The Art of Nonconformity
Source: Robin J Psychic at flickr
Chris Guillebeau, who I hope to meet one day in some exotic foreign locale, runs a very successful blog called The Art of Nonconfomity. He has a very ambitious personal goal – to visit every country in the world in the next four years. He’s well on his way, having already visited 117 countries out of a total of 197. Of course some places are going to be very difficult to visit – such as Cuba, North Korea and Iran. So my personal opinion is that he’ll easily come very close to his goal – say 190 countries – but be stopped from attaining the whole thing by political and military unrest in some places. He’ll do the whole list eventually. It’s fascinating to watch.
Chris makes me want to dream big though. Bigger than I have been dreaming. My goal is to be able to spend 6 months a year in a warm country such as Spain, and still live a comfortable life back in Canada for the other 6 months. That’s not exactly reaching for the stars when compared to “visit every country in the world in 4 years”.
No doubt when Chris reaches his goal, he will set an even bigger one for the next few years of his life. He’s lived his life so far dreaming big, and there’s no reason for that to stop once he’s reached his goal.
So how can I dream any bigger? What can I do that I would become known for? When they speak at my funeral (hopefully at least 80 years from now), what will my friends and family say about me? “He went to Spain 6 months a year.” Um, I don’t think so.
I guess I’m not ready to think big enough. I’ll be perfectly happy just to be sitting with my toes in the pool in Spain, working on my tan and drinking a cerveza, not having a care in the world for a few months. Maybe what I need to do (bigger) is learn to be fluent in both Spanish and Castillian, and move my way slowly around the Mediterranean edge of Europe until I speak fluent French and Italian too. Fluent in four new languages in two years, now that would be “big”.
(Take a look at Chris’ eBooks at The Unconventional Guides.)
Note: Purchasing Chris’ book through that link earns sabbatical.me a bit of revenue, to help fund my next sabbatical. Thank you in advance.
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This is great! Thanks for the props. It sounds like you’ve got some big plans of your own – yes, four languages in two years certainly counts.
I look forward to seeing what develops in your own unconventional journey.
-cg