I  Made a Mistake

JetSetCitizen is not a very good name for this website. The idea of jet setting to exotic locales, while exciting and romantic, is definitely not the message I want to promote. My idea of a JetSetCitizen is more about being a global citizen and the personal responsibility that requires. Really experiencing foreign cultures and connecting with people around the world can be transformative and enlightening, if you let it.

Travel is Not a Competition

Travelling for the sake of getting passport stamps or crossing items off a bucket list are just other manifestations of our rampant consumerism. Some travellers compete by how many countries they have been to or attempt to regale in tales of how authentic or exotic their experiences are. How different is that from trying to one-up your neighbor’s latest purchase? Instead of keeping up with the Joneses, many of us are keeping up with the Indiana Joneses.

Maximize Profit or Maximize Good

We have been sold the idea that we have to produce and consume more to ‘advance.’ The strength of an economy is measured by growth in total production, whereas other measures like happiness, health, social relationships, clean air, wildlife,…

The Secret to Finding Your Passion

Most of us are searching for a life calling that is financially, spiritually, and emotionally rewarding. Wouldn’t it be great to get paid to do what you love? Imagine being excited to get started on Monday morning, rather than dreading the start of another soul killing week. Here is the solution, but first we need some background information.

The Problem with Passion

There are some problems with the popular views of finding your passion, that likely get in the way of finding an occupation you truly enjoy:

1. Not every passion will earn you a great salary.

You might have a passion for watching movies, reading, eating potato chips, shopping, or even drinking coffee. While it is not impossible to earn an income doing those things, it is unlikely. You might be able to find related work, but it definitely won’t be doing the enjoyable part of those activities all day long.

 2. Passion is not enough.

Really enjoying an activity is not enough. For example, you may have a passion for playing guitar, but that doesn’t…

We often hear expressions like “the journey is its own reward,” yet most of us tend to live jumping from one achievement to the next. We often think that everything will be so much better when we graduate, get a job, get a raise, buy our own house, get married, pay off our car, start our own business, or retire. We talk about living for the moment, yet remain focused on the next accomplishment, purchase or life milestone.

Benny Lewis shared this great video recently that puts this in perspective.

Instead of looking for the next mountain to climb or goal to cross off your bucket list, how about just enjoying what you are doing now?

It has been about 16 months since my wife and I left Japan and almost two and a half years since we made our commitment to change countries and careers. Here is an update on how our life has changed since we decided to give up our old way of life.

Visiting Canada

We are back in Canada now until the end of summer. My wife’s six month visa expires in September so we have to go somewhere before then. We still haven’t decided where or for how long.

Overall life is good.  We really have few complaints. I am doing some part-time marketing consulting work with a few companies which more than pays for our living expenses. We have time to regularly exercise, read a lot, meet new people and generally do anything we want. With the exception of my terrible marathon performance last month, I would even say that life is perfect.

We are Homeless

Our house in Japan was up for sale for a…

Here is a fantastic opportunity to help out with a great cause, enter a raffle to win some amazing personal and business development resources and get 17 author interviews just for promoting the cause on Twitter or Facebook. Before you continue reading, please take a moment to visit this Kidney Raffle Page and help spread the news.

This interview is with a friend I originally connected with online and then had the the opportunity to meet in my home city of Calgary, Canada. Cath Duncan and her husband are South African natives who have decided to call Calgary home after some work re-locations around the world. Cath has generously given hundreds of hours of her time to raise money for Kidney research. She tells her story and offers some great personal development advice in this interview.

Please tell us a little about your yourself.

I grew up in Cape Town, South Africa. Since 2002, my husband Andy and I have moved between London UK, Philadelphia USA, Cape Town SA and Calgary Canada since 2002. We’ve moved a lot because we both love change and variety, and living in different…

I can definitely attest that making money from a blog is difficult. Even bloggers with big audiences can struggle with earning a decent amount of revenues. One of the early people I connected with online is South Africa based,  Dirk de Bruin, or Diggy, from UpgradeReality. Diggy has been blogging about self-improvement related topics for a couple of years and has built a large following. He is now blogging full-time, but is still working towards supporting himself completely from his online efforts. Diggy gives an honest account about his experiences and progress so far.

Please tell us about yourself.

Hi there! I was born in Amsterdam and lived in Europe for a few years (different cities). When I was 6 years old my family moved to Cape Town, South Africa where I still live 18 years later.

What is South Africa like?

South Africa is truly a beautiful country with incredible scenery and nature within an hours drive of where ever you stay. I see South Africa as having a lot of risk and crime in certain areas/neighborhoods but when you live here and you’re in the better areas you are hardly even aware that there is…

Neil Pasricha of 1000 Awesome Things gave a funny and motivational talk at TEDx in Toronto last fall. He talks about how he started his blog, his book deal and how many amazing things there are in the world to be thankful for.

It is a great presentation and message but I also love how simple his idea was for his blog. The simplest ideas are often the most well received. I talked about big ideas like this in previous posts: Get Rich Quick: Big Ideas for Big Money! and Big Ideas to Make Big Money. The problem is that simple can actually be quite difficult because people tend to be overly critical and dismiss the ideas too early.

It is very hard to do what everyone else is doing and succeed, a simple, yet novel idea is the only way.

Fishing for Ideas to Improve your Life, Istanbul

Here are a few amazingly comprehensive resources that I have discovered that are important to anyone trying to build a blog or online business. All are completely free and will have a huge impact in your life and business.

Pat Flynn’s Niche Marketing Duel.

Pat is sharing, in incredible detail, exactly all the steps in finding a niche business idea and turning it into a profitable business. He already has a six figure passive income and is proving that his success is replicable.

Follow his progress right from choosing a topic. He shows how he got to the number one listing in Google in less than 3 months. His site made $151 from Google Adsense in November and $62 in October. This is after 4 months of part time effort.  Pat has plans to sell ebooks and other advertising that will definitely deliver much higher earnings. Start from the beginning and check out this series of posts. It really is amazing content that is completely free.

• Niche Site Duel: I’ve Been Challenged, and I Accept!
• Niche Site Duel 002 – Finding a Profitable Niche:

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We are in Istanbul!

It has been 8 months now that Motoko and I left Japan. We are having a great time with our lives but this is also not an idyllic lifestyle. It is great to be able to see the world and have complete freedom, but we are really starting to miss having a regular routine in our lives. Here is a short summary of our current situation.

We  are in Istanbul

We are currently in Istanbul and loving it here. The hospitality of Turkish people has been amazing. Turkey is very unique in that it is a bridge between European and Middle Eastern cultures.  It is so different then anywhere else we have been but I will write more about the country later.

Our Financial Situation

We haven’t been able to sell our house in Japan because of the terrible real estate market there, so we have been paying bills and a mortgage for an empty house. It would have been nice to get rid of that obligation, but such is life. We are now thinking of spending a few months every year in Japan. Unfortunately, we got rid of all of…

Biking in Calgary, Canada

I have been back in my home country of Canada for about four months, now I have two more weeks to go before I leave again. It has been great to be back home, but I think I enjoyed it more because I know it is not permanent. My wife and I have not made any roots and have not anchored ourselves to a lifestyle we don’t want. The greatest insight I have discovered is that life is fantastic.

Sometimes it is easy to forget just how good we have it. Several friends and relatives have recently undergone major medical surgeries. I have heard many complaints about how far they had to drive to get to the hospital, how long the waiting lists were to get a hospital bed, how many times their surgeries had been postponed, how late the doctor was, etc.

I understand people under-going life threatening operations are under huge amounts of stress and want to get out the hospital as soon as possible, however I think they may be over-looking how lucky they are to be in a rich developed country with amazing technological advances and medical…