Go to page 53 if you are going to fearlessly climb the ladder.

Go to page 79 if you are up for valiantly fighting your way through the dungeon.

They were exciting and extremely nerve racking.  I never wanted to choose the wrong adventure.  So sometimes I’d cheat.  I’d flip to both pages, 53 and 79, to scan over what would happen then proceed accordingly.

Somehow, I’d still fall into a pit of snakes, ending the book and my hopes of being a hero.

While the concept of choosing your own adventure I’ve long held with appreciation, early on in my life the books lost my interest.

To have the option of choosing my own adventure fires me up.  It wakes me up in the morning.

But to choose my own adventure with boundaries set up by someone else kills me.

To live out someone else’s story.  To live out someone else’s adventure and rules.  This doesn’t seem fair or in line with the life I believe is available to us all.

And this is exactly how I see most all of our lives until we graduate from the university and get our first job.

We are choosing our own adventure but within the confines of someone else’s story.

It is a story our parents, our friends and society have created for us.  It is a tale that our adolescent fears etched in stone, though we are now grown up.

Yes, we have choices if we stay within the boundaries of the story.  We can take different classes than our peers.  We can choose which university to go to depending on acceptance and affordabilitiy.  We can choose which employers to apply to.

At some point we all wake up and decide the story in which we are acting out is not one we are too thrilled about.

For most this is when the Quarterlife Crisis hits.

We are left with three choices, continue half-heartedly forward, drink the KoolAid and go full steam ahead, or destroy all the rules of this long played story.

Which have you chosen so far?

Are you choosing your own life adventure?  Or are you choosing your own adventure within the context of all other’s rules for you?  Are you fired up about it?  Or are you sleepwalking through it?

I’ve found travel to be one of those experiences where our eyes are opened to see other stories being played and other adventures set out upon.

1. We are able to see that there is not one way to succeed, even in the story we’d been playing.

2. We are able to see that choosing one path over the other rarely, if ever, is one ending on the street corner panhandling.

While we are out of our own country, living abroad, we begin to wonder whether any of the story we were playing out makes sense.  Does it favor us?  Does it allow us to succeed, accomplish greatness, and win?  Are we the hero?  Are we changing lives in this story?

Does it give us life, joy, and fun?  Is this story sustainable or are the rules changing?  Who is this story benefitting?  Us or those around us?

But most importantly, does this story we’ve been living out align with our internal beliefs and values?

My experiences abroad have left me returning home to cross out many of the pages of the story I’d been living.  A giant revision was in order.

The book cover was replaced.  The circular stories were annihilated.  Certain characters were let go.  Great focus and clarity were instilled, and opportunity intensely expanded upon.

I wasn’t bitter in doing so.  I wasn’t angry with my family, friends or society.

This was natural.  My concept of reality had broadened ten fold.

My Choose Your Own Adventure story had blossomed into much greater openness and possibility.  Indeed, with this came complexity.  No longer was my story 100 pages.  It was 200 then 300.  I was grateful for this complexity.

It meant that I was beginning to fully understand life’s possibilities are only inhibited by my own mind and ability to dream.

For those that haven’t ventured abroad, I want to offer you a few suggestions.  Before I begin helping you with writing your own Choose Your Own Adventure story, we must take quick inventory.

1. Take inventory of the story you’ve been living out.  Have you been drawing up the rules?  Have you been REALLY Choosing Your Own Life Adventure?  Or has someone else’s desires been guiding your story along?

2. Give thought to your current choices.  Which choices stand before you currently?  Stay or leave your current job?  Break up with your significant other or dive deeper in love?  Leave your city and explore part of the world?

3. Look into the future.  What are realities that have a high probability of changing?  How could they change your story and the choices you will have to make?

Now that you’ve assessed your past, current, and probable future state, it is time to really draw up the story you want to live.  What is the Choose Your Own Adventure that you will live out?

To write this story with greatest chance of success, we must learn from the greatest steps in writing a real novel.  I’ve included the first four steps to writing a novel based upon the “Snowflake Method”.

1. Write one sentence to summarize the life story you wish to live.  Think big.

2. Expand on this one sentence.  Include details of the plot, the setting, the ups and downs, and the ending of the story.  Include the adventures and throw in a few disasters to keep this story real.

3. Now is time for character development.  Who are the main characters?  Describe them. Who are the outliers that play a role?

4. Get into more detail.  Begin expanding upon the details you included in the opening paragraph.  Take each idea therein and write a paragraph.  Describe out the plot with more color.  Detail out the adventures and disasters.  Decide which is the best setting for your life to evolve.  Conclude the story with a paragraph.  How does your life story end.

5. Expand your rules.  Now you have substantial meat to your story.  It is time to analyze where you are currently being held back.  Where is your creativity falling short?  Where is your fear creating barriers to your ability to dream?  Are your rules broad enough to allow you to grow and see beyond your 16, 22, and 28 year old self?  Don’t let this fear hold you back from setting up choices that would lead to a much deeper and fulfilling life story.  Go back to your initial summary and make any changes necessary.

6. Sharpen your tools.  In every adventure tools are required.  Which tools do you need now?  Which tools do you expect to need in the future?  What can you begin involving in your life today that will pay off dividends in the future?  Is it better health?  Better abilities to communicate?  Deeper education?  Connections?

7. Writing and revising your story will be a lifelong project. It can be invigorating and colorful if you so choose. How much color do you want it to include?  How much adventure?  Let your curiosity drive you into great opportunities and learnings.

I want you to succeed in this Choose Your Own Adventure story.  I want you to draw up an adventure that fires you up daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly.

If you are having trouble expanding your horizon, drawing up a story with greater joys and complexities, now might be the time to begin planning your trip abroad.

Let the world help you learn new secret ladders to the next levels.  Transitions to the next chapters will find new color and connectivity.

Let the world sharpen your tools in building relationships, loving your neighbor, driving down narrow streets, playing musical instruments on the beach, surfing with the dolphins, and increasing your understanding of the interconnectedness of the world’s economies.

It’s time to write your own life story.  It is time to Choose Your OWN Adventure.

Travel Safe and Well,

Jeff 
Because Your Lifestyle Matters
Santa Barbara, California, USA

When was the last big life transition you experienced?

What caused it?

Did you initiate it or someone or something else?

How long would you estimate the transition lasted?

What I’ve found is most of us don’t fully understand the transition process and the true length of time it lasts.

Most of us aren’t even aware of some transitions occurring in our life.

Yet, being able to identify and understand the natural phases of life transitions is terribly important.

It is terribly important for those that travel.  It is equally important for those that don’t.

CONSCIOUSNESS

Being conscious of your body and mind’s reaction to transition will aid you in your time abroad as well as time at home.

It will aid you through the quarter-life and mid-life crisis.

You will be a better ex-pat, wife, husband, brother, sister, mother, father, friend, boyfriend, girlfriend, employer and/or employee.

Understanding the natural progressions of transition will empower you to have greater patience with yourself, focus, and courage when times are needed to confront life’s new realities.

Fully embracing the standard undulations brought forth by shocking events, whether good or bad, will broaden your abilities to effectively lead and walk alongside your employees when they are in need of an understanding friend, mentor, or employer.

The great news is the psychology of transition isn’t difficult to understand.

CONTEXT

Once you get it, you will immediately begin identifying less obvious transition periods in your and other’s lives.

It will provide a context around much of that which you already know.

This context matters.

And communicating the context in an effective manner will strengthen your surrounding relationships.

It will enhance your ability to adapt to a new culture.

TRANSITIONS EXPERIENCED ABROAD

Last week I spent two hours Skyping with a professional psychologist in England that specializes in the study of life transitions.

The call originated from my intense curiosity surrounding the transition brought forth by extended time abroad.

I wanted to know more about culture shock, how long it typically lasts, and the tools to aid ones transition in and out of these experiences.

My goal is for the Be Multinational community to become experts on this subject.

This curiosity and desire led me to Dai Williams founder of EOS Life-Work.

Aside from being a great man, with intense depth in wanting to serve the world in deeper understanding of life changing events, his work is spot on.

TAKE NOTE

If you have ever traveled abroad for an extended period of time (over 6 months), take note.

If you have gone through a big transition at work, pull out your pen.

If you have been through a tough breakup or divorce, you will find value.

If you have a son or daughter, this applies.

If a quarter-life or mid-life crisis is tempting you in, expect this to help.

You get the point.  Life transitions are a part of being human.

They fill our lives.

You can’t escape them.

And more than one can occur at any given time.

Moving cities, changing jobs, and meeting a new love of your life.  All can happen together.

All will have you confronting the life realities you’ve long held close and determining which to shed and which to protect and stand upon.

5 MAIN PHASES

It must be noted that not all change leads to transition.  Yet, most big changes do.

And when they do, they tend to flow with consistency.

According to Mr. Williams, transitions consist of five main phases.

The initial shock / honeymoon comes immediately after the change occurs.  Then we naturally go into a provisional adjustment period.  This is followed up by inner contradictions, which lead to an inner crisis.  Finally, the transition, assuming all goes well, is wrapped up with a re-construction & recovery phase.

The full process typically takes between 6 to 12 months to cycle through, assuming the inner crisis doesn’t lead to an extended crisis or partial recovery.

Here’s an example of what the emotional curve looks like in a typical transition.

Chart recreated based upon the theories of Dai Williams and B. Hopson.

Think back to your first experience abroad.

DENIAL / HONEYMOON PHASE

Do you remember the excitement through the first couple months?

You were excited about everything.  You were willing to try anything.  You were able to overlook all the differences.

PROVISIONAL ADJUSTMENT PHASE

How about your coming of age when you started to recognize yourself as someone that is no longer a spectator enjoying the spectacle of the new town?  You were now a participant.

And you would catch yourself saying, “This is my life.”

INNER CONTRADICTIONS AND INNER CRISIS PHASES

You then had to begin constructing your life in a way that fit the local culture but honored your previous self.  The middle phases of transition occurred at this point.

The curve begins to fall downward.

You began to notice contradictions.  You had to face realities you believed as true before are no longer so.  This was stressful.  It often had you questioning whether you should be there at all.

You started to notice your acts of inconsistency.  You were unsure whether to defend the local viewpoints at times or your past self and culture.

RECONSTRUCTION & RECOVERY PHASE

If you made it through these middle phases, faced your fears, recalibrated your path and how you saw the world, then typically you were off on a positive re-constructive and recovery phase.

The crazy thing is your brain had actually been rewired when you made it through this final phase.  You now thought and saw the world differently.

And you were confident in these viewpoints.

DRAW YOUR OWN CURVE

Take out a piece of paper and draw out your first time living in a new place for an extended period of time.  Whether you moved cities as a child or moved to another country, the transition phases are rather similar.

How does your curve look?  How is it different?

I’d love to read about them.  Share them with the community on Be Multinational.

OTHER TRANSITIONS

Try it out for other transitions in your life.

Changing jobs, going through a hard break-up, or the loss of someone really close to you.

How is the curve different for these life experiences?  How are they similar?

Let us know! Leave comments below.

MY EXPERIENCE

I find this process both therapeutic and empowering.

I’m able to pinpoint to the exact week during my study abroad in Spain where I transitioned from the honeymoon stage to the this is my life and this is for real phase.

My family had come to visit for the holidays.  I spent the week explaining and defending both cultures.

It was both an incredible week I’ll never forget and one of the most difficult.

When my family left, I was on my own with much to sort out.

My American friends from first semester were now back home.  I had just moved out of my Spanish families home to live downtown with guys I’d never met.  They were from Germany and Venezuela.  And all the new American students were arriving.

I no longer fully identified with the American students.  They were too much Gringo for me now.

Nor was I fully connected into the international crowd.

WORKING THROUGH UNCERTAINTY
It took me a few months to work through this.

Who am I? What am I doing here?

Fortunately, the internationals drew me in with their loving selves and intense abilities to create and sustain community.

In the end, the last few months of my time in Spain were some of the best months of my life.I had transitioned fully through the process, made life-long friends from all over the world, and felt extremely confident in my place in that world.

Returning to the United States was an entirely new transition curve.  Reverse culture shock.  We’ll save this topic for another day.

Reflecting back on my experience leaves me less fearful of my next transition and confident in my ability to stick out the hardest part of the transition.

I hope it does the same for you.

What is your experience?  We want to hear it. Leave your comments below.

Travel Safe and Well,

Jeff 
Because Your Lifestyle Matters
Santa Barbara, California, USA

After eight months of setting down my book of the world, settling back into this American life, tonight I board a red-eye flight to Nicaragua to read another page.

While the travel will be for only five days, it is important.  The trip was booked with intention.

My Spanish is in desperate need of the cobwebs scraped clean. My hips have lost their Latin flavor, long months removed from salsa dancing in Havana. And my international relationships are growing cold.  Skype, Facebook, WhatsApp, and email can only bear so much weight.

Heaps of time away and I begin to lose my multinational self.

Multinational maintenance is required for long-term sustainability.

NICARAGUAN TUNE-UP
Wednesday morning at 9:30am I will step off TACA’s flight.  It will be muggy, in the mid 80′s, in Managua.

I will exchange pleasantries with those in the airport.  I’ll heave my bag into the back of a van.  The adventure will begin.

My gaze will then set out upon the busy, colorful streets, lulling my mind into a two hour meditative state as the wind dries my eyes, scatters my hair, and my brain begins clicking forward in Spanish with the driver.

In five days, if all goes well, my brain will be tuned-up.

Spanish will flow off my tongue and my ear will be dialed into the correct channel.  My hips will sway with greater fluidity.  Connections to inspiring new and old international friends will deepen.  Perhaps my surfing muscles and skills will hone in, too.

Entrenched in Latin American culture, I’ll have a better grasp in how to carry out warm, loving relationships centered around family, friends, community, and, of course, food and dance.

SHOES SHINED
I will return my feet to Santa Barbara soil renewed, enlivened, and impassioned.  I will slip on my pressed suit and shined work shoes with greater clarity and purpose.

The following Tuesday, in Santa Barbara, I’ll be meeting with a Spanish speaking mortgage client.  Wednesday I’ll be tempted to take on salsa night at a local bar.  Saturday I’ll get in a sunset surf with friends and referring clients.

Within the month I’ll be meeting with a group of fellows to discuss local, regional and international development projects, learning ways we can support our fellow man and woman.  My “Be Multinational” MeetUp will hold our first gathering of Santa Barbarans that have ventured all over the world.

And my focus in spreading this Be Multinational message will be sharpened.

Moreover, my creativity for adventure will have broadened.  I’ll see opportunities in the local region to charge up my endorphins never conceived before.

TRAVEL CATAPULTS US FORWARD
You see, most people look at travels as an escape, a relaxing week or more away.  We’ve been conditioned to look at it as completely separate from our roots at home.

I see it differently. I see it as a catapult forward. I see it as a driver in all that we do. I see it as a tool creator.  I see it as a tool sharpener.

Done right, travel is a differentiator. It refines our ability to think creatively. It deepens our patience. And, most importantly, it rinses us of entitlement.

IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE CORPORATE
Multinational companies have understood this for years. Their businesses now depend on connecting with the world.  Their success flourishes having eyes on the ground floor about the globe, while maintaining their home base.

The trend only continues in this direction.  Look out for my future article on what large organizations are doing and the type of employee they’re looking for.

Multinational doesn’t have to be corporate.

What is holding you personally back?  How can this community and I help you align your life, business and travel to support your progress?  How can we empower each other to be multinational?

LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS BELOW.

Interested in learning more about what we’re up to?  Continue reading.
QUESTIONNAIRE
By now most of you have had time to read my e-book.  Many have been wonderful about answering the questionnaire included in the email issuing out the e-book.  For those of you that have read it, but have yet to respond, please use this as a reminder.

BREADTH AND DEPTH
We are really working hard to provide information, e-books, and tools that will encourage us all on a regular basis to strive for greater breadth and depth in the world around us.  You are our client.  Your feedback is to be our guide.  Please comment often.  We want to hear the good, the bad and the ugly.

PARTNERSHIPS & SCHOLARSHIPS
Aside from pulling together phenomenal content that will engage, inspire and connect you, current efforts have us focused on the non-profits and for-profits with whom to partner, get the word out, and even provide some really supportive scholarships for people like yourselves to venture abroad for the first time.

Our first set of scholarships will be going to support those in their 20s who will be the first in their family to venture abroad for an extended period of time.  The organization through which these recipients will be vetted and funded has yet to be worked out.  We’re taking suggestions.

STORIES OF MULTINATIONALS
We have been inspired by 22 stories of everyday citizens venturing abroad, becoming multinational citizens in the process.  Now is the time to compound off this work.  We want stories.  We’re working hard to compile a list of 52 incredible stories of people living, working, studying and traveling abroad.  What’s your story?  What’s your friend’s story? Care to share with this community? LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW.

Travel Safe and Well,

Jeff 
Because Your Lifestyle Matters
Santa Barbara, California, USA

When was the last time you experienced a breakthrough in your life? When was the last time you conquered a fear and felt like you could take on anything in the world? When was the last time you upped your workout level beyond your typical level and intensity, finding a new gear?

You know that feeling. The one that feels like you’ve made a summit bid. You are standing on top of the mountains, on the shoulders of giants, and every bit of your body believes that you can be and do absolutely anything.

You could win the Olympics if you kept at your running, or at least win a local 5K race. You could write website code for your most admired organization. You could take over as CEO of your company. You could take on the challenges of the jungle or the more difficult travels of less beaten pathed countries.

Breakthrough moments confirm that we are on the steep learning curve in life, which we ought to all be on.

Challenging. Learning. Growing. REST. Challenging…

Coaching marathon runners and walkers for many years, I noticed how important certain workouts were for my athletes. For those that had never run a mile in their life, running a timed mile was their first breakthrough experience that set them off on finishing a half-marathon or full marathon. For others it was running a 10K (6.2 miles). Most people when they’ve run to stay in shape, they typically stay between the 30 minute and 1 hour range. 6.2 miles was pushing them just beyond this. For others it was participating in an actual race where they were competing alongside others, hyper-aware of their own energy and the others around them.

For all, completing the half-marathon or marathon left them exhausted and beyond elated. They wanted to tell the world. They wanted to scream from those mountain tops. The marathon medal was worn everywhere.

The large majority of these participants are still walking and running years later.

Breakthroughs happen when we venture beyond, into untrampled territory.

We breakthrough the sound barrier of our body. The sound barrier of our body yelling, kicking and screaming, telling us not to go forward. But we do anyhow. We know somewhere deep within, or perhaps we trust someone else, that all will be fine. We will live. We are capable. And we will achieve.

These are the moments where we experience extreme growth. Our plodding often turns into a sprint. We are set free.

The same happens in travel. First we venture beyond our hometown. Then we become willing to venture beyond the county. Then outside our state. Then outside the region. Then across the country. Then beyond our country’s border.

I remember my first time driving on my own to my sister’s university 1 hour and 15 minutes north. I drove along.  I grew in that drive.

Each experience gives us more confidence in diving deeper and pressing beyond our fears. Of course, there are times when we are shocked backwards. We have a set back. We get something stolen. We are left in a precarious situation. In these moments, as the cowboys say, “we must get back on the horse” immediately if we are to ever “ride” or travel again.

What is your next breakthrough in life going to be? How about travel?

It doesn’t have to be monumentous. It could be splashing back into the pool after taking years off from swimming laps. It could be a return trip to an easily traveled country after staying national for ten years.

Whatever it is, plan it now when you are done reading this sentence.  Now, share it with the Be Multinational community in the comment section below.

You’ve been given one Earth.  Live, travel, work and study about it.  

Jeff mentions in Be Multinational how he texts with his sister daily.  By 10pm they are to share one thing they are each grateful for from the day.

Eighteen months later and 1080 gratitudes shared between the two of them, the texts continue.

If one believes something to be important, they create ways to ensure these experiences or mindsets happen regularly no matter where one is at in the world and no matter what they are dealing with.

Travel can be exhilarating.  Travel can be exhausting.  It can be loud.  It can be deathly quiet.  Amidst it all, it is a great luxury.  For this reason, we believe it is ever more of a reason to ensure we are mindfully grateful of our experiences while traveling.

Do you find you are more grateful when you travel? Are you grateful for your present experience abroad?  Or does traveling leave you thinking about how grateful you are for traditions back home? Does it vary depending on where you are traveling? Are there ways you ensure you are taking in every moment, being mindful and thankful for this unique experience?

Would you agree it is important to be grateful for your life and your travels?

Here are five suggestions that can aid you in living out consistent gratitude and never forgetting this great luxury of travel:

JOURNAL
Writing daily about both your feelings and actions, events and adventures is useful. For most men, it is forgotten or intended in leaving out the feelings component. It is encouraged that both be included in a journal entry.  It connects the experience to an emotion, ensuring deeper understanding and connectivity to the event long-term.

The daily frequency we’ve found to be important because longer periods without writing can lead to not writing at all. Have you ever come back from a trip and started failing to remember great details? The worst is when in these moments you have no journal to look back upon? Know thyself. Write regularly.

REALITY CHECKS
At random moments in time throughout your travels stop what you are doing and vocalize “Reality check. We are in Buenos Aires, Argentina at 10am having a hot cup of Mate in the Palermo district watching the world go by and we feel energized.” This will ensure you and your fellow travelers never fail to remember the great luxury in travel.

COMPARE AND CONTRAST
As you walk about the city, trek up the mountains, or share in a meal with locals, ask yourself and your traveling companions the following questions. Notice how the questions are all in the positive. You are never asking yourself what you DON’T like.

- What are traditions here that I/we admire?
- What are traditions back home that I’m/we’re most grateful for that they don’t offer here?
- What traditions of theirs might I/we be able to bring back home and implement into our daily, weekly, monthly living?
- What experiences are leaving me/us, happy, content, fulfilled, at peace, calmed?

STOP AND REST
When we are in our earlier years of travel, many of us get caught up in trying to do too much when we travel. We have a checklist, and we want to complete it. We run on less sleep. We snap some photos at historic points, then run onward.

Take preventative action when planning your trip to ensure moments of time where you have an extra day in a city, completely free to nap, wander, sip on coffee or tea, decode the local language, lie in the tub, or sit on the porch and read a book.

If you are consistently finding that you don’t have enough time to journal and reflect on your experiences, this could be your first sign of the need to slow down, stop, rest, and express your gratitude for all you are getting to do, feel, taste, hear, and see.

CONSCIOUSLY CONNECT WITH THE LOCALS
We’ve found that positive, intimate experiences with the locals heighten our sense of gratitude. It connects us to the town in which we’re traveling. We know we are not a local, but it sure moves us farther away from being a tourist, and amps up our joy for the local view point.

…We recognize this list could be far greater than five. We’d love to hear your ways of carrying about a consistent sense of gratitude while traveling.

You’ve been given one Earth.  Live, travel, work and study about it.  

On a scale of 1 to 10 how much freedom do you have in your life overall?

How much freedom in your job?  How much freedom in your home?  How about within your extended family?  Your friends?  In the public arena of walking down the streets, crossing when you want to?

How much do you value freedom?  Would you consider it one of your life pilars?  What freedoms would have to be taken away from you to fight for them?  What freedoms are you willing to give up in order to strengthen other freedoms?

Being from a country that prides itself on freedom, it is curious as to how often people take it for granted and fail to recognize the freedoms available to them.

At the same time, we’ve grown up in systems and structures that were anything but freedom.  We are required to attend school through 16 years old in most states.  Corporate America then has us shackled into attending a 4 year university if we want to get a consistent, solid paying job with benefits.  Once a part of Corporate America, we are given a very explicit job description to follow.  Someone else has created these structures so their life is more free, yet the lives below them become more rigid.

Those on the top delegate out responsibility to ensure freedom is maintained.  Those on the bottom give up their freedoms for security.

This isn’t to say we are against educating oneself or attending a higher education or even considering a job in Corporate America.  It is only to remind ourselves to recognize the freedoms that people are giving up in living in the lower rungs within these systems.  They are giving up freedoms to ensure they have consistencies and safeties.

Traveling abroad we’ve found as an incredible tool in analyzing our freedoms.  It offers us a prism from which to see freedom.  We see how other countries have complete freedoms in living out their day-to-day lives, drinking alcohol in the streets, or very little freedoms due to class systems (aristocracies) or not being able to spit on the sidewalk.

We realize breaking free of the chains is different for each of us.

These abroad experiences help solidify our definition of what it means to be personally free, how much it means to us, and, most importantly, to appreciate or fight for it.

You’ve been given one Earth.  Live, travel, work and study about it.  

We’re huge nerds about TED.com.  And this same nerdiness is starting to form around TED Talks that are drawn out on white board, like the UPS commercials, by RSAnimate.

A recent talk that grabbed our attention is by  Jeremy Rifkin on “the empathic civilization”.  In his ten minute talk, he draws up his belief as to why the next step of humanity’s consciousness and empathy is to ”extend our identities to think of the human race as our fellow sojourners.”

Humanity has morphed it’s identity as population, industry, religion, and nation states have spread.  We have banded our identity to our tribe, our theological beliefs, our flag.

Our empathic sense linked into those similar to us in these ways.  These were the people we were physically around or from whom we heard news.  Our neurons would mirror their experiences, our instincts taking over, allowing us to “experience another’s plight as if we’re experiencing it ourselves.”

Given technology and the spread of information through social media, our empathic sense is naturally being stretched beyond our current identities, calling us upon our instincts to begin experiencing the plight of others in remote towns and villages, living under a different national banner, praying to a different god, and daily walking far different steps than our own.

The 2010 earthquake in Haiti was perfect example of this.  As of May 2010, $1.3 billion had been donated through 96 non-profits, with an average donation of $50.  As of January 2012, $3 billion had been donated by the US and $12 billion overall.  Humanity’s empathic sense took over.  They couldn’t help but give.

But were we to only understand this side of the story, we’d have a great case for never leaving our own town.  If our empathic instinct is going to take over every time a world disaster hits, then what is the purpose in being multinational?  We’d have no reason to venture beyond our borders and see, touch, hear, and taste for ourselves the day-to-days of these people.

Only when we work for an NGO abroad or spend extended periods of time in cities of great wealth and extreme poor, do we begin to understand the complexities.  Only when we begin connecting with other expats working years in environments abroad, do we learn about the terrible challenges in ensuring the billions of pledged dollars go to the Haitian people.  (Some articles note, 1% of the US pledged funds actually went to the Haitian people.  The rest went to US Aid organizations and military outfits).

Increasing collaboration and reducing the corruption will always be important.  Effectively drawing up plans as to how to prevent the negatives and propel the positives when disaster strikes is equally needed.

I’m hopeful.

We are half way there if we allow our empathic selves to grow subconsciously broader, extending our families and sense of identity. The second half will be made up in educating ourselves as to what to do when this empathy for citizens across the globe takes over.

How might we ensure great waste is limited?  We need more brilliant minds in on these debates.  And brilliant minds are constructed and compounded when more people venture outside their comfort zones to experience extended periods of time abroad.

You’ve been given one Earth.  Travel, live, work and study about it.  

It is curious to us that most people with whom we converse seem to forget the immense beauty about the planet we habitat.  Natural and human made beauty.

Sunsets, storms, lakes, city landscapes, night skies, stone walls, green pastures, deserts, rock formations, caves, castles, trees, tree lines, religious buildings and flowers.  There are shocking uniquenesses about them.

Things as basic as clouds 11,000 feet up at Lake Titicaca can have you lying on the hillside mesmerized.  Or watching a sunset from Pao de Acucar transitioning natural light to the city lights, giving glow to the neighborhood pockets, mountains, lakes, and ocean about Rio de Janeiro.  Might this be the most beautiful city in the world from above?

Then we walk through the streets of Paris or an indigenous town in Bolivia, overwhelmed by the beauty of the buildings and/or the people.  We’ve seen thousands upon thousands of buildings before.  Why are these jaw dropping?  Why are these people tugging at our curiosity?

This planet we live on is brilliantly beautiful.

You’ve been given one Earth.   Travel, live, work and study about it.  

Where to start?  Most, if you’ve spent little time abroad, have no idea where to begin.  To tell the truth, most never even think to begin because they don’t even think going abroad is an option for them.

Reality is far different than you’ve long thought.  The truth is there are far more options than you’ll ever need.  There are so many options, in fact, that I’m confident, no matter your situation, you can find one that will meet your needs.

You can go abroad.  This is all you need to know for now.  It is possible.  Silence the rest of the noise.  You can!

OPTIONS A PLENTY:

Depending upon your current state of personal affairs your ways of experiencing an extended stay abroad may differ.  Yet, whether you are 15, 20, 28, or 65, there are options a plenty.

The most common option, and one the majority of westerners think of, is to study abroad through an exchange type program during your high school or university years.  Most offer options to live with local families or students from your country of origination.  Living with the families and studying the local language in your classes is an excellent way to quickly learn and become proficient in a language.

Being the most common, doesn’t mean it is right for you.

Below are some quick ideas to get your brainstorm on.  Pull out a piece of paper or open “notepad” on your computer once you’ve read them through.  Take 10 minutes and begin writing down every possible way you could see yourself venturing abroad.  Though I’ve made notes about financial realities, during your brainstorm session, don’t squash ideas because of them, or even hard to get working visas, or perceived safety.  We’re not there yet.  Keep your options open.

RAPID FIRE OPTIONS:

Teaching English can be a great option offering public speaking practice, regular connectivity with the locals and a paying salary.

You could apply for a fellowship or internship through western non-profits and for profits looking for anyone willing to carry out work for free or a small stipend.

Volunteer opportunities abound.  Just because it is volunteer doesn’t mean you won’t be spending some money.  Often times the organization will offer food and/or housing, which leads them to charging.  The financial cost is usually quite reasonable, though.

For some, they have the purpose of spreading their faith.  Mission trips are readily available as a feasible option, often funded by the church or its members.

Most people rarely think about asking their corporation about opportunities to work abroad.  Being that organizations are starting to become more multinational in nature and scope, you might just find yourself with a nice paying job and your company footing the moving bill, language classes, and many other amenities and/or bonuses for being willing to work abroad.

Each of these categories you will find fractal outward.  Don’t be overwhelmed.  Be grateful that there are so many incredible options, allowing you to fit one to be most agreeable to your age, goals, profession, and region of highest attraction.

You’ve been given one Earth.  Travel, live, work and study about it.