Over the last few weeks, I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing people about living simply, breaking through barriers, and living their Dream Life . Every Monday, you’ll find a new interview posted. If you missed it, last week I interviewed Tara Wagner of The Organic Sister and Sustainable Baby Steps.
This week I’m happy to introduce you to Jeremy Jones of Living the Dream. Having spent spent more than 150 days traveling throughout 9 countries, Jeremy really epitomizes his blog title. I’m always inspired to hear about people making their travel dreams a reality, so let’s get right to it.
This interview series is about people who live their dream life – which looks different for everyone and is always evolving – can you describe your current Dream Life?
Well I just ended my travels about 50% short from my original long term goal to instead marry my long-time girlfriend (now fiancee). So right now I am seeking employment and getting back to being an engineer and planning our wedding! But luckily we have a lot of options open in the future to us, and are currently discussing how we could take a year+ trip in a few years when she is done with school, and potential options to live and work in another country after that. My personal dream life would be to just work for myself and not have to answer to anyone else, which right now means writing my blogs and an upcoming book I hope to publish.
Do you feel that long-term travel changes you? If so, how?
Long-term travel definitely changes you. You can go away for two or three weeks but you aren’t really free. There will always be an end in site, a job to go back to, probably a cell phone at your hip the whole trip. Going away for a long period of time you experience a freedom you’ve never had before. What do I do today? Who cares! The only person you have to answer to is yourself, and its a really surreal feeling when you finally realize that your commitments to anything in life are essentially zero.
How do you keep fear in check, so that you can follow your passions?
That is an incredibly difficult thing to do. You are really forced to live in the present when going away, because there will always be some sort of end, even if you are traveling for 5 months, a year, or near indefinitely. Unless you plan to keep roots somewhere new, there will be a fear. The famous quote, re-popularized recently in the movie Kung Fu Panda, really stands out here: “The past is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why they call it the present” Don’t worry about yesterday or tomorrow, just live for today, even if some planning is required for tomorrow!
If you had to leave tomorrow morning for an all expense paid month-long trip in one spot, where would you go?
Ouch, that is tough. I just spent 6 weeks in Thailand, and could easily go back to Chiang Mai for a month, or the rest of my life. But going to one of the cheapest places on Earth for an all expense paid trip seems kind of silly. I think I would go to Bhutan, only because of the expense part, as the country charges a daily tariff of something like $250-$300/day per person regardless of travel style to visit. It is something I will sadly never be able to afford, but with a country that claims they value Gross Domestic Happiness over GDP, I am really intrigued.
Can you share some knowledge gain recommendations (blogs, books, documentaries, etc.)?
Travel bloggers are my favorite knowledge gain recommendations. Books seem to become outdated before they’re even published as a lot of the things that are quoted for travel are time sensitive material. I’m a really big fan of Art of Backpacking and met Michael in China where he is currently living. Other bloggers I recommend who are still traveling are Kirsty and Poi at No Place to Be and Joel from Freedonia Post. They both offer funny and insightful posts about their current travels, which reflect the cities they’ve been in. I also had the pleasure of meeting all of them on the road. Other than that, for planning purposes, definitely check out WikiTravel! Setup in Wiki format, the site is more accurate than any Lonely Planet or Rough Guide since it can be updated by anyone at any time.
Any last words of inspiration for people looking to live their dream life?
Retiree’s never look back on their life saying they wish they would have worked more! Things will always work out in the end, so get out there and live your dream now while you still can! There are over 6 billion people in the world, one of them can do the job you have, while you are out doing the one thing you really want to do!
Thanks Jeremy!
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If you haven’t checked out Living the Dream, here are a couple of my favorite posts to get you started:
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