Thinking back a year ago, feeling stuck in an office in Chicago not sure what I was doing with my life, I never would have dreamt that I would be in Jerusalem right now reflecting on a month of travel, looking forward to the possibilities and experiences that lay ahead. I have absolutely made a dream of mine come true and it gives me the feeling that I need to keep dreaming bigger and going for more in life. New Life Travel was just a dream of mine a year ago, and the fact that I have even 1 person reading along is astounding to me, I never set a goal for myself, I just simply followed the signs of the dream I had. Goals we set for ourselves always have some control element where we look for realistic means to the ends. The problem with the goals that we set for ourselves is that they are based in a reality that may be limiting our true potential due to fears and doubts that were created out of years of upbringing and social conditioning, uninspired bullies telling us weren’t good enough, naysayers, doubters, the media convincing us that the next person is better. Most of the world that we know is created out of a reality that is selling our true potential short as human beings, and recreating that reality is the hardest part. Your personal growth depends on breaking out of this reality, that’s why I propose we let go of our goals and start unleashing our dreams. If goals where constructed from a limited concept of reality, our dreams will bring us closer to what is really out there, all while testing us along the way.
This approach to life may be viewed as reckless and irresponsible, with things like families and the economy weigh us down, but we have to realize that there is a major misconception with the word “responsibility”, the misunderstanding that it means building the safest life for ourselves possible, where nothing can go wrong and we will be safe and comfortable. I think my generation uses the term responsibility as an excuse for not doing the things they want, instead following the stable options, leading a more “responsible” life. The thing that we don’t get is that the word responsible translates to “response able”, or the ability to respond to events and circumstances. Building a life of stability and safety is making it so we never need to respond to anything. Two problems with this are that by striving to create a life of little response, even the most stable and secure person will have to face major challenges in life and they may not be able to respond to it in the right way when it happens. Secondly, our spiritual development as humans is rooted in how we respond to life as it unfolds in front of us. Being a truly responsible person means being willing to put yourself out there and deal with every situation positively as it comes up. I truly believe that fulfillment comes from the process of going after an intuition or feeling, facing the fears and doubts brought up by it and learning to deal with problems better as you repeat the cycle. By creating a stable life, someone may feel secure never having to worry about material things, but they will most certainly feel emptiness outside of their material lives. Thinking back to the travels I made from Jerusalem to Cairo, a lot of unexpected, scary circumstances came up. Leaving Israel I was worried that getting the Israeli passport stamp on a separate sheet of paper would be a major issue. The customs agent said there was nothing that could be done, so I was willing to take the stamp and deal with the circumstances, then in the last minute, two German travelers came to the rescue and told me how to get a separate stamp. When my friends’ motor-scooters battery died in the Sinai desert, I was fully willing to spend the night under the stars with no food and little water, when a car appeared in the desert night that ended up being a truck full of cops. These two instances were the scariest parts of my trip and also seemed to be the parts where I was most, what some would consider, “lucky”. When we are responsible, we respond to the events in our life calmly and with certainty, and the result is either a positive outcome, some positive spiritual fulfillment, or both. The one thing we can do in life to ensure that we will always have something to respond to is chase the huge dreams we have in our head. And due to the spiritual light that comes from our learned ability to respond to even the most horrific trails, responsibility will usually turn our dreams into a reality.
In the video I said that the reason I love this blog so much is because I get to put my big dreams out there and continue to dream bigger. The truth is, the reason I love this blog so much is because it allows me to connect with all of you and learn about how everyone else is making their dreams a reality. I would love nothing more than for this blog to be a bit of motivation to get people excited about chasing their own dreams, and a way for me to hear if my theory about chasing ones dreams is really true. So I would absolutely love to hear what some of your dreams are at the moment and I would love to hear about all of you going after those dreams. Leave a comment and put those big plans for your life out in the open, and then start thinking about how you’ll respond to everything that comes along with pursuing those dreams. Here are some of the big, out there, seemingly ridiculous dreams that I have in my head right now and would love to pursue:
Dream list
-Turn New Life Travel into a widely read blog where I can influence some of the worlds’ problems, through collaborating with non-profits, influential givers and keep giving myself as I grow.
– Becoming a published traveler writer, combining travel stories with a spiritual development message.
– Write a book about unconventional approaches to creating your ideal life and finding your purpose.
– Become an awesome photographer with not-so-awesome gear, I’m starting another website called Facingtheglobe.com where I want to post just pictures of the faces of people in every country I visit. The site will help with my fear of asking strangers, in strange lands to be photographed.
– Create a travel documentary.
– Start a non-profit that uses social media to connect the affluent world with the impoverished world.
– Become conversational in Arabic and Mandarin.
– Never stop traveling.
new life travel 