25DollarTravel

It is a new year and everybody is making new years resolutions and setting their goals for the coming year. So do I.

Here are some of my personal goals for 2011.

• Keep exploring
• Smile and laugh at the world
• Eat healthy
• Increase my blog readership by 500%
• Write an E-Book to get you exploring

Keep Exploring

You might say, what is he talking about, he’s lived in Germany, Spain, Africa and Hawaii and travelled to more countries than other people will see in their lives and talks about exploring more. Yes, you are right, I’ve been fortunate enough to see a lot of this world already. But what I mean with exploring is the desire to look around the next bend in the road, knock on that wooden door in a village to see who opens, or change your life radically from time to time. What I notice is that the more candles are on your b-day cake, the harder it gets to keep pushing just a bit further, try something risky or simply jump into an unknown adventure.

So 2011, let’s keep the adventure spirit burning bright and high, and never mind those silly candles on that cake.

Smile and laugh at the world (including myself)

We all know that laughing keeps us young and happy. But do we do it often enough? I think I do, but I always come across a few people that just carry that certain inner spark that always let’s them feel good and see the positive side of things. Don’t get me wrong, I laugh a ton every day – mostly about myself – and are very optimistic, but I’m still far away from immediate sunshine inside, even when it is pouring outside.

So this is to you 2011, all smiles and humming a random song. Be positive and things will always work out.

Eat Healthy

While I already know – like every year – that I have to loose a few “Christmas” pounds (which I am trying to loose on a poor mans diet that is infused with long walks and stuffed to the rims with leg-aching surf sessions) I will try to eat even more healthy.

Everyone knows that what you put into your body is what you get out of it, mentally and physically. So with that knowledge I stayed away from almost all processed foods and only bought fresh produce at local farmer markets in 2010. What I did not do is to eat more whole wheat products, like brown rice. Also, I often committed the French fau pax and took a second helping. Yup, one moderately filled plate is enough food to feel stuffed and satisfied.

So here you have it, my healthy goal: more of the brown stuff and only one serving.

Increase the visits to my blog by 500 percent

I have been bloging on and off for the last 7 years and I always enjoyed it. But I never kept with a subject or audience long enough to really make a connection. My goal with this blog is to change this trend and keep this blog alive, visited and connect with you. I put a lot of thought and work into every post and always have my camera ready to take a shot that I believe is worth sharing with all of you. Through that I hope to increase the number of people who subscribe via RSS or email to my blog and also the website visitors by 500 percent. Ambitious? Definitely. Worth it? Certainly. So, if you want to help me with one of my goals for 2011, subscribe to my blog, tell your friends, put a link on your facebook page and share a story or two on Twitter. My Thank you! will be with you, no matter where you are right now.

Write an E-Book

Many people have asked me how I keep traveling all over the world, live in awesome locations and live my dream. My short answer is to live below your means – not within them – and always go for the experience rather than the material possession (at my peak I could pack everything I owned into one backpack and two book-filled banana boxes). But this short answer is usually not precise enough to help anyone immediately. That’s why I want to pack all of this life-design into my first e-book and focus on sending you on an awesome adventure, travel experience or trip around the world.

The substance of the book will be the preparation, organization and planning of your own trip around the world. I hope to have you set-up with a concrete savings plan, predicted departure date, income forecast, trip budget, itinerary and flight ticket in hand in less than 10 hours of preparation work.

Preparing for my own trip thought me many lessons and shortcuts that I want to share with you. That alone will save you hours on end and get you traveling faster than you can imagine.

So here’s another one for 2011: write that first e-book and help people exploring this beautiful world we are living in.

Let me know in the comments if you have any suggestions or specific topics that you like to see included.

So here you have it, my goals for 2011.

Now what are your goals for the new year?