Travel and the Contrarian Lifestyle

I’m going to Mexico for two months this summer. For a dozen different reasons, that will make some people gasp, especially those who haven’t been there and those who watch TV half the day and night. The second part will confirm to many that I am a genuine nutcase: my family is going with me.

But I don’t really care what those people think because if I lived my life the way they lived theirs, I wouldn’t have circled the globe three times, taught English in Turkey and Korea, bought real estate in a foreign country, or gotten to the point where I can make my own living without depending on anyone else for a paycheck. Instead I’d be shackled to a home I can barely afford stuffed with things I don’t really need, have a car payment or two, and be either worried about an impending pink slip or stressing that this is a terrible time to be looking for a job.

“The way it’s done” is not for me, so I don’t expect the masses to get it. I’ve lost count of how many times people have said, “Wow, I wish I could do that.” Well, they could, they just don’t. Their priorities are elsewhere.

The thing is, those of us who have chosen a contrarian lifestyle are looking pretty smug and smart right now. Stretching to buy more house than you can afford isn’t looking too bright, but slackers who rented (and those of us who bought modestly) aren’t so phased by a bursting bubble. I pointed out in this 2005 article that buying real estate abroad was far less risky than buying at home. Those who traveled and built up adaptation and problem solving skills are probably weathering this economic storm better than those who built a very narrowly defined career path in say, investment banking or derivatives packaging. Does a career path even make sense anymore? Does a company job? A college major? Grad school?

I deal with the contrarian travel part mostly on this blog, but there are others that focus more on the contrarian lifestyle part. Here are a few good places to add to your RSS reader if you want some inspiration.

1) The Art of Nonconformity says it all in the title and the man is on my wavelength with a post like this: Why you should quit your job and travel around the world. He has a great story to tell and his posts are both thoughtful and thought-provoking. A testament to the power of saying, “Screw all that” and envisioning what can be.

2) Tim Ferris is the author of The Four-Hour Workweek and although I haven’t managed to work fewer hours since I read his book and interviewed him, I have managed to spend more hours on creative work I like and many fewer hours on drudgery things I don’t value or enjoy. In other words, it helped me learn to value my time properly and adjust my life accordingly. He has become wildly successful preaching the idea of designing your lifestyle the way you want to live it and yes, traveling more to grow more. See the Four-hour workweek blog for an eclectic batch of musings, interviews, and advice.

3) I have often recommended Rolf Potts’ Vagabonding book as one of the essentials for any first-time round-the-world traveler to pick up (it’s even shows up packaged together with The World’s Cheapest Destinations on Amazon). Rolf is adept at looking at the lifestyle side of travel, the decisions we make to go down this path, and how we can come out a better person for it. He only pops in every week or two on his Vagabonding blog now, but his regular writers there are on the same page in terms of philosophy.

4) Jonathan Fields is the author of Career Renegade and his awake@thewheel blog is about the crossroads of work, life, entrepreneurship, and play. He’s after my own heart with this excerpt of “Life’s what happens when you’re busy making Tweets”

Comes a point where talking about what’s going on in the world, even with great people, supplants participating in what’s going on in the world.

And, no doubt, while I love the connection that certain technologies like twitter, Facebook and social media afford me, I’m also increasingly aware of it’s ability to become not only a time-sink…but a life sink.

Many of the above have something to do with entrepreneurship since when you run your own show, you control your own schedule. But there’s nothing wrong with working to save then not working at all. So one last thought. If you don’t think you have the financial ability to leave your current straightjacket and get out into the world, check out this post: How I saved $10,000 in 10 months (at an entry level job). The guy made $2,400 a month and lived in Los Angeles to boot. Now he’s somewhere in South America.

What’s holding you back?

If you have other contrarian lifestyle blogs you like, add them to the comments below.