Alright, so it’s official!

I’ve purchased tickets halfway around the globe and I will be traveling the U.S. for about five weeks, between March 14th and about April 21st, 2011. I’m very excited about this trip, because it will be my first venture home in two years, and because I’ll have the opportunity to visit several cities and meetup with old colleagues, blogger friends, clients, DNA students, friends and family.

(Read on to see my rough itinerary if you’d like to meet up in person in March or April.)

So here’s the slightly crazy part (every entrepreneur needs to be a little bit insane, right?):

I’ve already invested in airfare, I’m covering travel expenses myself, and no matter what happens, I will be visiting several conferences & events throughout Texas, Arizona, and California for five weeks. But I would love to find a corporate sponsor to help me make the most of my 2011 Whirlwind Thrilling Heroics U.S. Tour and fund some BIG ideas I have for my time there.

If I am going to spend just 5 weeks in North America out of every 2 years, then I want to do some huge, impossible, ridiculous shit while I’m there. I’m confident this can be a massive win-win-win situation for the right company or startup that shares my vision for making a change in the world.

Here’s what I’m about in a nutshell: I am tired of the world some of us grow up in and I want to shatter any notions that people have to settle for “normal” life. I want to truly convince people that they CAN in fact do anything with their lives. They can be anything they want. They don’t have to fit into anyone else’s cookie-cutter expectations, they don’t have to do the same thing everyone else does. I want to help crush people’s fears, and the self-imposed limitations that hold us back. I want to encourage more people to spend a LOT of time to figure out what they’re sincerely interested in and passionate about, to CREATE more, to start up their own small businesses, their own global microbrands and projects to leave their impression on the world, and to have more control over their own time, happiness, and freedom. I want to encourage more people to travel, to live abroad, and to have a wide range of experiences that will make them more informed, compassionate members of the human race.

I believe these things are the future. We won’t make the world a better place ensuring everyone studies calculus in school, by increasing spending year after year on stupid government “solutions” without ever looking at results, or by taxing everyone so we can go murder women and children on the other side of the world, all for control over resources.

No. The future—if our species is to have one for very much longer—requires more creativity (not destruction), more curiosity (not fear), more connectedness. We need to remove as many of the rules as we can—no more white picket boxes—we need to encourage young people to follow their passions, not money. We need billions of people all doing things they love, creating goods and services of real value for each other because they care.

If I sound like a raving lunatic, then you should probably leave now. If these crazy ideas sound like they align with your beliefs, if your company could benefit from working on some interesting projects along these lines, and connecting with a network of remarkable people who believe similarly—people who are actively working to make the world a better place—then read on.

There is a lot of crap out there. But I know for a fact there are thousands (maybe millions) of passionate entrepreneurs out there, creatives, and small organizations that truly seek to make a transformational change in people’s lives and change the world for the better. If what I have to say here on Thrilling Heroics resonates with you, with your worldview, with your company’s mission, then I truly believe there is an opportunity for collaboration that would both make sense commercially and make a difference—it would increase your visibility, get you connected with changemakers, and create a lot of excitement.

Who the Hell Am I to Sell Out Like This?

I’ve spent the last three months pouring myself into building Digital Nomad Academy with my two cofounders Brooke and Milt. In that time, I’ve not taken on any new paying clients for my development and marketing consulting business, no big new projects, other than DNA, which is a personal passion project to help more people create meaningful online businesses (that will also help them travel and live wherever they want). We had a hugely successful prelaunch, and now we’ve got roughly 60 students all going through our course for the first time and helping us ensure that everything is top-notch, and being patient with us as we sort out all the technical aspects and get things running smoothly.

We’re reinvesting a large portion of our revenue back into the business, into the infrastructure, into software to create the best membership site and deliver content in the best way possible, into marketing plans and tools for our official launch the next time around…  And I’m investing the bulk of my time now with our students, ensuring we get the best teachers involved each week to speak with them, answering questions on weekly live phone calls, combing through our peer forums, listening to a lot of feedback, making improvements to the site, and generally trying to ensure Digital Nomad Academy reaches its full potential and that our students are successful in making the life change they desire.

So naturally I was living on savings as we got DNA ready for consumption, draining most of the TH coffers for now…  And I’m investing several thousand dollars now in airfare, travel and living expenses, to get halfway around the world for five weeks and be at several big events.

Like I said, no matter what happens, I will be visiting several conferences & events throughout Texas, Arizona, and California in March and April, but with your support I hope to make this time absolutely remarkable, to plan several gatherings and at least one big retreat, and to connect with as many people as I can and make the biggest impact with my time as humanly possible.

With that said, I am certain if people are interested, I’ll have interest from some organizations that aren’t the best fit for Thrilling Heroics. I will carefully review anyone who applies, speak at great length with the best applicants to ensure that our vision aligns, brainstorm exactly how we could collaborate together on a case-by-case basis, and guarantee that we can create a win-win-win situation together. This is not an invitation to just any company; I only want to partner with someone if it’s a genuine fit.

The 2011 Whirlwind Thrilling Heroics U.S. Tour Schedule

Alright, so here’s my tentative itinerary for my five or six weeks back in the States so far:

• South by Southwest Interactive, March 14–18. I’ll be hanging out in Austin, Texas, for the tail-end of SxSWi and the beginning of the film & music festival. I’m already confirmed to hang out with Benny Lewis from Fluent In 3 Months (who’s generously hosting several bloggers for the week), Karol Gadja from Ridiculously Extraordinary, catching up with my old cofounders Adam Baker from Man Vs Debt, stellar web developer Andrew Norcross, and author Monica O’Brien, as well as Gary Arndt, Sean Ogle, Markus Urban (Mr. Impossible himself!), Chris & Cherie at Technomadia, Charlie Hoehn, Tyler Tervooren, and several others.
• Phoenix, Arizona, March 18–23. I’ll be visiting my little sister and spending time with family for my birthday on March 20th (btw if you want to help me make my biggest birthday wishes come true, please contribute), but would love to meet with entrepreneurs and blog readers in the area. I’ll also be in Sedona, AZ, on the 21st.
• Sacramento, California, March 24–? This is home for me. I’ll spend a few weeks here catching up with friends and working overtime on Digital Nomad Academy, interviews, and other projects for Thrilling Heroics (gotta make use of the blazing fast internet at home while I can!). But if you’re in the area, feel free to let me know.
• San Francisco, California, April ?? At some point, I will be heading to SF to catch up with my old friend Jun Loayza, gen-y serial entrepreneur, visit several friends, and hopefully several other bloggers and readers. Time for a Tweetup!
• Los Angeles, California, April ?? When I head south, I will definitely pop in to check up on my good friend Ryan Lei (recently relocated to the U.S. by the UN Refugee Agency), Clay Boeschen, possibly the Tropical MBA guys, and others. Tweetup time again!
• Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Indio, CA, April 15–17. This is a tradition with a few close friends of mine. I’ve already got my VIP tickets and would love to catch up with any readers who will be there. This is a great festival to see artists from across the region and meet many creative types who flock to Southern California for great music in the middle of the beautiful Coachella Valley desert, surrounded by palm trees, mountains, and gorgeous sunsets.

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Are you going to be in any of these locations?? I would love to meet you! Let me know in the comments below, on Twitter, or on Facebook.

Be a Thrilling Hero and Help Me Make My Impossible Dreams a Reality

I’m doing this either way, to the best of my ability. But with your help, I could network with the A-listers, organize several events in three states, and hopefully run a large retreat that will transform people’s lives. For the right sponsor, this could be a ridiculously cost-effective way to reach thousands of people.

Major Opportunities:

#1: As described on their website: “The South by Southwest® (SXSW®) Conferences & Festivals offer the unique convergence of original music, independent films, and emerging technologies. Fostering creative and professional growth alike, SXSW is the premier destination for discovery.”  I don’t have a badge to attend the official SxSW events, but being in Austin while nearly 30,000 people converge for the event still offers plenty of opportunities to meet & greet. For now I’m just crashing the unofficial events, meeting up with tons of people for coffee & after parties, and hopefully organizing my own meetup or two, but if I partner with a sponsor who can help cover the conference costs, that might change, and I’d have the opportunity to attend several keynotes, events, workshops, and private parties, and multiply my impact while I’m there.

#2: If I get full funding, it’s my impossible dream to host an entrepreneurship, personal development, and lifestyle design summit—a sort of unconference & retreat with inspiring, like-minded people who want to create radical change in their lives and build meaningful businesses. Host a group of 15-20 for a series of talks, workshops, trainings, and networking in a beautiful venue for 3-4 days—a place where a group of motivated, creative people can hang out with other like-minded folks to encourage and support each other, probably either in LA or San Francisco in mid-April. Originally I had wanted to plan this in conjunction with Coachella—spend the week sharing inspiration & knowledge, and collaborating together on business ideas, and then spend a fun weekend together at the festival, but my early proposal didn’t get accepted for funding. You can see it here for more details. If not this year, then definitely we will make it happen in April 2012. Do you want to be a part of this??

Thrilling Heroics has over 5,000 subscribed readers, approximately 11,000 members in our larger social media community (on networks like Twitter & Facebook, etc.) and about 15,000 unique visitors per month. This is a relatively small, but very loyal and engaged audience of passionate, motivated, creative, entrepreneurial people who are curious about the world, travel, and building things that make a difference. According to Twitter, when I share about one of my colleague’s product, or a hotel I recommend, or a trip a take, my messages reach at least 50,000 people in my expanded network!

With other communities I have helped build (Digital Nomad Academy, Untemplater, Business Backpacker, In Search Of Sanuk, see here for many of my clients and companies I’ve built online platforms for), it’s nearly impossible to measure the reach of Thrilling Heroics online, however of all websites online, TH currently ranks #56,426 for traffic in the U.S., and is within the top 65K most-visited sites worldwide.

And imagine how those numbers will go up after I rub shoulders with the big wigs at South by Southwest and across the U.S. this year!

So how much would it cost to help make my 5-week U.S. tour Thrillingly Heroic and expose your company to thousands of motivated world-changers?

I am looking for 1-3 unique, remarkable companies to sponsor me with about $5,000–$6,000 US. This will help me cover all transportation and accommodation, conference fees, and startup costs for my big in-person retreat. If you think you would be a good fit, please send me an by email at cody at thrillingheroics.com and we can discuss further possibilities and how to make this a huge success for all of us.

6 Things You Get If Your Company Sponsors My Trip

1. A major sponsor that aligns with my philosophy and my audience’s interests will get prominent adverts across ThrillingHeroics.com site for all of 2011 (probably the only adverts you’ll see on TH anymore).
2. Major thanks and exposure in multiple blog posts, emails to my growing list, and social media updates throughout the year (Twitter, Facebook, etc.). Building communities is what I do. If you have something that I believe in and trust, then let’s talk about how I can help you present your service, product, or message to my community and create a win-win-win.
3. Here are just a few people I hope to interview in the next few months: Derek Sivers, founder of CD Baby, Brian Johnson of Philosopher’s Notes, and Vishen Lakhiani, founder of MindValley. Want your name or logo attached with interviews like these? Get recognition on any video interviews or podcasts I make for Thrilling Heroics this year.
4. Recognition and thank-you, as well as your banner or slide prominently displayed  at any events I coordinate this year, like my dream retreat. Help me orchestrate a killer major event and come participate in-person and present your business directly to attendees if you want!
5. Get access to my network of friends and colleagues on five continents. If there is a possible partnership or collaboration that benefits you both, I am happy to connect you to entrepreneurs in Asia, awesome developers in the US, assistants in the Philippines, affluent world travelers, sailing enthusiasts, underwater basket weaving experts, whatever!
6. Again, if it’s a fit, potentially promote your product, service, or message to customers of my other companies & projects elsewhere.

Make a Donation to Help Me Reach My Dangerously Ambitious Goals

As I said above, my birthday is on March 20th, and if you want to help me make my biggest birthday wishes come true this year, please do it by contributing to my 5-week 2011 Whirlwind Thrilling Heroics U.S. Tour! Individuals can make a small contribution through PayPal if you want to support my trip. Here’s the deal:

• If enough money is donated ($5,000+) and no company sponsors me, I’ll go to SXSW and write about it here to share what I learn with you, and I’ll do as many interviews as I can to help expose you guys to the coolest, most remarkable entrepreneurs out there, ad-free! Also we’ll have seed money to set up my personal development retreat for this and/or next April in Southern California.
• If a sponsor fully funds my target amount, I’ll donate all reader contributions to The Girl Effect and In Search Of Sanuk (my friend Dwight’s charity project in Bangkok).

Please click the donation button at the bottom of this page and make a $25 donation (that’s my suggested amount, but please feel free to make any contribution you feel comfortable with), or you can become a recurring micropatron if you love what I share here on Thrilling Heroics.

Help Me Spread the Word About My Impossible Dreams for 2011

Please help me seek sponsors and spread the news about my impossible goals by sharing this story on Twitter, Facebook and anywhere else you can. If you know anyone who works at a company you think would align well with my mission here at TH, or in an ad or PR company, please email them the link and tell them my story. If we make this happen, hopefully you can count on meeting me inside South by Southwest and there will be a HellaCoachella retreat in April!
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6 Damn Good Reasons to Help:

1. You love what I write here at TH and want to give back for the time & energy I’ve invested here for the last 5 years.
2. I’ve helped motivate or inspire you to make a major change in your life.
3. You’d like to meet me in person at South by Southwest Interactive.
4. You like to support a hard-working entrepreneur trying to make a little dent in the world in a very unconventional way.
5. Help me grow the Thrilling Heroics community so I can make a bigger impact to help you live the life you want.
6. You want to help me make my idea for a fun entrepreneurship, personal development, and lifestyle design summit a reality.

If you’d like to help me make the most of my 5-week trip Stateside, I will be truly appreciative for any generous contribution you can make. Just click here to make a donation. And if you will be in Austin, Phoenix, Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Palm Springs, or Indio in March and April, let me know so we can try to meet up in person!

Thank you for your support!

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: The 5-Week Thrilling Heroics U.S. Tour: Help Me Make the Most of It!

a panorama view from the balcony of our new bungalow

Sometimes what you need to overcome a challenge is a state change. Tony Robbins talks about this when he discusses negative moods.

Change your external state, and you change your internal state.

If you’re feeling down, sad, or a bit upset, one of the simplest applications of this is to take a big deep breath, look up at the sky, and fake a big, goofy grin. Tony says that activating those muscles—and that part of your brain—is likely to manifest the real feelings of happiness and improved mood.

This state change is powerful, and it could be just the boost you need to shake a negative mood, or procrastination for example.

But sometimes you need something bigger and more lasting than a smile. To overcome a big hurdle, change a persistent negative behavior, or make some other kind of big leap in your personal development, maybe you need to change more than yourself… maybe you need to change your surroundings?

Sometimes it’s the people you surround yourself with (some say you become the average of the 5 people you hang out with the most), but very frequently it’s your environment.

If you’re in a slump, stuck in a rut, unproductive, unmotivated, or in a destructive cycle, you need to change your state somehow—that’s for sure.

Ask yourself: is your workspace uninspiring? Is your neighborhood dingy or depressing? Do you crave a change of scenery?

How I Gave Up City Life for Island Paradise

I’d been based in Bangkok for the last year and a half—and it’s an incredible city. The people I met there are what kept me wanting to stay—incredible, entrepreneurial, interesting folks from all corners of the globe. It was the first truly big city that I’d lived in for any good amount of time—the nightlife, the food, and the sights, are stimulating—there is something for everyone, and always new experiences to try.

But after that amount of time, I wasn’t excited by my surroundings anymore. I was distracted by the noises of the city, 24 hours a day. I found my simple studio apartment dull and solitary, and I realized that staring at the freeway out my window for a year and a half wasn’t an inspiring environment to turn out my best work. I wanted to get away from the heavy traffic, the trash in the streets, the pollution in the air…

I felt this way and didn’t realize it for a long time, and in retrospect, it sapped my productivity, decreased the quality of the work I’d been putting out over the last six months, and probably put me in a foul mood all to frequently.

All this, and throw in the bloody protests outside our doorstep, and finally my girlfriend and I decided it was time to change our scenery. Nikki had found an incredible bungalow in Koh Phangan, an island in the south of Thailand, on the hillside overlooking the beach and the ocean. After almost 21 months in Thailand, I’m finally living on the beach like I’d daydreamed of before I moved abroad!

Watch the video below for a walkthrough of our new home in this beautiful beach paradise. I’ve been a bit quiet the last couple weeks while we’ve been settling into our new home.

Beach Living in Koh Phangan, Thailand

It is an incredible find—we live on the island famous for the Full Moon Party (but on the quiet side of the island on a resort beach) and all of this for only about $480 per month! And even that’s split two ways between us!

Since moving here, we’ve been working diligently (and productively!) on her magazine and other work projects together. And I’ve even kicked my worst habit: it’s only a start, but I haven’t touched a cigarette in three weeks! Whereas the dirty, crowded, hustling streets of Bangkok made me want to smoke, here I’ve been able to let go of a lot of city stresses and live more healthily. (More on my goal to quit smoking in future months, but wish me the best for now!)

If you dream of living somewhere incredible like this—it is easily within your grasp. There are hundreds of thousands of little gems like this just waiting to be found all throughout Asia, South America, and even nestled where you least expect them in your home country.

If you do need a good kick in the ass, something to light a fire under your butt to start thinking outside the box, get out of the office, and get out of your hometown, then stay tuned for our videos here at Thrilling Heroics, and check out the new Backpacker Video Diaries videos Nikki and I are producing together. Four gals from my hometown (Sacramento, California) go traveling throughout Southeast Asia (and eventually South America) for over a year—having a hilarious, adventurous time.

Even if you only relocate for a short sabbatical or a mini-retirement, what’s holding you back from experimenting with traveling and living abroad?

In any case, remember the importance of changing your state when you’re struggling, and if you’re not happy with your life, take a critical look at your surroundings and ask yourself whether you need a change of scenery.

Maybe you just need to get out of the city. Or maybe you need to get out on the road less traveled for a while.

You don’t necessarily have to travel—especially not across the globe like I have. But one thing’s true: travel will push you to reexamine your preconceived ideas about the world—the very first step in freeing you to make the changes necessary to achieve the life that you desire.

At the very least be real with yourself. Are you boxing yourself in somewhere that doesn’t make you happy? Are you convincing yourself to stay in one place when you really don’t have to?

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Change your Life with a Change of Scenery

Last week, before I packed up everything to move again, I had a great chance to talk on the phone with Karol Gajda from Ridiculously Extraordinary, phoning in from Wroclaw, Poland.

Karol is one of my favorite bloggers out there, and I haven’t shared his stuff enough. Karol lives life on his own terms. He travels where he wants to, lives where he wants to. He’s not afraid to be himself, to curse once in a while, he gets philosophical and vulnerable about the challenges of living a life of extraordinary freedom, and he digs into some really, truly valuable strategies and tactics for improving your life.

What’s in store for you in this excellent interview:

• 2:00 – What is ridiculously extraordinary freedom?
• 2:45 – Karol’s trip to Goa, India, to build a handmade guitar
• 3:18 – All about his guide How to Live Anywhere
• 6:36 – About Karol’s long career in affiliate marketing and info product strategies
• 8:26 – Specific tactics for earning money with your blog
• 10:55 – All about hustle
• 12:32 – Secrets to exploding your blog & Karol’s secret for guest blogging on huge sites
• 17:02 – Karol’s travels to India, Thailand, and Poland this year (see Karol’s guest post The Beginner’s Guide to Minimalist Travel on Zen Habits)
• 19:20 – What it’s like traveling and living in Wroclaw, Poland (Karol’s birthplace)
• 23:35 – Networking and using Couchsurfing when you travel
• 24:30 – What’s up next in Karol’s travels, BlogWorld conference
• 25:25 – How a Gameboy at age 8 helped Karol realize an extraordinary method for achieving goals

Download the MP3 here to listen on your own computer (right click and “Save As”)

How to Live Anywhere: The guide I wish I’d written

The last thing I want to mention is that I read Karol’s truly incredible guide How to Live Anywhere: The Official Guide to Ridiculously Extraordinary Freedom while I was in Bali with my girlfriend a couple months ago now. Even as someone who’s already living the location independent lifestyle, I found several valuable strategies for making more money online and insights into improving my mindset, for example.

Update August, 2011: Unfortunately Karol has made his excellent guidebook unavailable, so if you want great lessons, interviews, case studies, and tools for how to live anywhere, make sure you become a part of the Thrilling Heroics Inner Circle (it’s free)!

Make sure you follow Karol Gajda on Twitter and check out these awesome articles on Ridiculously Extraordinary:

• 21 Reasons You Should Quit Your Day Job
• 17 Miniscule Actions that Produce Massive Results
• How to Pack Ultra Light

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: How to Live Anywhere: A Ridiculously Extraordinary Discussion with Karol Gajda

From March through May, Bangkok, Thailand was victim to intense political unrest, involving skirmishes between anti-government “Redshirt” protesters (UDD), Royal Thai Army soldiers, Bangkok riot police, and third-party elements scattered all around the city.

It had lasted two months but thankfully been fairly isolated in other parts of the city, but in the last few days, for the second year in a row, the clashes very suddenly focused right on Thanon Ratchewithi, the main road that I walk along every day to get to Bangkok’s public transit, the BTS Skytrain.

Friday, May 14th. Everything up until this point in our neighborhood had been fairly quiet. Early afternoon, my girlfriend and I parted ways—she had to do some business errands at the bank and the post office and head to her apartment 5 minutes up the boulevard from me.

Two hours later, I get a phone call. “Someone’s shooting right outside my condo. I can see people running up the street. We’re stuck inside the building, they say it’s not safe to go downstairs.”

Not long after, worried sick about Nikki and her roommate getting stuck in their tower for days (and the potential of losing power, water, etc.) I wandered out with Sean to see what there was to see right at the end of our soi. Demonstrators were subtly provoking the soldiers, who were slowly advancing up the street in our direction. They had blocked off the road to traffic, but there were a few locals trickling out of the sealed-off area, so I was sizing up the situation to see if I could get to them… I was wondering whether there was a back entrance to their property if I went down Soi 1 and climbed the fence…

As Sean and I were getting ready to head back home to safety though, in our last moments of stupid curiosity a few loud shots fired in our direction and we frantically ran for cover with the crowd of onlookers, dodging behind a small pickup truck as the adrenaline started pumping. Just another day in Bangkok, I started off dodging bullets with Sean Ogle, but our neighborhood then fell under siege for the next six+ days.

Looking up Ratchaprarop Road about 300 meters from Nikki’s condo before everything went to hell. (Photo by Sean Ogle)

A protester prepares to hurl a Molotov cocktail up the street from me. (Athit Perawongmetha/Getty Images)

A burning tire rolls toward the line of Thai soldiers moving to disperse Red Shirt protesters on Friday, May 14, 2010 in Bangkok, Thailand. (AP Photo/Wason Wanichakorn)

Red Shirt protesters create a burning barricade on Rama IV road to stop army soldiers from advancing in Bangkok May 15, 2010. (REUTERS/Adrees Latif)

A Thai man believed to be a Red Shirt demonstrator lies dead in the street after being shot by an unidentified sniper Saturday, May 15, 2010, in Bangkok, Thailand. (AP Photo)

A Thai man removes a can from a burning barricade in a main avenue of Bangkok during clashes between demonstrators and security forces on May 16, 2010. (PEDRO UGARTE/AFP/Getty Images)

Anti-government protesters carry a man who was shot by live ammunition during clashes between demonstrators and security forces in Bangkok on May 16, 2010. (NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images)

This is literally 200 meters away from my door, at the end of my soi in Victory Monument. Bangkok on May 16, 2010: a war zone. (Athit Perawongmetha/Getty Images)

Thick black smoke billows through the air behind the main Chulalongkorn hospital near the Red Shirt encampment on Wednesday May 19, 2010 in Bangkok, Thailand. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

An armored personnel carrier moves toward a burning anti-government barricade during a military crackdown Wednesday, May 19, 2010, in Bangkok, Thailand. (AP Photo/Wason Wanichakorn)

An anti-government protester piles tires on a fire at a shopping center Wednesday, May 19, 2010, in Bangkok, Thailand. (AP Photo/Wally Santana)

A statue and a torn Thai national flag remain in front of Bangkok’s Central World shopping mall, which was gutted by fire after army soldiers advanced towards an encampment of thousands of Red Shirt protesters, May 19, 2010. (REUTERS/Adrees Latif)

Friday night, I watched right outside my window as rioters dragged heaps of sheet metal, scraps, and rods onto my soi to build a makeshift road blockade, watched them throwing Molotov cocktails over my neighbors’ roofs at the police and Army at 4 in the morning. Rubber bullets were flying, tear gas is in the air, and homemade explosives were going off all through the night, grenades being launched in the air, gunfire, and numerous reports (via Twitter) of unidentified snipers on rooftops throughout our neighborhood shooting at protesters, soldiers, and even uninvolved onlookers.

This is the scene that unfolded literally right outside Nikki’s front door on Saturday morning, May 15th—Thanon Ratchaprarop became one of the two main “Live Fire Zones” where soldiers were shooting on sight. Protesters created a tire barricade 15 meters up Nikki’s condo driveway, and at least two or three protesters and bystanders were shot and killed. Their bodies were dragged inside her lobby where a doctor (or a paramedic?) was trying to tend to them. There is also video taken from above by some other residents in her building, from one of the upper floors of The Complete Ratchaprarop condominium. That bursting loud gunfire sound echoed throughout our entire neighborhood all day and all night.

Nikki called me at 10:30 Saturday morning. Needless to say, it had been a rough night to try to sleep.… and I missed the call since I’d only finally passed out three hours earlier. Her third attempt woke me: finally, after she’d been trapped inside for about 24 hours, she had been evacuated from her building by soldiers, guided out the back of the condominium, through an adjoining garden park, and had to use a ladder to get over the back wall.

Without hesitation, I packed a bag in about 10 minutes, taking all my most important items I couldn’t stand not to ever see again. Several of the buildings on our road were torched, as you can see from some of the photos above. Rioters set about 35 major fires around the city, and Asia’s second-largest shopping mall, Central World, was completely destroyed.

Thankfully, we were finally able to meet and get out of the city safely. We took a bus headed to Kanchanaburi, a small countryside town about two hours northwest of Bangkok, to stay alongside the River Kwai for a few days. There were plenty of places in Bangkok that were left untouched, and on some streets life went on like normal and you almost wouldn’t have any idea anything was wrong, but we found ourselves right in the center of the worst of it, so we spent the next four weeks away from home.

But even for the first week well away from harm, I was concerned for the safety of many of my friends who live in my building, or up the street from me, including (you can read their accounts of the events too) Sean Ogle, Dwight Turner, Mark Weins, Jodi Ettenberg, my friends May, Joel, and others…

All around Bangkok, protesters and rioters sacked shops and malls, torched electricity companies, municipal services buildings, the Thai Stock Exchange, provincial halls in areas outside of Bangkok, they shot at firefighters trying to put out fires in Siam, attacked TV stations and newspaper headquarters. After days of rioting, torching, and clashes with Army troops, much of my neighborhood, Victory Monument, Rajavithi Road and Din Daeng intersection in Bangkok, were reduced to rubble.

Peaceful demonstrations and violent uprisings

Our universe revolves around a cycle of creation—life is created and fades, energy is formed and consumed…

In my mind, as human actors in this reality, we have three modes of interaction with this system: production, consumption, and destruction. We create offspring, we distill and consume energy, we produce and consume things of value. Sometimes, we destroy life, or we destroy things of value, so that they are of no use to us or to anyone else.

War is destruction. Don’t let politicians fool you into believing war is about freedom. You don’t need to wage war on another society to become free, or to protect your freedom. Sometimes it is about securing resources for one nation’s future consumption, to someone else’ detriment (like all the US’ wars in the Middle East), but usually it is nothing but destruction.

I don’t condone governments that wage illegal wars. I don’t like seeing soldiers in the streets shooting people. I find all the “collateral damage” of conflict that lasts for decades despicable—the adverse effects on families and societies, the mines that kill and maim children thirty years later in places like Vietnam and Cambodia, for example.

But anti-establishment, anti-government movements are destructive too. They rise out of an opposition to injustice, or opposed to something they see as unethical, which are valid and good motivations. But all too often these groups—even the most organized forms of counterculture movements like Marxism and communism—tend to become as corrupt as the regimes they originally opposed. They use violence and destruction as a means to overthrow the existing systems and institutions.

“What is the point of anyone feeling proud of being the winner, when standing on a pile of ruins and rubble?” –King Rama IX of Thailand

As an aside: I am a capitalist, and until I find a better solution, I think I always will be. The capitalist free market is about both production and consumption. Businesses and entrepreneurs must create value—things and ideas of value—for others to consume. Yes, there are thousands of unethical businesspeople and corporations out there, but ethical entrepreneurs and corporations capitalize on whatever situation they find themselves in in the most effective way they can without causing hardship to those around them—in order to create the best possible outcome from their situation—creating jobs, income, products, services, and new ideas and solutions for problems that society faces.

In the last few months, there has been an interesting discussion unfolding in the online personal development and lifestyle design communities (see here and here, including the comments) about the merits (or lack thereof) of consumerism, pitting capitalist thinkers against anti-capitalist thinkers. But I don’t believe that solutions to the world’s problems—hunger, disease, poverty, war—are mutually exclusive from capitalism. Yes, we need to strive for a more ethical lifestyle design movement for example, and yes, the world deserves more ethical business. Definitely. But a radical abandoning of capitalism in favor of a radical leftist movement isn’t the answer. Anti-consumerism and anti-corporate attitudes aren’t really the answer, and in fact, while I agree with much of what my colleagues who hold those beliefs say, I think going too far down that road is dangerous.

The only way to create true positive change in the world is to find unconventional ways to work within the system, and change it from the inside out. You don’t create long-lasting positive progress with uprisings, by forcefully casting down the existing system, violently overthrowing the ruling elite, or the incumbent institutions. Once you spill blood, you forfeit your credibility entirely.

We are all participating in our own constructed fantasies, and none of us realize it. We are all trapped in prisons we cannot see.

Like Eric Schiller said in his recent critique of the lifestyle design and personal development communities, “the problem is not that we are participating in a fantasy, but the fact that we do not realize it is one.” We are the stories we tell ourselves.

Yes, I have my fantasies, and you have yours. But we need to take off the Che Guevara t-shirts. We need to stop idolizing the mythical “freedom fighters” without fully understanding the details of their lives. (Seriously, read about El Che and all the violent acts he committed before you put on that t-shirt again.) Rejecting consumerism and saying “fuck the system” like you’re Tyler Durden seems cool and trendy, until it leads to running around in ski masks blowing up Starbucks shops and financial buildings.

The protests in Thailand were largely bankrolled by someone very rich and very powerful, and I watched as these people were fed a certain story by protest leaders shouting propaganda over the radio every night for two months. I’m all for peaceful demonstrations, but you either stick to your principles or you don’t, and there’s a big difference when you incite an angry mob to violence. This was more like brainwashing, to the point that it became normal and acceptable to these people to come to Bangkok and destroy people’s businesses and homes, put their own children in harm’s way, kill their own countrymen in the street, and go back home to sleep in their own beds. (Please note: I don’t really support any side here, not the Redshirts, the Yellowshirts, the Army, or anyone. Everyone has some responsibility to take and I just hate seeing people killing each other.)

There is definitely a place for real heroism in the world, but we need to stop painting ourselves in the role of David against Goliath. Governments and people in positions of power use these types of stories to breed nationalism, racism, and hate, and pit us against each other. But if we believe these stories, we end up fighting each other in the street. Instead we must see reality for what it is, and stop believing these myths that it is “us” against “them”, “good” versus “evil”, that we are in some epic battle against injustice which justifies any means to an end.

Society has steeped itself in myths and ideologies about heroism and the fight for what is “right” for millenia—you see it in our stories, in our comic books, in our movies, you see it on television. It’s the reason why the US has occupied Iraq and Afghanistan for nearly a decade. It’s the reason why Christians, Jews, and Muslims continue to murder each other every day.

But the only way to peace and prosperity for everyone is through nonviolence, through rationality, and through conversation.

After being there in the middle of a so-called “people’s uprising” for two consecutive years—a socially- and economically-fueled revolt against the “system”, against the elite, against the people who pull the strings—all I can say is I don’t want any part of it. These things happen all the time, all around the world (we’re pretty sheltered in America). There certainly are important disparities and inequalities that need to be examined and resolved, but we must not sink to the same level of corruption and violence to solve the injustices in the world.

We must embrace rationality. This needs to happen at every level of society, all the way down to you and me. For lifestyle designers, personal development bloggers, and online marketers like us, perhaps we need to reexamine the language we use. We need to stop calling ourselves “radicals” and “revolutionaries” when we’re really not. We need to stop reinforcing the myths of “revolt against the system”. Because I think if you step back and ask yourself if you would truly want to be a part of a real revolution in the streets, I think your answer would be “no”.

We must destroy our idols. We mustn’t make our lives about what we are against, but make them all about what we are for. Whether you’re for liberating people from the cubicle, saving the environment, helping the oppressed and disadvantaged, or otherwise making the world a better place, we need to band together and focus not on destroying what we don’t like but on producing. On creating alternate solutions.

Photo sources:

• Protests turn deadly in Thailand – The Big Picture – Boston.com
• Crackdown in Bangkok – The Big Picture – Boston.com
• Bangkok Street Fighting Intensifies – Photo Essays – TIME
• Terror in Thailand – Photo Gallery – LIFE

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Dodging Real Bullets: Revolutionary Behavior & Violence in the Real World

Anyone motivated to be successful—to really make an impact with your life—has a list of things they want to do. Things to have, things to be. Places they want to go, people they’d love to meet.

You may not have a list of life goals all written down on paper. You probably keep an immediate to-do list, you might have some of your long-term life goals written down on scraps of paper or word doc lists on your computer here and there, but you know at the very least you have those things somewhere in the back of your mind.

I’ve challenged myself with yearly goals at the New Year in the last couple years, and I’ve mapped out plans for my businesses and different projects. I don’t frequently achieve everything on my lists, but as my friend Ramit says, if you’re not failing at a couple things each month, you’re not trying hard enough. And I’ve found that sharing those goals publicly gives me additional motivation and accountability to follow through, and sometimes friends and readers can offer words of advice, help, or partnership on some goals.

I’ve had some pieces of the puzzle in the works for a long time, but I hadn’t put together a comprehensive “bucket list” of things I want to do before I die until recently. It wasn’t until Sean Ogle recently wrote about bucket lists, and how to identify the most important life goals that will enable you to achieve the other items on your list—the travel goals, the possessions, the fun stuff—that I finally got motivated to really solidify my whole life list and put it out here to share with the world.

Several friends and bloggers have compiled great bucket lists that have helped inspire some of the things I decided to put on my list. There’s a mix of places I’d love to jet set, landmarks I’d like to see, adventures I’d like to have, experiences I hope to share with specific friends and family, and of course I immediately took Sean’s advice and prioritized the importance of the enabling goals that will make everything else possible.

So without further ado, here’s my bucket list—or, 84 adventures you can follow me on here at Thrilling Heroics:

Enabling Goals

1. Develop an online business that earns over $3000/month in passive income.
2. Build a blog with 10,000+ subscribers.
3. Write an ebook or launch a digital product that earns $6000+.
4. (Self-)publish a book.
5. Achieve debt freedom.
6. Get an article published in the print edition of Esquire, GQ, Wired, Details, or Maxim magazine.
7. Leverage my blog audience to make a major positive impact in at least 10 peoples lives.
8. Speak at South by Southwest Interactive and stick around for the music festival in Austin, Texas.
9. Set up a corporation in Singapore.
10. Make at least $120K in a given year.
11. Get a second passport, and maybe a third too.
12. Complete my Personal MBA.
13. Attend an official TED Conference. (Already had the honor of helping plan the locally-organized TEDxBKK!)
14. Sell my photography and other creative artwork. (Working on it…)
15. Organize a lifestyle designer/blogger summit in Asia.

Adventures to Have & Things to Do

1. Learn to rock climb in Railay Beach, Krabi.
2. Climb up to the mountaintop Wat Tum Sua Temple in Krabi, Thailand.
3. Learn to sail.
4. Climb a volcano.
5. Eat slow-roasted suckling pig in Bangkok’s Chinatown.
6. Spend a week with friends at Burning Man in the Nevada desert.
7. Go skydiving. Go skydiving again.
8. Learn to play guitar.
9. Achieve fluency in French.
10. Achieve fluency in Spanish.
11. Get ripped with The Hollywood Physique.
12. Replace my morning coffee with Yerba Maté for at least a week.
13. Get a tattoo in memory of my late friend Chris Cravens, with a design by my best friend Patrick.
14. Take my dad to eat real Kobe beef at Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant CUT in Los Angeles.
15. Spend a whole lot more time with my grandfather and learn about his life before he leaves us.
16. Raise another dog. (Sadly, my family’s 14-year-old golden retriever passed away while I was abroad earlier this year.)
17. Take my best friend Patrick to a Daft Punk concert.
18. Share a beer with Carlos Miceli in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
19. Live abroad for at least 3 months in another part of the world (South America, another SEAsia country?).
20. Live in San Diego, California.
21. Work for a month at a winery—like, in the fields, growing grapes.
22. Drive the Pacific Coast Highway in a convertible Lamborghini.
23. Camp under the stars on the beach and see the sun rise.
24. Participate in the world’s biggest water fight during Thailand’s New Year’s festivities (Songkran).
25. Do a beach photoshoot with a swimsuit model.
26. Go to a shooting range and fire off a Kalashnikov rifle and a Desert Eagle .50 Action Express. More importantly, learn to disassemble & reassemble them.
27. Drive a Tesla Roadster.
28. Take a gondola along the Venice canals in Italy.
29. Ride camel back across the Sahara desert.
30. Take a Serengeti safari in Tanzania and Kenya.
31. Trek through the jungle on the back of an elephant.
32. See the view from the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris (twice).
33. See the view from the top of Corcovado Mountain in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
34. Party on Ibiza for New Year’s Eve in Spain’s Ballearic Islands.
35. Go to the Glastonbury Festival in England and see Stonehenge.
36. Participate in the Brazilian Carnaval celebration.
37. See what Mardi Gras and Voodoo Fest are all about in New Orleans, Louisiana.
38. Learn a martial art.
39. Learn to surf.
40. Learn to DJ or mix electronic music.
41. Own a Kawasaki or Yamaha motorcycle.
42. Buy and restore a 1965 or 1966 Shelby Mustang GT350.
43. Stay in an over-the-water bungalow in beautiful Bora Bora in the French Polynesian islands.
44. Spontaneously walk into the airport and randomly buy a same-day ticket to wherever looks appealing.
45. Drive the Amalfi coast near Sorrento, Italy.
46. Rent a villa on Lake Como or Lake Lugano with friends.
47. Own a small bar or restaurant with live music.
48. Leave any wealth or assets I have when I go out to people who really deserve and need them.

Places to Travel & Landmarks to See

1. The ancient temples at Angkor Wat, Cambodia
2. The Acropolis and Parthenon in Athens, Greece
   
3. The Sistine Chapel and Vatican City in Rome, Italy
4. The pyramids at Giza, Egypt
5. Machu Picchu in Peru
6. The home of the Oracle at Delphi, Greece
7. The Taj Mahal
8. The ancient city of Petra, carved into canyon walls in southern Jordan
9. The Karnak temple and the Valley of the Kings near Luxor, Egypt
10. The Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza near Cancun, Mexico
11. Iguazu Falls on the Argentina/Brazil border
12. The Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy
13. The Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
14. The Banaue Rice Terraces in the Philippines
15. The Borobudur stuppa in Java, Indonesia
16. Gorgeous Zion National Park, Utah
17. Niagara Falls lit up at night
18. Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet
19. Jerusalem’s Old City
20. The Hagia Sofia mosque in Istanbul, Turkey
21. The abbey of Mont-St-Michel in France

You’ll notice I’ve included a few things I’ve already accomplished. I’ve also taken Sean’s advice to have a few things that will be easier to achieve, and a few goals I can obtain in the very near future. I think when you make your own list it’s important to recognize the big things you’ve already done that you’d always dreamed of, and include a few “gimme” goals so you can start off strong and stay motivated.

Of course I expect that my feelings about some items on the list may change throughout the course of my life. I may not achieve everything, some of my goals will change, or I may add new items to the list. But, it’s a starting point and it’s something I can always refer back to to remind me what I want to accomplish.

Of course if there’s anything you can help me achieve, or something you want to join in on for example, leave a shout out and we’ll talk! OR if you dig what I do here at Thrilling Heroics, click here to make a donation to my Life List Fund, help me achieve some of my dangerously ambitious goals, and follow me on these adventures!

What’s on Your List?

Read Sean’s 10 Tips for Creating a Successful Bucket List, and his Bucket List Management tips, and also take a look at my lengthy breakdown of how to establish meaningful personal and professional goals for yourself in all the important realms of your life. It’s written to help you establish yearly goals, but the principles can be applied to building your own life goals list too.

If you have a bucket list already, share it. If not, take a look at the above articles and get on it! Your time here is short, so remember to value every day you have and make the most of it.

Featured image by divemasterking2000

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: My Bucket List: Awesome Goals for a Thrillingly Heroic Life

This guest post is from Corbett Barr, an entrepreneur and blogger who lives in San Francisco and Mexico. He writes about lifestyle design at Free Pursuits and started a new Q&A community about online business called Gatejumper.

Taking a sabbatical was easily one of the most life-changing experiences I’ve ever had. My wife and I spent the first half of this year on a road trip through Mexico with our dog (an 11 year-old Vizsla named Kinsey).

We both returned with fresh outlooks and a deeper understanding of what’s really important to us in life. I have since adjusted my priorities and am now finding it easier to be successful in the things that matter to me.

If you’ve ever considered taking a sabbatical, now might be the right time for a lot of reasons. Personally, I was between gigs anyways (I’m an entrepreneur and independent consultant), so the choice was easy. Whatever your situation might be, here are 10 reasons to consider taking a sabbatical now.

1. It’s not as expensive as you think

Cost is one of the biggest reasons people think they can’t take a sabbatical. The truth is, it really depends on where you will live and what you’ll be doing. For example, in Mexico, my wife and I lived on one-third of what it normally costs us to live in the U.S. We sublet our apartment in San Francisco while we were gone.

By living abroad, we were able to take six months off at the cost of just two months’ worth of expenses. We met people living comfortably in Mexico and Latin America for less than $1000 per month.

2. The economy probably isn’t getting better any time soon

If you’re already between jobs, you might be having a difficult time finding your next gig. Times are tough right now economically. It’s hard to say when things will improve, but it probably won’t be until next year. Why not use the downtime to do something you’ll really remember?

Would you rather look back on this time and remember how you spent months looking for a job that didn’t really exist, or how you used the downtime to reevaluate your life, experience a new culture, learn a new hobby or even start a new business?

3. It’s a great way to change careers and hit life’s “reset button”

Have you wondered once in a while if you’re on the right career path? Do you feel like you need to hit the “reset” button?

Getting away from it all might be the only way you can really reset or change course. If you continue around the day-to-day, making significant changes is tough. Taking a few months off will give you the space you need to figure things out.

4. People in other countries have it already figured out

Speaking of figuring things out, did you know that sabbaticals and gap years (time between college and your first job or time between jobs) is much more common is some countries than others?

In the United States especially, the work culture is so strong that friends and colleagues might think you’re crazy for taking some extended time off. Realize that not everyone in the world is so productivity-focused and that taking time off can actually be a good thing.

5. You’ll reconnect with who you really are

After years or decades of spending 8+ hours a day working for someone else, it’s easy to lose track a little of what we really want as individuals and of who we really are underneath our “work selves.” Disconnect with your work self on a sabbatical, and you’ll reconnect with who you really are.

6. You could have a major breakthrough about what you want from life

When did you ever really “decide” to pursue the path you’re on now anyways? Are you doing what you really want to be doing, or are you following more of the default or acceptable path?

A sabbatical might open your eyes to what you really want from life. You might even decide that you’d rather space a portion of your retirement out over your working life.

7. Those things you stress over now aren’t that important.

Once you’re away from your old job for a while, you’ll start to see clearly again. Eventually you’ll barely remember details of things that once seemed life-or-death important. You will start to understand that the truly important things in life exist outside of work – and you might begin to wonder how you ignored them for so long.

8. You might meet some special friends

We’ve never made so many great new friends as we did during our sabbatical. I attribute that to the fact that we were happy and free, with time for new interactions and interesting things to talk about. The best part is that making new friends just leads to a cycle of being even happier and meeting even more new people.

9. Aha! moments require a wandering mind

If your current life is like most working adults’, you probably don’t have much free time to really let your mind wander. Schedules, meetings, email and other responsibilities keep our minds in the analytical mode most of the day.

Some studies show that breakthrough “aha!” moments are made by your insightful mind, not your analytical mind. A sabbatical is a great way to break the routine of daily life and let your mind wander where it will.

10. “Normal life” will still be there waiting when you return

We came back to the U.S. and it seemed as though nothing had changed. We could jump back into our old life exactly as we left it, if we wanted to. Instead, we intend to keep the parts we really love and replace the rest. We’re already looking forward to our next extended time off.

What do you think? Can you think of other reasons to take a sabbatical? What about reasons not to take one? Please share in the comments!

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: 10 Reasons to Take a Sabbatical Now

Today’s awesome video post is by guest writer Matt Wilson, co-founder of Under30CEO.com. Matt’s mission is to lead people to go out and do what they are passionate about instead of falling into the rat race and playing by corporate America’s rules. You can follow him on Twitter @MattWilsonTV

You Can Be Whatever You Want When You Grow Up

We were all told we could be whatever wanted when we grew up. So why isn’t anyone doing it?

Are you designing your life so it’s fun and exciting? If not, quit! Or at least make it exciting!

Life is about the accumulation of stories. Are you writing your story? If your story is boring now, it will probably be that way for the rest of your life.

Sit and think—what am I passionate about?! How can I turn this into viable cashflow. There are people out there doing it now and it’s because they struggled with this question day in and day out. Most people don’t think it’s possible, so they don’t bother.

Focus on your goal. Whatever it is that you want to do, dream it, live it, do it. Stick to your plan and execute.

If you can’t see the video above, please click here.

Under30CEO’s newsletter HelpAnEntrepreneur.com allows anyone to ask a business question and get answers from real people in their inbox or Twitter feed.

Feature photo credit: Dr. Pat

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Don’t Give Up on Your Childlike Dreams

Jun Loayza is a really cool guy—a young serial entrepreneur in Los Angeles, and a good online buddy I met early on in his blogging adventure! I met up with him and Jonathan Mead, both big players in the next generation of online stars, when I was in LA for the fun Mindshare conference a few weeks ago.

Jun runs several sites, he has an interesting video series that shows the behind-the-scenes of starting up a new web company with some college friends, and he has a new venture, Viralogy, where he does great, interesting video interviews with many bloggers from our community. I finally had the chance to sit down for a talk with Jun, and we had a really fantastic  conversation about social media, travel, Thailand, and the location-independent lifestyle!

I look like crap with poor lighting and low video quality (!), but if you’ve ever wondered how I managed to become a “digital nomad” and live in Thailand, this video interview packs almost all of my philosophy on life and work into about 13-minutes!

• 1:15 – Breaking out of the traditional “template” lifestyle and job path
• 2:45 – How do you create a job that you can do from anywhere?
• 5:00 – How long does it take to make your business location-independent?
• 6:30 – How living in Thailand has helped me grow and develop personally
• 8:30 – Resources & links for learning more about the location independent (LIP) lifestyle
• 11:20 – Can you have relationships while you travel the world?

Jun did a tremendous job, really asking me some great questions and opening it up for queries from Twitter followers. He’s compiled a lot of valuable supplemental info on his blog post, so if you’re an avid blog reader or social media user, I’d appreciate if you click over and vote for Jun’s post on sites like StumbleUpon, Digg, or share the link on Twitter! The Awesome Revolution interview series is really interesting and useful, so let’s help him make it a success!

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: How I Became a Digital Nomad and Moved to Thailand

In keeping with the Twitter community’s new tradition, #FollowFriday, I thought I’d start compiling some useful lists of the folks I find most interesting to follow on Twitter and why. Today I’d like to share eleven thought leaders who are constantly challenging assumptions, examining human thinking and the brain, de-mystifying happiness and success, and challenging us to grow into more conscious individuals.

Tony Robbins (@tonyrobbins)

“The Official Tony Robbins Account.” If you’re not yet familiar with this motivational master, check out TonyRobbins.com.

Steve Pavlina (@stevepavlina)

“I’m a human alarm clock. I wake up people who are sleeping through life.” Author of Personal Development for Smart People and StevePavlina.com.

Eben Pagan (@ebenpagan)

“Interested in brain science, psychology, raw food, great music, challenging myself, philosophy, yoga, changing the world.” Known to some as David DeAngelo, Eben started out as a dating coach and internet marketer. Check out his blog.

Leo Babauta (@zen_habits)

“Zen Habits blogger, author of The Power of Less (http://thepowerofless.com).” Leo has one of the longest-running and most successful blogs on productivity and simplicity: Zen Habits.

Rajesh Setty (@UpbeatNow)

“Bringing Ideas to Life. With Love! Rajesh is an entrepreneur, author and speaker based in Silicon Valley.” Author of Upbeat: Cultivating the Right Attitude to Thrive in Tough Times and LifeBeyondCode.com.

Duff McDuffee (@duffmcduffee)

“I help people dissolve internal “resistance” with a gentle process called Core Transformation. I tweet philosophy, and dance–wildly.” Duff’s an awesome life coach with a lot of original ideas! Check out Precision Change.

Gregory Lent (@gregorylent)

“Emptiness consultant, transformation ecologist, artist, economist … pro-intelligence.” Gregory is constantly challenging assumptions and examining the way people think. See Post Linearity.

Gretchen Rubin (@gretchenrubin)

“Writing a book and a blog, The Happiness Project.” Gretchen is the queen of happy! Visit The Happiness Project.

Alex Shalman (@AlexShalman)

“Personal Development Mutant | Want To Be In Dental School | Here To Rock Your Twitterverse.” Check out Alex’s great personal development blog.

Jonathan Mead (@jonathanmead)

“Idea pusher. Finder of truth.” Jonathan runs an incredible personal development site called Illuminated Mind.

Robyn McMaster (@RobynMcMaster)

“Rejuvenating business with brain based approaches.” Robyn is the Senior VP of the MITA Brain Based Center and author of the Brain Based Biz blog.

In these rough economic times, following these leaders’ perspectives will help you see the positive side and seek creative new solutions in work, relationships, and life!

Can’t get enough Thrilling Heroics? You can follow me on Twitter too: @codymckibb

photo credit: notsogoodphotography

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: 11 Incredible Positive Thinkers You Should Follow on Twitter

There have been several recent changes in my online empire. In addition to the new blog community search tool I recently introduced to the blogosphere, I’ve mentioned my new freelance site a few times, and my recent interview at ABCnews.com, but I wanted to take this opportunity to officially invite you all to visit Thrilling Heroics Consulting, a new sister site to Thrilling Heroics that will serve as my official business site, where I’ll offer my business blog consulting and other WordPress technical help aimed at professionals and non-geek bloggers. If you need a blog re-launch or are looking for some simple tips and tricks to increase your effectiveness with the WordPress blog publishing platform and expand the CMS’ functionality, it’s a good starting place. But I’ve just set the site up with another fresh design (thanks to Vinh Le’s awesome open-source theme from BlogDesignBlog.com) and I need YOUR help to send me your WordPress-related questions! If you have quick WP questions, follow me on Twitter and send your questions there, or contact me via Thrilling Heriocs Consulting for more detailed requests. I try to answer as many questions as I can on Twitter, and if you’ve got a good one, I just might discuss your requests on the blog.

Since it’s brand-spanking new to the blogosphere, I could really use your help promoting the Thrilling Heroics Consulting site to the community, so please vote it up on the social media sites and share the URL address if you’ve got friends or colleagues who are bloggers too. Thanks!

CodyMcKibben.com Will Now Serve As My Social Media Homebase

I’ll be compiling my portfolio and services listing at ThrillingDesign.com, but I’ve also recently transformed codymckibben.com into a static homepage. All of my articles that were originally posted there have been moved here to the Thrilling Heroics blog. codymckibben.com will serve as a social media HQ of sorts, so please feel free to reference it if you’re looking for my contact info or to see what projects I’m currently involved in, but looking ahead I encourage you to follow all my future updates on personal development, careeer, Gen-Y issues, social media, and more here at Thrilling Heroics (get the RSS feed here).

Visit the New Thrilling Heroics Bookstore!

In addition to the Thrilling Blog Search tool, I’ve also recently created an online bookstore for the Thrilling Heroics reader community. People that know me know that I love reading personal development and business books, and I really enjoy sharing the best of what I read. I’ve started an Amazon aStore where I’ve hand-picked the best personal and business development books. Several of these have been the most impactful books in my life, while others have been highly suggested by mentors and colleagues.

Whenever I find great new resources that I think the community will benefit from, I’ll add them in. For transparency, I receive a 4-6% commission on any books you purchase through the TH Bookstore and it will go to help offset the costs of running the site. Please consider buying a book to help support the site! (You can also purchase other books through my Amazon link for up to 34% discount!)

Browse the Thrilling Heroics Bookstore »

Thanks for being a member of my online community and please feel free to get in touch with your thoughts and feedback. Cheers!

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Check Out Thrilling Heroics Consulting If You Need Help With WordPress & Blogging

Ever since I discovered Google Custom Search, I’ve been using it to pinpoint the exact kind of awesome articles, tips and tricks I’m looking for much quicker, and to increase my efficiency and decrease the time it takes me to find answers or write up blog posts.

Personally, I’m a big fan of productivity lists, how-to’s, and life hacks, so my custom search engine includes a lot of big name sites like Lifehacker, Zen Habits, Tim Ferriss’ 4HWW blog, and many more. Anytime I’m curious how to do something, like how to install a certain software application, how to improve my resume, or how to get the most out of a particular social networking site for instance, my custom-build search engine returns incredible results! And if you like to hyperlink to other resources and articles as additional support when you write new blog posts, this will serve as a fantastic tool for you just like it has for me.

I highly recommend Google’s Custom Search, and since I’ve already done the work and compiled a master list of over 50 of the web’s most credible and authoritative blogs, I’d also like to introduce my own Thrilling Blog Search engine as an open community tool for the Brazen Careerist network and the blogosphere at large. Try it out. Seriously! It provides some really cool results for all sorts of subjects from personal development to social media to finance. Link to the search engine page here and try a search for “resume,” “savings account,” or “LinkedIn” for example:

If you’d like to utilize this tool for your own blogging workflow, feel free to bookmark my directory/links page, or you can easily add it to your iGoogle homepage or your own website. Be aware that this search engine already crawls several of the most trusted blogs on the internet, but I will be adding to the sites in the future. If you’d like to contribute to the project or suggest a site for addition, you can get in touch with me but be aware there will be a strict review process. In other words, if you email me with a suggestion, you better be ready to pitch your site and why the community will benefit from it!

Here are the top-notch blogs/bloggers that are already a part of this fun customized blog community search tool:

Personal Growth/Productivity

• Lifehacker
• Zen Habits
• Steve Pavlina
• LifeDev
• Life Optimizer
• The Positivity Blog
• Scott H Young
• Duff McDuffee
• Today Is That Day

Career/Personal Branding

• Personal Branding Blog
• Brazen Careerist by Penelope Trunk
• Life Beyond Code
• Water Cooler Wisdom
• Personal PR
• Newly Corporate
• The Urban Muse
• PR Interactive
• Erik Folgate

Lifestyle Design/Travel

• The 4-Hour Workweek
• Anywired
• The Art of Nonconformity
• Real Social Dynamics
• Ronnie Nurss
• Brave New Traveler

Generation-Y Issues

• Employee Evolution
• Twenty Set
• WorkLoveLife

Personal Finance

• I Will Teach You To Be Rich
• Get Rich Slowly

Freelancing/Entrepreneurship

• FreelanceSwitch
• Escape from Cubicle Nation
• Erica Douglass
• How to Change the World by Guy Kawasaki
• The Anti 9-to-5 Guide
• Instigator Blog
• College-Startup
• Jamie Harrop

Social Media/Technology

• Chris Brogan
• Dosh Dosh
• Copyblogger
• Tobias Baeck
• Paul Stamatiou
• Greg Rollett
• Moving From Me to We
• Paul Woods

Blogging/WordPress

• ProBlogger
• Pearsonified
• Theme Playground
• Blog Perfume
• Lorelle on WordPress
• Thrilling Design

Remember, this is a community project, so please feel free to get involved!

» Add a search widget to your Google homepage.

» Add the custom Thrilling Blog Search to your own site.

» Get in touch if you’ve got a suggested site that will benefit other bloggers and readers.

» Blog about this or tell your friends about the Thrilling Blog Search engine!

These are just the first round of additions to the Thrilling Blog Search community search tool. As I come across more great sites, I’ll be updating the list and the search engine tool. You can view several of my favorite blogs and suggested resources, as well as my custom Thrilling Blog Search tool on my Links Page here.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Announcing an Awesome New Community Search Tool for the Blogosphere!

My friend Tim Walther has just released his first book, Seeking True North: The Pathway to Freedom, Beauty and Success with co-writer Erick Erickson! Tim is an accomplished climber and mountaineer, a leadership expert and motivational speaker, and longtime friend of my housemate Paul Dickey. Tim and Paul were my travel buddies in Barcelona and Ibiza this winter.

Tim’s business, Grand Dynamics, is based out of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, but he was in Sacramento yesterday, so Paul and I met up with him for a bike ride and a great salmon dinner (thanks Holly!), and I finally got my hands on a signed print copy of the book. I helped Tim and Rick design the new STN blog and user forums, so I’ve had the opportunity to read through much of the material. The book tells the story of two characters who learn many personal development lessons (lessons Rick and Tim learned on the mountainside and in training exercises with thousands of professionals across the world). Seeking True North goes on to explain these personal and business development models and tools in detail and how to apply them in your own life.

Tim and Rick both do corporate retreats across the globe that focus on organizational development, experiential education, and leadership studies. Check out the new blog at SeekingTrueNorth.com. Congratulations on the book launch guys!

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Shameless Plug for Tim Walther’s New Book