self-sabotage or what I call sabotaging the saboteur. This means that you anticipate your weakness and you set yourself up for success, maybe that means signing up for a marathon, not hanging out with your alcoholic friend or as simple as removing all the ice cream from your fridge before your 11 pm attack. Designing your environment is a key to being successful in life since it is a thousand times more affective than discipline or will power.

II. Action

Action is what bridges intention and result. I have spent much of my life building mental cathedrals of intention but never picking up a hammer. This is where the rubber meets the road and probably is the weakest link in building a better life. Humans have an amazing ability to create but an incredible lack of drive for action. This, built to dream but slow to act machine, is a function of the animal and human mind clashing, you never see the squirrel with his grandiose vision of copious acorns stashed for winter stop to drink a beer while he fantasizes, no… he just does it. Humans are different; we have an infinite capacity for success coupled with an infinite capacity for failure. This is why some of the most intelligent and creative of us are the most terrified to act. It is often a double-edged sword to be exceptional in any capacity.

What we eat and how we move

Physical health is something that I wouldn’t have had to address 50 years ago and although it is a round peg in the square hole of my three influences it has become such an epidemic that it must be addressed. This category falls under all three influences but I feel it most belongs under action since we need to make a physical choice to change. We need to choose what foods we put in our fridge, choose whether or not to go running before work, choose if we need to keep the kind of friends that bring us unhappiness. Choice is an action and we must learn to flex these muscles in order to facilitate a positive change.

III. Focus

The unhappiest people I have ever met are radically different than the happy ones. This difference as you might guess is primarily due to focus and perception. The happy people choose to interpret life in a much different format. They constantly filter the world with a pair of happy glasses. This filter is often scorned by the more negative or “realistic” as a form of selective blindness. The realistic people see that the world is a dangerous difficult place that we must insulate ourselves from. A place where someone might break into your home and brutally take your life away. This lightning strike way of viewing the world is very damaging to happiness but in small doses it does have it’s value. I wouldn’t run around a golf course club in hand during a thunderstorm or leave my car door unlocked in Tijuana but I also spend as little time as possible in the low yield world of “what ifs.”

The Inverse Paranoid

I am not sure where I first heard this term but it has remained a mantra I carry as a talisman against negativity. A paranoid is someone that believes the world is against them and life is a constant struggle no one can avoid. These are the control freaks and the victims we are or know. The inverse paranoid is the opposite; they believe that everything happens to lift us to greater happiness and success. This belief rips the negativity out of every situation and forces one to reframe every incident. A speeding ticket becomes a lesson that might save ones life. Getting laid off from a job becomes a blessing leading to opportunities one never would have pursued. A knee injury while running leads to cycling and a greater interest in a new sport. The inverse paranoid is a great example of how focus can literally change one’s life merely from perception.

A few more tidbits

Travel and the Vagabond

Why do we travel? Is it to satisfy a deep internal need to shake things up? To grow or experience something new? Maybe it is a reset button on life, a way to reboot from stress. The ying to the yang of work the sparkle in a dull life. Before my trip life was killing me and it was my own fault. It was time to go and the plan is to ride the rollercoaster for a minimum of two years. (Started Aug 5th 2009) Maybe I will continue for two years or maybe not. Maybe I will discover what I am searching for and stop early. I feel I have loosed the boat on the river of life and in doing so have surrendered my need for any specific outcome. I was unhappy and since travel is my passion I am once again in its grip. This very much an exercise in growth but there is also security involved. I work daily to create something greater from my writing.

Having it all, Creating income from thin air

I have another steadily growing website that I started January 2009. I like it very much and I am just beginning to create income off the site. It has not quite matured however I recently launched my first product for sale. Will I be able to create income from my writing? Yes I already have! Not much at this time but others have quit their hourly jobs doing something similar. This is where the term “ready, fire aim” comes into play. My experience learning another language has really hammered this home. Initially trying to learn Japanese I spent the majority of my time trying aiming rather than firing. This was the safe way and I found out later the least effective. The second I removed myself out of my comfort zone and started to fire I could immediately see how far my aim was off. This shortened my learning of the Japanese language radically. Of course in doing it this way you have to have to be ready to experience some humbling moments, you will make mistakes, many mistakes but you will get to your goal a hundred times faster than waiting to be perfect before pulling the trigger.

Stability/Security vs. Growth/Insecurity

There are two major contradictory forces constantly tugging at the human condition, security and growth. They are seen daily in very simple examples, the desire to be in a relationship and the desire to be single. The desire to have a home and the desire to travel around the world. The desire to have a stable job or to be self employed (although I believe the stable job is more of an insecure condition). Unfortunately most people error on the side of security since we are more fear driven creatures than the converse. We sit in our security and order up some canned safe insecurity on TV or a weekend at a campground in a RV. I am not saying this things are wrong but I hope to impress upon you that the world really is not that dangerous and you getting you excitement/growth fix is as simple as getting your passport and figuring out how to spend a month in Panama learning to surf. This is living… this is growth and it is far less difficult and dangerous than you could ever imagine.

Language and learning

Right now August 2009 I am 36 and feel full of life. I attribute this to hanging out with young people, exercising religiously and constantly learning. Learning has been the greatest gift ever presented to me, a beautifully wrapped present I slowly get to open the rest of my life. The Passive stimulus of Media and TV garbage has fallen away from my life more because I am constantly learning and creating rather than a disdain for it. Learning is exercise for the brain, literally… and the greatest training of all is learning another language. The brain is just like any other organ and if it is not actively challenged it will conform to the shape of the known, closing paths of curiosity never to be used again. My experience as a language teacher in Asia drove this point home, I could see the radical decrease in language acquisition related to age. I remember clearly seeing a cut off of in language ability after the age of thirty. Being close to 30 at the time I thought all was lost! My brain would calcify with age, never to learn Portuguese, Chinese or even Spanish! Then I met a 45-year-old woman who learned English faster than any student I have ever met. Fascinated I asked her secret. She spoke no less than five languages, not to mention was into sports that would make a 20-year-old quake. The brain has the ability to stay young and I plan on taking full advantage of this. I will pick up at least two more languages before I am 40 and I hope to encourage you to do the same. There is nothing quite as fulfilling and wonderful as being able to sit around a table, laughing in a foreign tongue while sharing the local food and spirits. Hands down the best memories I posses.

Sharing and teaching to learn

We all have a need to be a part of things, to contribute, to give. Since I have felt a student of happiness most of my life I am very reluctant to say that I am qualified to teach it. However, in talking to most people I realize I have something to offer. Possibly it is a little nugget that will take them to the next stage in their growth or the sharing of a story in which I grew. In connecting and giving to others I become part of creating a better world as well as learning more myself. As a teacher I find that my learning is accelerated even more as I become accountable to my readers. I am forced to really look deep into what I believe so that I can share it with others. This is something that I hope you can take advantage of as well. There is no better way of learning than to teach.

I desire most to use my blog as a vehicle of personal growth and a way to contribute to the world I love so much. I hope you are willing to take the journey with me.

Mike Masters

Fulltimevagabond@gmail.com

“Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things – air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky – all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it.” – Cesare Pavese