Travel Will Soon Take a Backseat

I have been on the road now for more than three years not including the short trips that I have taken when I was still employed and I’m also in my early thirties and I realized that I want this freedom that I enjoy now. I work on things I like to do, I don’t have a fix schedule to follow nor commute from one place to another and deal with the worsening traffic in the city. The income I generate also don’t have a ceiling cap unlike when I was employed. In some months, it reached beyond my expectation. The downside though is, the income also doesn’t have a floor. It can go as high as it could and it could also go as low as zero. Yes I had some months when I didn’t earn even a single cent.

I woke up one day thinking that I need to exert more effort in making this life sustainable and to be honest with you, I find it quite hard to do especially if you’re always on the move although I have seen other bloggers do it. It’s really amazing and at the same time very inspiring to know that it’s possible.

This chain of thought about having a more fix flowing income started when I got a message from a former colleague a couple of weeks ago. It seemed that my former boss (from my last job – three years ago) was looking for me and inviting me to join their team in one of the biggest companies back home. It’s actually the second invite I got to go back to the work force. The first invite happened last year when I got an email from a fellow manager in one of my previous employment asking if I was interested to manage one of their departments since they haven’t hired anyone for that team yet.

I started toying with the idea of having a fix income again. But I’m having a mix emotion every time I think about going back to the old routine. I started imagining waking up at a particular time, prepare to go to the office, sit in my cubicle and do my thing, attend some meetings, hit some targets, fail, succeed, go home and sleep and do it all over again the next day. I’m excited though to work again with some people I know there since I know how good they are with what they do and I know that I’m going to learn a ton of things from them. But the daily routine… oh the routine… I don’t even know how to explain why I’m not a fan of it.

Another thing that I’m thinking is I’m not getting any younger and so are my parents. I have to prepare financially for the situations that I know are coming our way. My youngest sibling will also enter college soon and as a family, we have to prepare for that too. Even though I quit my job to travel around Asia for a few years, I haven’t forgotten my responsibilities back home. The needs now though are bigger compare to a few years back and my earning is becoming smaller. I need to decide soon on which path to take.

So I have decided to push my niche sites further for the next few months and see if it will gain traction and if it doesn’t work then maybe I’ll go back to the workforce (although I really hope not that soon).

I still have a few booked tickets left that will take me to various places for this year. I’ll try to keep this blog updated too as I still have so many trips left unwritten and pictures left unedited. Although my priority for this year will be to push my new sites to be at par with this travel blog. This will probably be the busiest year for me when it comes to working on my niche sites.

Regardless of where this road will take me, I feel grateful that I have experienced this kind of life. The experiences that I’ve had in the past three years have been very surreal and every time I think about those things, it makes me smile. These past three years would probably be remembered for a long time especially the awesome adventures I’ve had in various places, the kind people that I have met along the way and also the things that I have learned along the way.

Traveling taught me so many things that this entire blog will never be enough to cover the entirety of it.

Some of the things that it taught me include:

To Trust my Guts – I left with a very small amount of money and it took me to so many destinations in Asia for three years. Paulo Coelho is right when he said –

“And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”

Learn Continuously – I left with one blog and I have quite a handful other niche sites now. I’m constantly learning how to make sources of passive income and even if I go back to employment these websites will provide a side income that I could use to pay for my future trips, as a savings or re-invest in other things.

“Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.” – Isaac Asimov

Never Listen to Negativity – The real world is filled with negativity and loathing and it gets magnified in the online world. I decided that if I spend my time being negative and listening to these kind of people then nothing will happen. I decided to take everything with a grain of salt and focus on the positive things instead and I chose to spend most of my time working on things that will help me achieve my personal dream and also in helping my family.

“Forget your sadness, anger, grudges and hatred. Let them pass like smoke caught in a breeze. Do not indulge yourself in such feelings.” – Masaaki Hatsumi

Celebrate Life – If you are reading this blog post now in your smartphone, tablet, desktop or laptop – know that you’re fortunate enough to have done so. In my travels, I’ve seen so much poverty and also death. If you’re online now and reading this means that you’re alive and have the resources to do so. It also means that you have the resources to start something that could change your life for the better. Every single day counts, so let’s choose to celebrate each and every day by doing the things we love and by hanging out with happy people.

“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” – Mae West

We Have the Power to Change Our Lives – I have mentioned this before in some of my blog post and I think this is one of the most important things that I have learned in my travels. If you are in a situation that you don’t like then work on something that could take you out of that situation. Also remember that nothing could change you if you don’t allow it to happen. Even long term travel could not change you if you resist new learning or if you resist to adapt. It’s one of the misconception that I often read online. Travel (or anything for that matter) can only change you if you allow it to change you. Don’t stop with dreaming a different kind of life, dream and make it happen.

“To dream by night is to escape your life. To dream by day is to make it happen.” – Stephen Richards

Thank you for following my adventures. I hope that in my own little way, I have inspired you to follow your dreams and make them come true.

Now excuse me for awhile, I have some niche sites to work on. 😉