In that time we covered 4 countries (Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam & Cambodia), explored 14 cities and encountered countless new people (tourists & locals) while coming to terms with the new cultures and centuries of history.

This time has opened my eyes to the power of travel to transform our lives, in part by leaving elements of our identity behind and absorbing new ones on the road.

A large part of our identity is where we live, who we surround ourselves with and what we do day-to-day. When travelling, particularly over a longer term, we abandon these external influences on who we are and instead can focus on who we truly are as a person.

We often leave behind some of our habits, be they good or bad.

You may change your sleep patterns – becoming an early riser to ensure a productive day of sight seeing. Or instead you may transform into a laze-about. Sleeping all day, or at least till you shake off that hangover from a night of mingling with new friends.

It may be spending habits. Although travel can be expensive, chances are you will leave behind your poor daily spending habits. Without your regular coffee shop nearby you skip the $4 morning pick me up, do not succumb to the fast food temptations.

Your daily exercise habits, or as is more often the case lack of exercise, is often thrown out the window. The daily commute and hours behind a desk can be replaced with exploring a new city by foot, mountain hikes and bike tours. Be aware the temptation however to lounge by the beach or pool and work on your tan the whole time.

Let’s not forgot diet either. When traveling it can at times be easier to eat healthy, your regularly on the move so you tend to grab quick easy and unhealthy snacks. Or you can slow down a little and eat as the locals do – the healthy ones at least. I’m shamed to admit its a rare day when I indulge in fresh fruit but it was so abundant and cheap in most cities that I simply couldn’t ignore. Though I had a few cheat days I was for the most part eating local healthy food from small family restaurants and the awesome street vendors (particularly in Thailand).

As you travel take time to realise the bad habits you have successfully left behind and ensure you do not fall back into them once you return. From the small things like not checking your watch every 5 minutes

Also be aware of bad habits you may be picking up whilst exploring the world. For many travel brings out the inner cheapskate

Travel can be a powerful catalyst for life change because the act of travel effectively throws out the script of our daily lives.

Re-asses values, different perspectives and belifes as you are confronted by new ways of life – cultures and experiences. Most importantly enjoy yourself. Travel is an amazing thing.

—

While on my trip I managed to tick off a few more of my lifetime goals – you can see my updated list here and subscribe by RSS or email updates to see the upcoming posts about my travel experiences.

“If you can’t convince them, confuse them.” – Harry S. Truman

Or as my old teacher said – “If you cant dazzle them with brilliance, then baffle them with bullshit.”

In interviews politicians and the like dance around a question for hours with bullshit and bravado, like a bullfighter taunting and teasing the interviewer. Never standing directly in the way of the question, waving their red cape around in a flurry and simply stepping out of the way when necessary.

Their are no simple straight answers, they dart off on a tangent – “Well poisoned apples being sold to the public is a important issue, equally important is my mothers oranges. They are so delicious and make great juice.” Yes I’m sure they are, but we were talking about deadly apples, not delicious oranges.

When dealing with a salesman there is more bullshit. Doing a deal really means surrounding this deal with so much shit, you wont see the giant pile of it that your about to pay for then step in and trample all through your house.

In the increasingly likely event they really don’t know about the product the salesman will throw out some shit they think you want to hear… “It’s a bargain, I don’t know how long it will last at this price”. The answer is until some other sap buys it or the boss tells the salesman to change the price.

And when a blogger doesn’t post for the better part of a month he writes a quick little post like this hoping people wont notice the absence and everything will return to normal.

Take it easy on the bullshit, regular programming will resume later this week.

—

In my absence I have ticked off another goal, I have now read two of the most famouslly daunting novels Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand and Ulysses by James Joyce.

Perhaps more importantlly I am polishing my second short story, Dark Charity, which will be available for public consumption soon enough.

I had well over 50 drafts in various stages of completion (from a few lines of notes, to dot pointed outlines and a few 600+ word drafts).

Basically it could have been as much as a years worth of blog posts. However something went horribly wrong!

No my hard drive did not crash losing all of it.

Instead I woke up and realised that the vast majority of them were mediocre. The topics were boring or just incredibly generic and could already be found on thousands of other blogs.

That is not pushing myself as a writer. Worst of all its cheating you as a reader.

Only great writers and musicians can get by rehashing old favourites, presenting their early stories and doing covers. Even that gets old.

So I’m getting a little drastic. I deleted a whole bunch of drafts, about 15 or 20. Another 10 to 15 have joined forces to create a few super posts that you will see over the next few weeks.

I cant promise A+ material all of the time, I will do my best, some of the remaining drafts will be slipped in here and there. Beside sometimes the filler posts make you appreciate the ones that are truly killer. Ssometimes the good ideas just seem to vanish from my head and I need something on stand by.

—

In other news I have recently ticked off one of my ultimate goals and made progress on a few others.

I got to meet Neil Strauss my favourite author who inspired me, more than any other writer, that maybe I can share my stories with the world. It was his last book signing for Emergency before he returns to a hectic writing schedule. He has about three books in the works, plus others with the company he runs. Neil shared some great stories with the crowd, gave me some solid advice and

I also just finished reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand which was part 1 of a 2 part goal to read two of the greatest and most lengthy books in the English language. The other half is to read Ulysses by James Joyce. If I can tackle them both then I can read anything. I really enjoyed reading Atlas Shrugged, its an intimidating book, with a lot of characters and covers a lot of sensitive issues, but I would recommend it to everyone. There are a lot of haters of the underlying philosophy and message of Rand’s novel (I don’t agree with all of it) however I’m sure that those who rant about it failed to reach the end of the novel.

You can see the other progress in the updated Ultimate Goals page.

—

Many thanks for reading and sharing my journey so far.

Bill

There is nothing particularly wrong with that. However I have also been one of those people who also gives up when I believe perfection is out of reach or very hard to come by.

It is better to achieve something good and fall short of perfection, than to strive only for perfection and give up, achieving nothing.

Good can be polished to perfection, nothing will always be just that.

Shooting Blanks

I had been trying to lower my expectations for several years now, but they were still too high. Sadly I have given up on many projects and goals because I did not believe I could achieve the lofty expectations that I set.

But at last I think I have an answer where I can still aim for perfection but, more importantly, get things done.

Loaded Gun Seeks Target

The answer came from Chris Guillebeau over at The Art of Non-Conformity who introduced me to the Ready – Fire – Aim approach to getting things done.

Essentially it is about launching despite the fact things are not perfect. Once your product is out in the real world collecting experience then you can fine tune and perfect it.

I don’t think this model is always ideal but generally it is a superb way of doing things, testing and then making final tweaks to get the right result.

The First Shot

If it weren’t for this method I may have never finished my ebook. It’s not to say it is majorly flawed, I’m sure there are quite a few spelling mistakes and I may repeat myself in a few places, but all the information that I believe should be included is there. Once I get more feedback I will polish it up to near perfection. Ready – Fire – Aim.

Had I follwed my usual method I would have continued to obsess and worry over the book for many more months, possibly even years. Stressing over minor things and failing to put the book out there for people like you to benifit from now.

That is how the method works. You get your product ready (write it), get it out in the real world (give it away or sell it), then get feedback and improve it.

It’s incredibly simple yet effective way to get out of your own and take action.

Further Reading

Chris Guillebeau’s post The Plan of Attack was my inital introduction. If you are a fellow writer, blogger, artist or are looking to expand your influence using social media you should definetley read Chris’ brand new manifesto, ‘279 Days to Overnight Success‘. It shows in just under 80 pages how, in ten months, he has built an incredibly succsesfull blog, landed a book deal and become a full time writer with a healthy income. Best of all, its free.

Another superb introduction is Brian Clark of Copyblogger’s post ‘The Ready, Fire, Aim, Reload Strategy for Social Media Success‘. I like his addition of Reload to the mix, reminds me to keep working on the next project.

Finally if you’d like to read more, I present the book that inspired it all - Ready, Fire, Aim: Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat by Michael Masterson.

So no more excuses, go ahead pick some big targets and start shooting.

After my recent posts about the rivalry between the worlds most famous inventors and ideas, I began thinking about major achievements/advancements and how they come about.

Competition is something that brings out the best in most people. We push ourselves that little further in a race than we would just training on our own.

Whether it is the thrill of a sporting victory, a little challenge between friends, cutthroat business competition or the dire need for military supremacy, the drive to win often leads to excellence.

Nation Vs. Nation

Look at the tremendous achievements that were made during times of war and competion between two or more countries.

The space race between Cold War superpowers the US and the USSR is a perfect example. Do you think the US or the Soviet Union would have pushed as hard to make it to the moon if they weren’t competing? Of course not. Look at how space exploration has slowed since the collapse of the Soviet Union. America and Russia now work together and advancements have declined along with government funding to suport them.

Other technologies such as the internet, GPS, satelites, radar and much more may never have been invented had it not been for times of conflict and compeition between nations. Even the humble Duct Tape was developed for the US military in WWII to protect ammunition boxes from mousiture and other elements.

Racing Ahead

As a motorsport fan it is easy to see how the technological battle by teams in Formula 1, rallying and Le Mans (endurance racing) have contributed so much to road cars.

Traction control which keeps you safe comes from rallying and Formula 1, keeping you safe in bad conditions such as snow and rain while the teams push for faster cornering speeds than their rivals.

Le Mans teams are pushing the limits of diesel and bio-fuel use to get the advantage over other teams – pioneering technology that will make for cheaper and more environmentally friendly motors in the cars we buy.

With some of the worlds brightest minds in Formula 1 developing KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems) this year it is belived they could help pioneer technology that could possibly enable people to power their house from electricity generated by driving their car.

Breaking Windows?

If there was no competition for Microsoft do you think they would bother improving Windows at all? They could charge whatever they liked, neglect updates and perform minimal development for new editions.

Instead Apple, Linux and others push Microsoft to improve its operating system.

The Sound of Silence Competition

Look at the music world. Great acts like The Beatles, Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys and many more battled it out in the charts year after year. They were rivals but they also respected and learnt from each other. They mutually inspired one another to create better music.

The same rivalry (though sadly with violence) can be seen in more recent years in the rap game. What started with the West Coast (Tupac Shakur and Death Row Recrods) versus East Coast (The Notorius B.I.G and Bad Boy Records) feud has continued. Beefs, disstracks and wars of words have pushed artists (and record sales) to outperform and outsell each other.

Smartest and the Fastest

Were you ever the smartest kid in the class? It can get pretty lonely and boring at the top and you can easily become complacent and lose focus on your study. But if you have a few smart classmates competing for that A+ you can be sure you will stay on track and keep improving.

Perhaps you were the star athlete instead. Many of the worlds best athletes were not the best as a child, they were obviouslly gifted but they were challenged by others who pushed them to train harder and develope their natural talents.

Wrtiting Race

I had wasted far to many months writing my ebook, or at least sitting at a computer pretending to write Dream Work Experience and getting nowhere.

That was until I challenged fellow blogger and soon to be ebook author Arun to finish writing our ebooks by a March 31st deadline.

I’d previouslly set a few deadlines for myself to get the book finished and while they helped me get more done, the concrete bet sealed the deal. Wheras previouslly I had been lucky to write 1000 words in a month, in the final week of March I managed to write almost 6,000 words while re-organising the structure and creating a nice read-able layout.

Who is your competion? Who pushes you to achieve?

If you havent got any provoke some competion. I knew Arun and I were both working on a similar task so I proposed a little rivalry. Youll be amazed at what a little friendlly competion can do for you productivity.

I just ticked off one of my ultimate goals by writing an ebook about how you can get the work experience or internship of your dreams.

Several years ago I ticked off a number of other goals by gaining work experience in high school and then again in college (or TAFE here in Australia) with two of the worlds greatest racing teams – so it feels like things are coming slightlly full circle.

I’ve been working on this ebook for over a year now – I spent about 5 years before then studying, experementing and getting my hands dirty figuring this stuff out.

I have slowlly written the book that I wish someone had given me 6 years ago.

Instead I can save you the hardwork.

This ebook takes you through everything step by step with plenty of examples and unconventional stratergies your parents and teachers have not told you about. Quite simply it will give you an unfair advantage over everyone else applying for work experience.

Here is a link to the first chapter of the ebook, it tells the story of my work experience oportunities including working with an 8 time world champion.

Download the Dream Work Experience sample chapter. Right click, Save Target or ‘Save link as’. File is in PDF format and will open in Adobe Reader.

If youre in high school, college or university and want to kick-start your career with some incredible work experience and continue on to a great job then I trully belive you should get a copy. Click here for more information.

If this is not your thing, thats cool. Come back in a few days and well resume regular programing.

Have a great day and achive your dreams,

Bill

P.S. It’s April Fools here in Australia as I write, but this is no joke. I had planned to be finished yesterday but things always take a little longer than expected. I’d been writing this for over a year now but got more done in the last month and particuarlly more in the last week than the previous 11 months.

The power of a deadline is amazing. If you want to get something done set a deadline, tell people about it and then work like mad to get there.

As I have previously mentioned the catalyst for these came about from my struggle with illness in my early teens. At the time I had little reason to live except the love of my family and my dreams.

I had plenty of time to think over what I would do with my life if I was ever going to get better. Gradually I wrote a list of all the things I would do – big and small. They all seemed so impossible, but as time went on my focus on achieving them became more and more intense.

The First Goal and Onwards

The first goal on that list was to get better. And by September 2001 I was on my way to getting there as the World Trade Center towers collapsed on the 11th. While America and the world was brought to its knees I was slowly regaining the use of mine and the rest of my body. Pushing myself through an agonising and time consuming rehabilitation after being confined to bed for almost 18 months.

With each little goal I ticked off along the way in my rehab, small things like walking or writing for just 10 minutes, my resolve and belief that I could complete other goals increased.

After I could swim for an hour, walk for 30 minutes and eventually return to school full time I turned my attention to what remained on the list.

I quickly ticked off my next goal – to have my writing published in a newspaper. It was only fitting that the story published in my local paper, the Bendigo Advertiser, was about the terrorist attacks.

In the years since then I have slowly been working through that list, achieving some, adding and removing other goals. Now its time to share it with you, I have a few reasons for finally doing so.

Why?

First of all is the somewhat selfish reasons, to keep myself accountable and in the hopes of attracting some help and accomplices for some of my more difficult goals. So please if you have some advice or would like to join in the fun of one of my goals please leave a comment or contact me. You can also help by keeping me focused, if I haven’t ticked something off in a while then please give me a nudge back on track.

Beyond the selfishness I really want to inspire others to dream and achieve their goals in life. To reach out from the daily grind and make magic happen. No matter how big or small I want you to know it is possible.

What Goals & How Does it Work?

There are all kinds of goals in there – from achievement I want to make, things I want to own, extreme things I want to do, some of the places I want to visit, things I want to learn and more.

These goals are not permanent. Some may be edited, others may be removed and more will be added over the years. But most shall remain as will my determination to achieve them.

Please recognise though that I wont achieve even half of them over the next few years. I have set a broad deadline of my 50’s or 60’s, thought I’m sure I will still be adding to the list then as new things become important in my life. So deep down I don’t expect to ever complete the list.

So lets go take a look at them then – head on over to My Ultimate Goals.

So What Else?

Over the next few months I will tell a few stories about the goals I have already achieved and begin to add new tales of my continuing progress.

Until then I’d love to see your goals, please throw up a link or even discuss them below.

If you haven’t started your list then please make a start by heading to this previous post of mine. Let me know how you go, one of my goals is to inspire 10 people to make a list of their goals and help them get started achieving them. So please get in contact if you do.

May all your dreams come true,

Bill

This is the primary reason I set and follow my goals. Before the start of each new year I review how i preformed on my goals for that year and set out my direction for the year to come.

So without further delay here is a summary of how I performed on my goals last year and what I plan to achieve this year.

2008 Review:

Travel was a major focus and I fell short in my goals. I did not make it overseas as I had planed but did a fair bit of domestic travel instead.

My finances were another area of focus. I significantly increased my savings despite suffering a major setback in losing my job early in the year. I made some progress in my freelance writing career and paid blogging. The recent financial dramas affected my passive income, I just fell short of target monthly income. I re-evaluated my desire to buy property. Also failed to create an ebook by the end of the year.

I made major progress in my health, losing 16kg and improving my diet and exercise. Gave up alcohol for 6 months and am happier, healthier and maintaining a stress free life.

Relationships are vital to me and I was happy with my result there in terms of friends, family and intimate relationships.

I had a lot of fun and adventure. Participated in several car races and lapped the most famous circuit in Australia.

All in all it was a pretty good year. Achieved quite a lot, fell short on a few things which will be corrected this year. I enjoyed the journey and am satisfied with what I achieved.

2009 Goals:

This year is about getting all major facets of life in alignment and becoming a well rounded person.

FUN & TRAVEL

Have an incredible fun filled year, with lots of adventure, exploring new things and continuing to enjoy my favourite activities. I am to complete at least 4 fun goals from my lifetime list (things like rock climbing, paragliding, etc. I will post these up very soon).

Travel to at least 3 states (excluding my home states) of Australia, including at least 1 state I have not been to. Travel to at least 3 new countries and spend a minimum of 2 months overseas.

RELATIONSHIPS

Make new friends who are in tune with my desired life style and spend more time with my valued friends. Enjoy fun and enriching romantic relationships. Continue to have great relationships with immediate and extended family.

MONEY & WRITING

In 2008 I made some good progress on my freelance writing career, this year I will dedicate more energy to it. Ease focus from paid blogging and push myself to get back to true paid journalism. Finish draft of first novel by July. Continue to improve this blog and write great posts to share with my readers.

Aim for $400 a month passive income by June – though December is much more realistic. Currently at about $130.

Create my first online product by February. Stay tuned for more on the ebook I plan to launch soon, I’m sure it will be a tremendous help to quite a few of my readers.

HEALTH

Continue to lose weight – target of 90kgs. I currently weigh 110kg. Keep improving diet and exercising for 30minutes plus,?? at least 5 days each week. Continue to improve strength and endurance through weights and cardio (explore new cardio sources such as rowing and boxing and increase variety). Also incorporate more stretching to increase flexibility, perhaps yoga.

So that’s the plan, stay tuned to see how it unfolds.

Our subconscious is always erecting barriers and blockades in front of our path for various reasons. This is self sabotage.

Our fears keep us in our place. They hold us back from achieving our goals and dreams and prevent us from changing for the better.

These fears are a throwback to caveman time. When self preservation, true survival and fight or flight instincts were necessary every minute of the day. That Sabre Tooth was lurking outside our cave – yet the fridge was bare. We had to go out and get food. Kill or be killed.

Today those true threats are really few and far between. Yet men and women alike are paralyzed by fear.

Fear of failure, fear of sticking our neck out and reaching for our goals.

You can build up your resistance to fear slowly. Think of all those things you would like to do but deep down are afraid of for whatever reason.

Your list could include going skydiving, writing a book, traveling to another country, approaching a person you are attracted to, or even of just trying a new food.

Pick a low lying branch, something simple from that list or something related to it that also causes you concern. Conquer that lesser fear and build your confidence until you can leap from that plane or get that book published.

For instance trying a new food may be a good place to start. If you like oranges, its not to big a leap to try tangerines. If you enjoy rice and pasta, then cous cous is not such a big change. Slowlly make the change to more exotic foods further from you current tastes.

Likewise for you to progress to skydiving you could begin with something simple as a playground swing. Noting how fun the sensation is. Build up to jumping from a balcony or a diving board. Get comfortable at big heights by looking down from a skyscraper or looking over a cliff. You could even use visualization to prepare yourself. Rehearsing the jump in your mind. Ring up a sky diving instructor and ask them to talk you though the procedure.

If the fear is to great and your motivation to complete the challenge is fading then use this method to see if it is worth the ‘risk’. Look deep within, how great is the fear versus desire balance – how much do you fear the challenge and how much do you desire to conquer it. If your desire is 51% or greater, go for it, forget the fear.

More people die in planes each year than they do skydiving, so take the plunge. You are more likely to die crossing an intersection than you are behind the wheel of a racing car at top speed.

Feel the fear and do it anyway.

—

Id like to apologise for the rather large delay between posts, I had a bit of an issue I had to get over. Lesson learned and you will see a post about what I discovered in the coming weeks. Thanks for reading, I hope you stick around for more.

Well done – if not go back and do it. You can thank me in a few years time.

Now it’s all well and good to write out your list, but it’s just the first step. There is plenty more to go.

You have figured out what you want to do – now you need to consider the following:

How are you going to do it. Big goals in particular can be intimidating so the best way to make them seem more achievable is to break them down in steps.

Let’s use the goal of climbing Mt Everest. You need to do your research (when is the best time of year to go), find people to climb with, do plenty of training, get the right equipment, book tickets, fly over and find a Sherpa – then your probably ready to head for base camp.

Write down a few notes next to each entry breaking it down like I described. If you can’t answer that question now put an asterisk (*) next to it and make sure you research it later so that you can write down roughly how you will do it.

What do you need to achieve it. This fits in with How, but having the resources to complete the goal is often vital, so I’m giving it a special mention.

Some may require large amounts of money to complete – so obviously they will have to wait until you save up or find an alternative source, such as sponsors or a loan.

Others may require a higher fitness level than you currently have. So you will need to hit the gym before attempting your goal.

When are you going to do it. I have an ultimate limit on my goals; I want to achieve them all before I turn 60. Ideally I want to cross them all off much sooner than that, but 60 is the absolute deadline. You should set a deadline for your goals as well.

But that is not enough, I want you to go through your list and look for ones that have other time limits on them. Some may be heavily dependent on you having good health – its difficult (though not impossible) to maintain peak fitness into your 40’s and 50’s. So any goals that require peak fitness should have deadline before your fitness will start to decline.

Other goals may have a time limit to them. If one of your goals is to attend the 2008 Olympics in Beijing then obviously your deadline is pretty short. You should get serious right NOW.

Finally the most important part of the process:

Just do it. Writing it down and planning it out is great, but it all amounts to nothing unless you take the plunge and get it done. So take action and complete your goals.

Not only do I enjoy actually achieving my dreams, but the joy of crossing it off the list is also pretty cool.

I look at my list regularly and review what I want to do, adding and removing things as I go.

Each year I try and narrow down a few goals I want to complete. I look through the list and if I have the necessary resources and other circumstance suit then I will short list those goals and focus on them. However I don’t neglect those that do not make the yearly shortlist – sometimes things just fall into place.

Do not be afraid to ditch a goal if it no longer appeals. I realise some things are no longer important to me, or that I really wasn’t serious about doing what I had written. Our priorities and dreams change, so to should your list.

However do not cross of anything because it is too hard. You will be robbing yourself of something important. Instead spend some more time breaking down the steps to achive it- take those baby steps. Do some research, find someone to complete the goal with you, talk to someone who has already achieved it.

As I learn about new things and receive inspiration from others new goals are added. Just as you lose passion to complete your existing goals you will gain the desire to add and complete new goals.

Now get out there and make your dreams come true.