Posted: 05/07/16 | March 7th, 2016
Last month, after suffering from enhanced anxiety and mild panic attacks, I stepped away from this website, spent a lot of time alone, went hiking in Patagonia, and sought to rebalance my life.
I needed to clear my mind and come back to everything in my life with fresh eyes.
As a travel writer, I share all the places I go and exciting things I do. It’s easy to think of my life as continuously moving from one fantastic thing to the next. but social media and blogging present a warped image of my life, because all that gets shown is the good stuff.
You don’t see the days I spend in cafés, the sleepless nights, the hours spent writing or searching for an Internet connection. Running a site with over one million monthly visitors is a full-time job, and when you throw in a penchant to start new projects (a blogging school, a charity), and a travel conference, I’m too often the busiest of bees. I like staying busy — but there’s busy and there’s overworked.
It wasn’t until I threw on my backpack again that I realized I was overworking.
I had bitten off much more than I could chew; I was juggling too numerous balls. I couldn’t work full-time, travel full-time, and also find time to just delight in the moment. As a consequence, everything suffered.
I love this job I have created. writing is cathartic for me, and this blog is as much a journal for me as it is a travel guide for you. and I also love immersing myself in a destination, starting new businesses, and being on the move!
On their own, all the things I love in my life bring me remarkable joy.
But I realize I simply can’t juggle everything anymore. This site has too numerous moving parts, my nonprofit is picking up, and I want to get offline more. trying to do them all at once implies I can’t do any of them well and they become sources of anxiety, not joy.
I hadn’t discovered this before because I was doing them all while at home in new York City.
But then I went on the road — and I felt like I was drowning. I just felt a weight on my shoulders I never felt before. I couldn’t delight in anything.
While in a hostel in Argentina, I was sad with envy taking a look at the travelers around me without a care in the world. They were just there soaking it all in. None of them had to wake up for an 8am meeting or worry about video submit speeds. They could just delight in the destination and worry about work when they got home. It didn’t travel with them.
Over the last few months, the thought of doing anything has left me paralyzed with anxiety. I found no pleasure in anything. each time I did one thing, I thought about all the other things I wanted or had to do. If you haven’t experienced anxiety, you don’t know what I am talking about, but it’s not a good feeling to feel helpless for no reason.
So, sensing how things were going, I took February off and started the process of trying to get back to me. I spent weeks by myself. I went hiking in Patagonia. I deleted emails. I kept the computer shut. I went to bed at a normal bedtime. Jeg leser mye.
As time went on and I stopped juggling so numerous plates at once, the eye-twitching anxiety melted away. It was lost somewhere on the W trek in Patagonia.
As I came back online and into my old life, I realized the same patterns were slowly re-emerging. Intentions are great, but actions are all that matters. All I learned about the cause of my problems (trying to do it all) was being pushed aside by old habits.
I need to untangle my life and create new patterns where my passions bring me joy, not panic. and one of those new patterns is changing how I deal with work.
I love this site and the community we’ve created, but I have let the nature of the Internet control me. It never shuts off. It’s there 24/7/365. because I’m a workaholic, I don’t know how to stop. If I don’t set boundaries, work will consume me even even more (through no one’s fault but my own) and that’s no good.
So I’m announcing some changes:
I’ve taken email off my phone. No longer will I check my emails and be a slave to my device. It’s felt fantastic no longer continuously reacting to a ding like Pavlov’s dogs.
I’ve amended my email policy to be clearer on what emails will get a response. It’s too hard to keep up with 200 emails per day. As much as I want to help everyone, I am only one man.
I’m taking my weekends back and no longer working outside Monday through Friday. (My team is helping enforce this.)
For the time being, I’ve chose to stop answering comments on this blog. I went back and forth on this, but it’s something I need to do best now. I love reading your reactions and seeing everyone interact with each other and can always be reached through email, social media, or the forums, but for now, I will no longer be responding to comments on the blog itself.
And, many dramatically, I am no longer going to travel and work at the same time.
Detteer den viktigste årsaken til angsten min. Det kommer til å bli bare det ene eller det andre. Når du er på veien, vil datamaskinen være hjemme. Jeg er på mitt beste og på det lykkeligste når jeg kan fokusere på hver enkelt ting individuelt. Jeg er mange begeistret for hver når de holder seg borte fra hverandre. Men når jeg prøver å blande dem, gir de meg mye stress.
Jeg kunne takle sjongleringen før, men ikke lenger. For å komme tilbake til mitt glade sted, planlegger jeg å fokusere på hver enkelt hver for seg. Når jeg er hjemme, jobber jeg. Når jeg er på veien, reiser jeg som jeg pleide å … som hvordan jeg så de ryggsekkturerne i Mendoza. Denne turen til Australia er siste gang jeg tar med meg datamaskinen med meg.
Dette er store forandringer for meg, og det vil ta tid å bli vant til dem, men jeg vet at det å skape grenser og grenser vil hindre meg i å bli gal og vil poppe xanax som godteri. Roma ble ikke bygget på en dag, og mental helse er en lang reise.
Men mens jeg skriver dette nå i Australia, føler jeg meg friere. De små endringene jeg allerede har gjort har hjulpet mye. Angsten min var fordi jeg snurret for mange retter på en gang, men nå innser jeg at når jeg bare henter en om gangen, kan jeg bli mitt gamle, oppfylte meg selv igjen.
Hvordan reise verden rundt på $ 50 om dagen
My New York Times bestselgende pocketbok guide til verdensreiser vil instruere deg hvordan du kan mestre kunsten å reise slik at du kommer fra allfarvei, sparer penger og har en dypere reiseopplevelse. Det er din A til Z -planleggingsguide at BBC kalte “Bibelen for budsjettreisende.”
Klikk her for å lære mye mer og begynn å lese den i dag!
Bestill turen: Logistiske forslag og triks
Bestill flyet ditt
Finn en billig flytur ved å bruke Skyscanner. Det er min favoritt søkemotor fordi den søker på nettsteder og flyselskaper over hele kloden, slik at du alltid vet at ingen stein er igjen.
Bestill innkvarteringen din
Du kan bestille vandrerhjemmet ditt med Hostelworld. Hvis du vil bo et annet sted enn et herberge, kan du bruke booking.com, da de konsekvent returnerer de rimeligste prisene for gjestehus og hotell.
Ikke glem reiseforsikring
Reiseforsikring vil ivareta deg mot sykdom, skade, tyveri og kanselleringer. Det er omfattende beskyttelse i tilfelle noe går galt. Jeg drar aldri på tur uten det, da jeg har måttet bruke den flere ganger i fortiden. Mine favorittbedrifter som tilbyr den beste servicen og verdien er:
Safetywing (best for alle)
Forsikre turen min (for de over 70)
MedJet (for ytterligere evakueringsdekning)
Klar til å bestille turen?
Sjekk ut ressurssiden min for de beste selskapene å bruke når du reiser. Jeg lister opp alle de jeg bruker når jeg reiser. De er de beste i klassen, og du kan ikke gå galt ved å bruke dem på turen.
