Everything Is Easy...

....Once you know how!

Knowledge is Power.

So, what do you know?

I know that 2008 has been an incredible year for me, a year where a lot of those childhood dreams became reality and I could check off a lot of my list!

What happened this year for you?

Can you remember all of those special moments?

Most people are focusing on the World problems and crisis...

Maybe your personal life was better, maybe it was worse, and you are still here and it is now a new year...2009!

Did you write down your goals last year?

Did you achieve them?

What could you do differently to improve those results?

There are all kinds of different rules out there on Goals, how to write them properly, law of attraction, visualization, affirmations, etc...

All very interesting and useful, if you do them and take action towards your goals, a little at a time.

Personally, I feel that there is a general direction in my life that is more determined by my present state rather than by goals, signposts, objectives or lists in the future.

I like the idea of lists, because they can just be out there for me to do whenever I get the chance, not a forced obligation.

I like to go with the flow, paying attention to feelings, signs, intuition, invitations, surprises, etc...

I also believe that we have a mission in life, something that we do all the time when we are feeling great. It has a lot to do with love.

I still make plans, to give a direction to my life, but, I am not at all stressed out when things go differently.

For example, I want to Walk the Camino de Santiago in April and am aiming for that. If it is meant to happen, I will walk then, if something more interesting, fun or important comes up, then I will walk it later. Easy, no worries!

I enjoy surprises, being such a curious person, so, I know that something interesting is going to happen, no matter what!

I also believe that each person has their own set of morals, standards and taboos as guiding lights and warning signals.

I can go to a nudist beach, but, won't appear in PlayGirl! (well, I might think about it ;)

To sum it up, I think that everything you can do to take charge of your life and start being captain of your own ship is positive and helpful...

...after you have taken the time to review your life from an objective and panoramic position.

That means, finding out who you are and what turns you on.

On!

Without a motor, destinations are just points on a map!

It is useless to spend time, money and energy in becoming a millionaire if that is not what you really want... wouldn't you agree?

It is a waste to buy a ticket around the World if you only want to hang around the pub with your mates...

As it is a waste to fret about the economy, tomorrow and job security when you really want to be selling seashell necklaces on the beach in Fiji...

What is your own, personal definition of success?

So, to end this wonderful year 2008, in review it has been outstanding and as my travel buddy Alberto, said, "I wish you a better year than last, even if I think that is impossible", and my response, "Impossible is ----ing!"

Happy New Year, to your goals, dreams, plans and above all to finding your motor!

Cheers!

Melchior

End Of Year, Beginning of plans

What a year!

You can always find some extraordinary events in your year and now is the time to remember and cherish those moments, while planning the next ones.

You know which ones, those extra, special moments, those with heightened emotional charge!

For me, one of those was the excruciatingly slow zig-zag flight into the cold air over Queens Town, New Zealand, on the first of May, just before jumping out of that plane with a guy strapped to my back, with a parachute that I really prayed would open and my eyes wanting to disappear into the back of my head... and that feeling after a safe landing! Whew, wow, gulp, hahaha!!!

This year has been a plethora (thanks Annetta!) of wonderful moments, fantastic adventures and fulfilled dreams. You can read about most of them here in My Travel Blog.

Those dreams only became reality thanks to a plan and the conscience that they were actually things that I wanted to have in my life.

I am sure you have tried to do goal-setting at some point in your life and most of the time it has been a pointless exercise, something that just takes on massive proportions and the obstacles seem so daunting that even a trivial objective is difficult.

That famous question, "what do you want?"and the impossibility of coming up with any clear or useful answers.

It gets easier if you do the exact opposite.

No, I'm not trying to be a smart-ass, although I have been known to do just that (just ask some of my old teachers ;)

It is easier to write down what you DON'T want, simple as that.

It is also easier to look back from an achieved goal to see how you got there.

With these two bits of information, you can, if you want, set yourself a neat little plan, with a bunch of goals and a step-by-step way of getting there in the time that you want!

Just take the things on your list that are most interesting to you, or turn those "don't want" items into positives and then plan backwards from achievement to today!

There is even a free site to help you do the backward planning process, something so simple yet so effective that you will kick yourself for not having thought about it before!
Make your planning Simple!

Here's my personal example:

I don't want to be stuck in a boring job with only 4 weeks holiday per year and only take those two weeks at a time, IF, no other co-worker has not already booked those days...

This turned into: I want to be free!

Which then turned into: I want to travel around the World!

It took two years of planning, saving, preparing, closing down ties and bureaucratic stuff, until I had my ticket and was standing at Heathrow airport in November last year, on my way to Madagascar!

Looking back, the immediate step prior to departure was to have my ticket, the step before that was to decide itinerary and times. Parallel were visa considerations, places to stay, money matters, etc...

Basically, I had a large piece of paper with the date and goal at the top right corner and worked my way down, diagonally to the bottom left corner which was the day I was writing it, that last little box had an action step for right then!

It took a lot of the load out of the whole thing, dividing it into little steps like that!

So, that little childhood wish of traveling around the world, became a plan, action was taken and it was achieved, despite the odds!

What would you dare do if you could really be daring?

Have fun, keep smiling and enjoy the Holidays!

Cheers!

Melchior

My List... Sunshine!

Okay, where were we?

Oh,Yes!

Let's just do a quick recap:

- We know that we have one life, so we might as well live it!

- We have a list of things we would like to do thanks to superviva.

- We have a Mission in life to guide us a bit better.

- We also know that what influential people tell us can change our lives, our destiny.

- We also know about the power of choice, right?

Okay, we can go into Destiny and Power of Choice discussions in another entry.

For now, I would like to share with you what I have come up with for now...


My Life List short version(always update-able and changeable):

Wander the Amazon
Walk the Camino De Santiago
Delta flight over Rio De Janeiro
See the falls of Iguazu
Cairo to Cape Town overland
Be Free to travel
Earn as I travel
Inspire people to have more fun in life
Have Children
Live on the beach

Top things already done:

Travel Around the World
Walk on Fire
Go to the World Cup with Friend
Become a Life Coach
Fall in Love
Get Married
Play Professional Sports
Get paid for something I love
Sky-dive
Learn Languages

Okay, so much for my short list, the real list is over 200 items long, with over half of them already done... I'm sure your list will be even longer as you start getting inspired by the items on other lists.

Now we get to the Mission part.

According to that free Mission tool, my mission came out like this:

My purpose is to express my willingness to learn, positivity and capacity to see from the other person's viewpoint by being committed to personal growth, by making people smile every day and by looking for hidden reasons for behavior to have my own career that enables me travel, have fun, meet people, enjoy the beach and be helpful, be the healthiest and fittest I have ever been, , clearly connected in a spiritual way, with incredible energy and obtain at least $100,000.00 by 12/13/2009.

Granted, it is not perfect in it's fluidity, but, it makes itself understood ;)

Now on to what the palm reader said: "You will be an athlete or a writer, or both"
So, I became an athlete and a writer (well, blogger).

So, it was probably a blessing, although most people in the milieu always asked me what I was doing in professional sports as I was much more of a free spirit and traveler...

So, it could also have been a curse in programming me to be an athlete, despite my longing to travel and be free!

Either way, I am having a great time!

So, now that I have a list of things to do, a way to do them and the choice to go for them or not, I am ready for the next step...

Action!

What do you want?

Hasta pronto amigos,

Melchior

Travel in Time, Mission Time!

The gnarled and bent old man, readjusted his dirty shawl, gave me that toothless smile and cackled a blessing, before limping off into the smoke filled night of Bombay, bobbing his head in the way that only Indians can.

I was ashen with shock, awe and fear... what had just happened?

A blessing?

My mother took my hand and reassured me that it was an auspicious omen, a special moment, a blessing and a challenge.

I believed her.

We walked past the Gateway to India, in front of the famed Taj Mahal hotel, the one that was just in the news, sadly.

She bought me some corn on the cob from a street vendor, I happily dipped the half-lime into the bowl of chilly, salt n' pepper mix, dabbed it on, no butter here, delicious and healthier!

That 'blessing' was in 1979, marking my life, guiding my decisions, almost to this day!

I had a mission, because an old man in a strange English twang, looked at the hand of a little boy and told him his future.

He got it right.

Or, was it a curse?

A curse so convincing that the little boy had no choice but to do what he said?

Anyway, that little boy has decided that he wants to chart a new course to this life, his life... not what some old hand-reader said in another world... even if he helped him get here, for which he must thank him!

What is your Mission in life?

Do you have a Mission Statement that guides your decisions, making your choices easy?

Try making one for free here

I wish you a Merry Mission!

Melchior

Journey of Life!

Life!

As far as I know, and what most people seem to be saying, there is only one life, now. There are a whole lot of theories out there, about after-life, heaven, re-incarnation, etc...

All very interesting to speculate and argue about, however, I seem to have inherited a more pragmatic approach (I can just see my parents... "from who? Wasn't me!"), which makes me want to know what truth I can use now.

Truth.

Not my truth or your truth, the objective truth: Something we could accept as fact, for now.

The truth is that we are born, then we die after having lived a little or a lot.
Our body says goodbye to this earthly voyage.
As do our heart and our brain, home of our mind.

Which leaves us with the intangible and elusive Soul, who has the privilege of going on to do whatever really happens, Heaven, re-incarnation, etc...

Now, we can either take our Soul or leave it, either way, we still have to live this sole life with our bodies, hearts and minds.

That means, health so that our body looks, functions and feels great, love so that our heart can flutter and pump faster, and, new, different, interesting challenges to keep our mind active and our wits about us.

All of this in the space between birth and death, which is handily undefined, so you have the choice of risking never doing something ever, or not taking that risk and doing what you want before the boat to take you across the river arrives.

We get to make that choice again and again, every second, every minute, every breath...

...until that last one.

The way I see it, my mind has come up with a whole list of things it would like to see, do and feel in this life not letting me be still until they are marked with that satisfying 'Done' check.

I must admit that my list is long thanks to http://www.superviva.com, where I got inspired to desire, where my self-esteem received a welcome boost too!

My heart has also learned to enjoy falling in love and accepting falling out as part of the whole adventure, still going for it all out, or should I say all in?

And my body, well, my body has just become addicted to feeling wonderful when it is getting the right nourishment for the senses... the food and drink, scents, pleasing views, soft touch of the sand and the sea on the skin, the music of the breeze, the rustling of the leaves and the splashing of the waves, with a touch of exercise in the form of fun games, to give it all a bit of spice!

You have already guessed where I get the combination of all those pleasures and satisfactions, I'm sure!

YES!

Flying Around the World!

I have a question for you... would you be interested in seeing my life-list?
You know, like the latest Morgan Freeman, Jack Nicholson film, The Bucket List.

Here is to all your goals, dreams, wishes and childhood fantasies,

Happy Travels!

Melchior

Who Are You?

Yes.

I want to know who you are and why you are reading this right now?

I mean, with all the other things you could be doing with your life, why waste five minutes reading my little blog?

I hope it is because you are interested in traveling around the world, or around the block, or around the blog...

If you are interested in finding out why you have not yet made that trip of your dreams, of your bar-talk and internet chat, then you could very well be in for a pleasant shock, and all your excuses seem pitiful and small.

And the result could be that you find yourself in another life, standing tall!

So, if you are still reading, here's the deal:

We start from the end and begin right now.

The end is to have traveled and earned around the world for an extended amount of time, having all kinds of fantastic adventures, learning new languages, meeting new people, learning and growing in all kinds of wonderful ways, living life to the full!
A return to our place of departure with tales to share and cash to spare.

The step before that would be the travel and adventure part.

The step immediately before that would be to say bye for a while to our family, friends, home and job. To get on the road and start the Journey into the unknown, where we will find ourselves as well as all kinds of elves!

The ticket! Freedom and wings, time to fly!

All the logistics of itinerary, how-to's and what-nots, notices and mail arrangements, etc...

The decision. Yes. Gulp! But, gonna do it anyway.

The elements of Celsius: What is freezing you to the spot?
What info do you need to be Freed from the pot?

The beginning is right now... Do you want to travel or do you want to wish you traveled, that is the question?

Shall we begin?

Let us Fly, Ladies and Gentlemen!

Goals and dreams!

Well, as time passes, I find myself more in tune with what I want to do in life... Travel!

To do that, I need to find ways to finance my freedom, as well as share what I learn, to enable you to FlyAround!

Most people will agree that the commodities nowadays are time and money... finding them both at the same time is rare indeed.

That is my goal exactly: To have the time and the money to enjoy life, friends and the wonders of the world.

My dream is to be able to do these intensely pleasurable activities with friends and that means a world where more people have the time and the money to have fun.

Why?

Well because when you are having fun, you are making the world a better place, you are more tolerant, sending out positive vibes and that has a domino effect.

Also, as a coach, I believe in setting goals and having dreams as they give zest to our life, energy to our day, a reason to push ourselves further, be better, get out of bed in the morning!

So, now you know why I am sitting here at one a.m. in Bolivia, on this rainy night in December, writing for life, for freedom, for fun!

In the Travel Resources to the left you will find some free stuff, some cheap stuff and some others that I think might be worth the small investment, but, only if you are totally convinced!

With that said,

Here's to Flying Around, free and smiling!

Cheers,

Melchior