But what really spurred this article is I was having a chat with Henri a few days ago and the topic of reading came up.
Specifically we were discussing taking notes and the Kindle and how it makes highlighting easy (and much quicker than pen/paper).
Tangent: I have a lot of issues with publishers of Kindle books, but the product itself is phenomenal. Publishers, like record companies, seem to be run by idiots.
We were also discussing how when we take notes we never really go back and read over those notes. There’s also the issue of losing the notes. This all defeats the purpose of taking the notes, doesn’t it?
But rereading notes is important for retention of what you just read. Double edged sword!
I’ve been known to read complete books and not remember reading them a year or two later. 40 pages into reading something (for the 2nd time): “Wait, I’ve read this before!”
Part of the problem is I read a lot (tore through 5 or 6 books in the past 2 weeks). But a bigger part of the problem is I’ve never had a successful note taking / re-reading / retention strategy.
Until now.
I’m sharing this with you because I feel like if I’ve had a problem with reading retention then you may have the same problem as well. And if you’re like most of us, you probably also don’t have a phenomenal strategy for note taking.
1) Stop Taking Notes
It never worked for me and I don’t know many people who do it well. What I do instead of taking notes is take a few minutes after a reading session to think about what I read. Let the thoughts formulate as they will and mull them over.
It sounds very basic.
But it’s not easy for the simple fact that most reading sessions are probably not intentionally stopped, but instead, they’re interrupted. Which brings me to …
2) If You’re Reading Something You Want To Remember, Set Aside Time For It
If you’re reading something just for fun and it doesn’t matter to you whether you remember much of it then this doesn’t pertain to you. :)
If you’re reading most non-fiction books (95% of what I read) you’re probably reading them to learn something. In this case, it’s important that you’re focused on the reading, not on e-mail, your cell phone, or whatever else might come along.
If you’ve set aside 30 minutes for reading, read for 25, and spend the last 5 minutes simply playing it all back in your head.
Whenever I come across a passage that I think is killer I highlight it. Kindle remembers this highlight for me and I never have to think about “where did I put those notes?” The less you have to think about here the easier it will be to stay focused. Highlighting is a quick procedure that takes a few button clicks, barely interrupting your reading experience.
4) Review
When you’re finished reading the whole book, immediately go through all the highlights. Kindle, again, makes this very easy. This will probably take less than 10 minutes, but it will help immensely in imprinting everything that’s fresh on your mind deeper into your brain.
If you’re the type of person who takes weeks or months to read one book then you’ll want to review your highlights more often. I finish most books in a few days, and I only read one book at a time, so everything is tightly focused and fresh on my mind.
This sounds like a sales pitch for the Kindle. In a way, I guess it is.
Not only has the Kindle revolutionized the way I buy, read, retain, organize, and travel with books, but it has revolutionized the publishing industry in general. And although I’m pissed I can get a new one for half the price I paid for mine, I’m happy that lower prices means more people will embrace the inevitable future of publishing.
Does traveling the world automatically make you cultured?
Buying a very closed system Apple computer and putting a Creative Commons sticker on it is culture? Hmm...
“It is not part of a true culture to tame tigers, any more than it is to make sheep ferocious.” – Henry David Thoreau
If I met you on the street (or at BlogWorld, see you there?) and asked you “What does it mean to be cultured?” how would you respond?
Rabah tweeted that I’m cultured because of my wide and varied musical tastes. I know he was just joking, but it got me thinking.
Is that culture? Being into artists like Death, In Flames, Fiona Apple, Regina Spektor, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Trick Daddy, Merle Haggard, Lady Gaga and others?
I don’t fully agree with that.
It’s a topic that comes up a lot with travelers. Like you’re automatically cultured if you’re a traveler. Or if you’ve been to a lot of countries you’re more cultured than someone who’s been to less. Well, that’s just not true. Because I believe if someone is cultured they’re not prejudice or racist. And let’s just say I’ve run into lots of close-mindedness over the past year amongst very well traveled individuals.
So, what then? Is there a good definition for a cultured individual?
According to Dictionary.com it means enlightened; refined. As most text-book definitions go, that’s pretty meaningless.
I know what cultured doesn’t mean to me.
If I hear someone say “I hate [insert style of music/art/books/etc]” I feel like that’s someone who’s not cultured. I understand not liking a particular artist, piece of art, or thing, but not liking a whole genre or group is impossible to me.
Personal example: I don’t like reading fiction, but I give it a shot regularly. Lo and behold, a few years ago (after a recommendation) I read The Alchemist and I’ve been hooked on Paulo Coelho books since. I give other fiction books a try if they come highly recommended as well even if, on the whole, I dislike fiction.
Another example: I used to say I hated country music. It’s true, I hated what I had heard up to that point. Then somehow, some way, I heard Merle Haggard. Now I can say I love country music, even if it is just Merle Haggard at this time. :)
So am I saying I’m cultured? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. I curse a lot and I wear the same clothes almost every day. Do cultured people curse? Do cultured people wear incredibly plain, not particularly nice-looking, clothes? Or maybe cultured people only curse when the public is not watching? And maybe being cultured means you wear nice clothes in public, but in private it’s sweats and Ts? You know, put on a facade.
Mostly, I’m saying I’m ignorant of a lot of things and open to a lot of things.
What’s My Definition of Cultured?
Respect what you’re ignorant of.
If we all followed that rule we’d live in a much happier place.
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Note: I’m on a train right now. (The magic of WordPress scheduling!) I’m not sure when I’ll get back online so comment moderation might be slow. But please do leave a comment if you have something to say and we’ll chat when I can. :) Also, no Sweet Saturday update this weekend. It was always meant to be occasional, but we went 18 straight weeks! :)
Here is why the 5 sentences e-mail rule is so important and why I expect you to use it …
I’ve written about sending short, succinct e-mails in the past (Fear of Competition Is Bullshit), but I’ve never delved deeper into the subject.
I’ve been utilizing the 5 Sentences E-mail Rule for a while now. I first heard about it a long time ago in Leo Babauta’s The Power of Less, but I never thought it was possible for the majority of my communication. In October of 2009 Leo published The Art of Brief E-mails and I decided to give it a shot. Although it took me a while before I felt comfortable using it for almost every e-mail.
I don’t follow a lot of what Leo writes in that article. For example, when I get an e-mail without a subject line I get a weird feeling of anxiety in the pit of my stomach. Kind of a “What the hell is this?” That’s probably just social conditioning so I’d like to thank David for always sending brief e-mails without a subject line to help me out with that. :)
The most important part of Leo’s article, to me, is the section on Editing:
Edit. I know, you want to write it and send it and forget it. Well, that’s rude, to the recipient. You’re saying they don’t deserve a good email. I’m not saying you need to spend hours making every email perfect, but if you can take 10 seconds to go back over an email, remove unnecessary sentences and words, you’ll be doing your recipient (and yourself) a favor.
At first it was a struggle for me …
“But there’s so much back story! This person needs to read the back story before I can get to the question/reason for e-mail!”
When you first start utilizing the 5 sentences rule that will probably be your biggest challenge. You’re convinced whoever is reading your e-mail needs every single extraneous bit of information before they are able to respond.
That is simply not true.
What I’ve found when I receive really long e-mails (not everybody respects the 5 sentences rule) is that usually right at the end there’s the golden ticket.
“So what I’m getting at is … [insert question].”
Everything after the “So what I’m getting at is” part is usually all that is necessary for an e-mail.
Example E-mail
“Hey [Person]!
Thanks for rocking. Quick question: [insert question]
Thank you so much,
Karol”
Mission complete!
Questions or proposals never need a back story. Never.
I Love To Help
No joke. I love reading e-mails, I love getting to know you, and I love answering questions. I love to help. The problem is, the more this blog grows, the more e-mails I receive and the more difficult it becomes to respond in a timely manner. By putting these rules in place now it will be much easier in the future as this movement continues to grow.
I ask you to utilize the 5 sentences rule not just for me, but out of respect for your fellow Freedom Fighters. They have questions and want answers as well. If you send short, succinct e-mails, that means I can more easily help more of you. Woohoo!
Practice and Social Conditioning
The only way to get better at this is to practice. Start sending very short e-mails to everybody.
More words does not mean higher quality. Unfortunately we’ve been conditioned to think the opposite. In school you had to write a “10 page essay” when 5 pages would do. In blogging an article over 1,000 words is “high quality” while an article of 500 words is “thrown together.” We need to change that because it’s simply not true.
Two of my favorite blogs are by Derek Sivers (Sivers.org) and Seth Godin (http://sethgodin.typepad.com). You will very rarely find them writing posts longer than a few hundred words. Interestingly, they both also respect the short succinct e-mail. Coincidence? No.
The One Situation Where You Should Never Break The Rule
The 5 sentences rule can be broken and I do break it myself. I would say 95% of the e-mails I send are 5 sentences or less and the other 5% are of varying length.
Here is where the 5 sentences rule should never be broken: initial contact.
After the initial contact, you might be asked to go into more detail on your question/comment/statement. In that case, fire away!
It boils down to what Leo mentioned: respect. Sending a busy person (in other words, everybody) a 500 word e-mail is disrespectful of their time. Send them a short e-mail and they will love you for it.
“Setbacks are discouraging, but you should always try to channel that feeling into positive action.” – Richard Branson
I don’t know where or why it came upon me so suddenly, but for the past couple of weeks I’ve been hit hard with a scarcity mindset. Scarcity is an incredibly toxic mindset to have. In my particular case, it’s the feeling that bad things happen to good people. Kind of a “nice guys finish last” approach to everything.
I usually focus on abundance. Whatever you or I want, we can have. I believe it and I live it.
And yet …
Scarcity is running rampant in my mind lately.
I feel like this blog isn’t growing as quickly as it should. (Even thought it’s growing phenomenally well.) I feel like HTLA isn’t selling enough. (Even though it’s selling quite well.) I feel like my Polish language is getting worse. (Maybe it is?) I feel like my guitar playing is weak and uninspired. And so on … I won’t continue with the depressing details!
Sometimes I feel like I can blame it on the weather. Shitty weather (i.e. the weather here for 90% of the past 2 weeks) utterly ruins me. It’s one of the only elements of life I have not been able to defeat with a mind-over-matter attitude.
Not Alone
I know I’m not the only person to have feelings of scarcity at some point or another.
Chris Guillebeau has written about it in Expanding The Pie. That was written in February of 2009 and I remember reading it back then and thinking “man, it must be normal for successful people to feel this way sometimes.”
I identify with so much of what Chris writes in that article.
And yet …
That doesn’t help break through the feelings of scarcity.
In most ways, life is better than it has ever been.
Money?
This scarcity really has no basis.
a) There’s nothing I want to buy. And if there was, and it fit with my goals, I’d buy it.
b) Everything I want to do, I do. (OK, I can’t afford a trip to space right now, but I’ll make that happen somehow. ;) )
Health?
Maybe it’s the fact that I somehow caught a cold for the first time in forever recently and that has me questioning my diet. Truthfully, I know I’m just supporting the local veg restaurants a little too much as opposed to eating my regular awesome diet. I also know that there is no such thing as a perfect immune system and the fact that I haven’t been ill in such a long time should be a consolation.
And yet …
It’s still hanging over me. (And I just realized the statement about making the trip to space happen somehow is a straight up abundance mindset. Hmmm …)
Relationships?
“I don’t want to be lonely, I just want to be alone.” – Daniel Johns
Maybe it has something to do with the fact that relationships like the ones you make when you only stay in a place for a few months (give or take) are fleeting. What’s the point of investing a lot of time in a relationship (platonic or romantic) if there’s an almost certain end point?
If you know me you know I love spending time alone, so sometimes I’ll cut myself off from people for no real reason. I actually need to spend a lot of time alone. (I even own the domain HowToBeAlone.com!) Being social is fun, but it’s incredibly exhausting for me. I haven’t found a balance. It’s usually all or nothing, which I know is no good.
Annoyances
Things have been annoying me more lately. Maybe that’s related to the scarcity mindset? Stupid petty things like people walking in the middle of the sidewalk (instead of off to one side) and not allowing any room to pass on my bike. Or seeing an overweight person devouring a burger while walking down the street. (A regular occurrence now that Poland is getting more Westernized and waistlines are exxxxxxxpppaaaannndddiiiinnngggggg.) People are free to walk on a walkway and eat unhealthy fatty foods however and wherever they want. Why should I care? I usually don’t. What’s different lately?
An Abundance of Ideas and Scarcity of Action
Sometimes it might seem like I’m some kind of superhuman. And part of that might be on purpose. :) But I’m no different than you. I struggle with things. Maybe not the same things, but I have problems just like anybody else.
Lately I’ve been having more ideas than ever, both business and “other” (as in, awesome stuff I want to do), but I don’t take action on them. The reason is simple. Focus. There are very few people (looking at you Pat Flynn, you bad ass; Pat’s blog: Smart Passive Income) who can successfully devote time to multiple projects concurrently.
The fact that I have all of these ideas and no outlet for them might be breeding this scarcity mindset. I’m devoting all my focus to writing lately and I love it. So no complaints about that. But what happens to everything else? It sits in a Google Document called Awesome Ideas and nothing ever comes of them. Maybe purging all of those ideas is the answer?
As we all know, ideas don’t mean a damn thing. Action is almost everything. So what would it matter if I deleted all those “great” ideas? I don’t know what would happen, but I can’t bring myself to do it.
Get Pissed
I recently did an interview with Henri Juntilla for his self improvement blog (you have to subscribe to his e-mail list to get it … although not sure when he’s releasing it) and he asked me about getting things done and making shit happen. Actually, I don’t remember the exact question. The answer was (paraphrased): “When something doesn’t work out I get pissed at myself and work at it until I figure it out.” Henri and I both agreed on that “getting pissed at ourselves” point and I wonder how many other people use that same strategy.
Maybe the problem is I haven’t gotten pissed about this yet.
How To Deal With Scarcity?
Most people will probably say focus on others. And I agree. I think a lot of it does boil down to focusing more on others instead of myself. Exactly how, I’m not entirely sure. I give a lot to entrepreneur’s through Kiva. I help people like crazy via e-mail and I love doing that, especially when the Five Sentences E-mail Rule is followed. ;) I even help people on Skype when I’m on and somebody contacts me.
Does that help? Lately, it only helps temporarily.
And since this is no different than what I usually do, I don’t think it’s supposed to help.
Maybe I have to go above and beyond? Maybe, but I’m not sure what that even means.
Awesome E-mails
As you may know, I have a Gmail Label called “Awesome E-mails.” If you’ve sent me an e-mail praising me or this site your e-mail gets tagged as awesome. I posted on Twitter last week that I’ve been getting a lot more of these e-mails than usual.
To me, this proves that what I’m doing here is working out exactly how I originally planned.
Why hasn’t this erased the scarcity mindset?
Why Post This?
I had no plans of posting anything about this. This article doesn’t have any apparent lessons, does it? Or does it? I’m posting it because I do my best to be open here and this is what’s happening right now. I know it won’t last, but I’m in the thick of it. I didn’t expect it to last as long as it has and I’m not sure if I should just let it pass or somehow actively destroy it.
I don’t have all the answers and I don’t currently have a good answer for this.
Comments Turned Off
I’ve shut off comments on this post. I definitely appreciate all the help, but lots of comments were mistaking depression for a scarcity mindset. While they can be related, they are two separate beasts here. I also appreciate all the kind words, but I wasn’t fishing for compliments. ;)
Reading this over now I see how this mistake could easily be made and it’s my fault for not being clear in my writing here.
How one small change added $600 in revenue to this blog + 17 improvements we can make in business and in life …
You probably haven’t noticed, but 2 months ago I added two links to the bottom right corner of this blog. One for the Web host I use and one for the WordPress theme I use.
Nothing special. Just small links that, again, you probably never even noticed.
Baker actually suggested I do this a good 6 months ago, but I just never got around to it.
In the past 2 months, those tiny links that almost nobody notices have resulted in an extra $600 (ok, something like $570) in affiliate commissions. Not extravagant, but wow, pretty amazing for something that took 5 minutes. They’re both products I’ve used since Day 1 of this blog so I can feel good about recommending them as well.
And this got me thinking.
Where else can we make tiny improvements in business and life that will produce massive results?
If you’re familiar with the Japanese philosophy of kaizen, you know how important small, consistent improvements are.
Following are 17 ways we can massively improve our businesses and our lives.
Business
1) Send just one e-mail per day to somebody you respect, but have never connected with. Nothing crazy, just a few sentences saying “hey, I really like your work.”
2) Schedule Skype chats with people you’ve connected with via e-mail/twitter. I’ve done this so rarely it’s sad. Especially because I always come away from these chats incredibly energized.
3) Test a new sales page headline.
4) Test out a new place to advertise.
5) Create more quality content. This could be a whole list unto itself. Maybe a future article? :)
6) Form a mastermind group to bounce ideas off of and to have people who will hold you accountable.
7) Read a new (or classic) business book and take action on what you learn.
8) To get noticed by someone “out of your league” send them a lot of traffic or make them a bunch of sales. (If you’ve listened to the HTLA interview with John Reese you already know this.) If you don’t already have a big audience you can do this with paid advertising (like Google Adwords or Facebook Ads). I assure you it will be worth the tiny investment.
9) Write one really good guest article and send it to somebody with a huge audience.
Life
10) Say “hi” to more people. In actuality, and I’m guilty of this, most of us probably go days (weeks? months?) without introducing ourselves to someone new. You can start small. Say “hi” to one person and see what happens.
11) Eat at least 1 piece of fruit/veggie with every meal. That doesn’t seem like much, but it’s a lot more than most people eat.
12) When you’re bored read a book instead of turning on the TV. If you’re not sure what to read, check out the awesome comments here.
13) Remove one cause of stress from your life. Maybe it’s a messy desk. Maybe it’s a toxic friend. Whatever it is, removing the stress will make you feel better.
14) Put yourself on a 30 day trial. Maybe you’ll stop drinking alcohol? Or maybe you’ll exercise for just 1 minute every day. Or maybe you’ll write in a journal. There are countless things you can test out for 30 days.
15) Stretch. But I don’t mean physically. I mean do something that makes you a little uncomfortable. It could be something small like going to the movies alone. Or maybe you’ll be brave and sing karaoke for the first time. You don’t have to do this every day, but regular stretching will do you wonders.
16) Scratch something off of your bucket list. If you don’t have a bucket list, do something you’ve always wanted to do but, for whatever reason, haven’t yet.
17) Relax.
What other small improvements can we make in our businesses and our lives?
You can read. You can listen. You can watch. But you won’t learn a damn thing unless you …
A while back I mentioned, in passing, that I want to tour Route 66 in the US next year on a bicycle. I’ve never done a long bike tour, but ever since mentioning it I’ve had it in the back of my mind.
The first thing I know is that it’s going to be difficult. :)
But I was more worried about the bike. Due to my traveling I want to get a bike when I get back to the States in October which I can then take with me wherever I decide to go next. (Not so secret where that is, but I’m still not 100% decided, so I’ll just leave it at that!) That means I’d have to spend a lot of money to take the bike on a plane. And it would also be an incredible hassle.
It’s a good idea to train on the actual bike I’d be using for that epic journey across one of the USA’s first highways so that’s why I want to get the bike when I’m back in the US to take it with me to my next destination.
Last week, while talking to Tammy, she said I should consider a folding bike such as BikeFriday, which would make taking it on planes/trains/anywhere easy. While I’m quite familiar with folding bikes (lots of people in Wroc?aw ride them around) I didn’t think they’d be good for long distances. But Tammy sent me an article, which linked to an article, which linked to an article that proved me wrong. (Here’s the final article, ha!)
Apparently, it’s not a completely crazy idea to take a custom-built (and sort of expensive) folding bike on a long bike tour. The more I think about it, the more I want to do just that.
I’m not fully sold on a folding bike yet, but it is a very intriguing option.
While I may not be fully decided, I’ve become a little bit obsessed with reading about bikes and bike touring. Especially all the great articles at http://www.bicycletouringpro.com.
After spending hours upon hours reading a few days ago, I realized something. It’s something I talk about regularly, but I wasn’t taking my own advice.
I could read about bike touring until the end of time, but without taking action on it I won’t learn very much.
We don’t learn very much by reading, listening, or watching. We learn by doing.
Before I started traveling I thought I had it all figured out. And while all the research I did before embarking on my adventures did help a little, actually getting out there and traveling helped a lot more.
I’ve learned a lot of little things. Like, who knew washing my clothes in a bag would work out so well? I’m still using the same aLoksak I’ve been using since Day 1 in Australia almost 11 months ago! It can’t be used as an actual waterproof bag anymore (I ripped the top), but it still works for washing. :)
I’ve also become more experienced in eating a vegan diet while traveling. This is something that had me a little worried, but it has worked out great. And while I’m sure there are parts of the world I might still have a difficult time, I’m better equipped to handle those situations should they arise. That is not something you can learn from reading, watching, or listening. It’s only something that you can truly learn by doing.
How To Learn (By Doing)
I know it’s obvious, right? But it’s still a sticking point for many of us.
Do!
“Do what?!”
Do something.
“But what do I do?!”
And round and round it goes. I have to say I’ve been perpetuating that cycle myself here because I regularly state to take action, without always explaining what kind of action to take.
Here’s how to break that cycle:
1) Decide on a big goal.
This is a goal you don’t have a really good idea how you’ll accomplish. It doesn’t matter much what this goal is. It does not absolutely have to be a “big” goal. It could be as simple as “learn how to dance” or it could be as big as “sell all my stuff and live anywhere.”
2) Decide on a smaller goal.
Chunk that big goal down into just one little nugget. It could be just one aspect of the big goal or it could be a scaled down version of the big goal.
Before I had the idea for selling all of my stuff and traveling wherever I wanted in a backpack, I took 2 shorter trips. In other words, I took the big goal and scaled it down considerably. One of these trips was 15 days (Canada and Germany) and it helped me work out all the kinks of my much longer never-ending trip. I didn’t work out all the kinks, but I did learn a lot about how this vagabond nomadic lifestyle works.
3) Do the smaller goal.
You can probably do the smaller goal right now without delay. If it’s something you have to delay then revamp the small goal until you can take some kind of action towards it right now.
3b) Do more smaller goals.
If your smaller goal was just a specific chunk of the big goal, then do some of the other chunks now. If the small goal was a scaled down version of the bigger goal then move along to …
4) Do the bigger goal.
Now that you’ve learned a bit and worked out some kinks by accomplishing the smaller goal it’s time to go full out and tackle the big goal.
As you know, I’m not a fan of fluff or over-complicating things. These 4 steps may seem incredibly obvious, or horribly silly, but if you sit down and think about it, these are the exact steps you’ve probably taken before to learn something new.
As for me? My first small goal is to call Bike Friday and get some questions answered. If it sounds good, I’ll make an appointment to visit them in Eugene, Oregon in October. :)
Another good small goal would be to actually go on a short bike tour. The reason I’m not doing that is because I’m not going to buy all the necessary gear (bike helmet, bike rack, tent, sleeping bag, etc) while here in Poland and I’m not sure I can rent/borrow it anywhere.
Oh, and I’m still gonna keep reading about bicycle touring with the understanding that it’s purely enjoyment and I’m not actually learning much. :)
“Do you know where the power lies? It starts and ends with you.” – Tim Armstrong
If I can be honest, a long, drawn-out article about your power will not put it any better than that quote by Tim Armstrong (from the track The 11th Hour off “…And Out Come The Wolves”).
It’s such a strong and succinct point.
You have the power to make anything happen. If you don’t believe this is true the problem stems from the fact that you’re too far in your head and lacking confidence. You’re not giving yourself enough credit or you’re making excuses.
Any answer to any question you have is available to you.
Maybe you’re in the position of not knowing what you don’t know. We all find ourselves in this position at one time or another.
If you don’t know where to start, start at what you think is a good place to start. There is absolutely nothing wrong with making a bit of a guess.
My veganism is out of respect for animals. A lot of my ideas on veganism are rooted in Buddhism. I am not, however, anywhere near a Buddhist. I am simply a fan of some of the philosophy.
An Overview (Paraphrased from the book Monk Chat, published by Wat Suan Dok, Chiang Mai, Thailand)
Monks must abstain from killing living things. Therefore, monks are vegan. Technically. There is a loophole.
Every morning they must go on their alms round. Which is a way for laypeople (Buddhists who are not monks) to make merit (Tam Boon). As the monks make their alms round, laypeople give them food. Monks are not allowed to refuse any food, whether it has animal ingredients or not.
And that’s the loophole. If the people who are making merit offer food with animals, the monk has to accept it. :(
There are, however, 10 kinds of meat a monk may not eat under any circumstances: human, elephant, horse, dog, serpent, lion, bear, feline tigris, leopard, or yellow tiger. Do not ask me why, as I do not know.
Monks follow the idea of “eat to live, not live to eat.” Most of Western society lives to eat, hence all the obesity and heart disease. We should eat for nourishment, as fuel for our incredible bodies, as opposed to simply for enjoyment. Food is for survival.
My Interpretation
It all boils down to respect. A monk cannot disrespect the layperson by refusing their food. And so, he must eat the food, whatever it happens to be.
I take this same stance. If I order food that is supposed to be vegan and it arrives un-veganized I have only 2 options.
1) Find someone who will eat it and order new food.
or
2) Eat it myself if I can’t find someone to eat it.
Under no circumstances may I throw the food away (by sending it back). An animal has provided that food with their life and I won’t disrespect it like that.
Fortunately, I have yet to come across a situation where I have been accidentally given meat. I’m still unsure how I will react in that situation, but I have a feeling I will not have a problem finding someone to eat the food.
Yes, I have eaten dairy products since going vegan. And I have absolutely no problems calling myself a vegan. I don’t purposefully buy non-vegan food and I don’t prepare non-vegan food when I’m eating at home.
When I was in Berlin recently I ordered a cheese-less pizza. Unfortunately it arrived with cheese and enough garlic to kill a man. Not a single person at our table wanted the pizza due to the overpowering smell of garlic. I ate it. Throwing it away would be extraordinarily disrespectful. Not only to the animal who was mistreated and eventually died to provide that cheese, but to anybody who has ever gone hungry (billions of people every day).
I submit that if you’re a vegan due to compassion for animals that you should follow this same path.
Think about it, which of the following is more compassionate?
1) Eating cheese that you didn’t order. The animal you didn’t want to die for you has been given to you to eat. If you eat it, at least it didn’t die for absolutely nothing.
or
2) Throwing away the cheese you didn’t order. The animal you didn’t want to die for you has been given to you to eat. If you don’t eat it, you’re pissing on its life. It died for nothing. And it will be your fault that it died for nothing. You do not have a worthy argument otherwise. (Except lactose intolerance, which I definitely understand.)
It’s an obvious choice if you truly are compassionate.
A couple of years ago a friend of mine said, “Karol, you have the most stress free life out of anybody I know.”
At the time I laughed because that wasn’t true at all. In fact, it was quite opposite.
These days, however, most of my choices boil down to whatever is least stressful and I probably do have the least stressful life of anybody I know.
It is less stressful to eat a bit of dairy I didn’t order than to whine and complain that “the stupid chef (or cashier or line cook) is a god damned idiot.” They’re not idiots. They’re human. We are amazingly imperfect creatures and we make mistakes.
Eating vegan, in and of itself, helps release lots of stress. Not only on my mind, but on my body. Animal products are incredibly difficult for our bodies to digest. Especially dairy, which is meant for calves, not grown humans. From a health standpoint dairy is just nasty, no ifs, ands, or buts about it.
Preaching Veganism
I don’t preach. Yes, I do want you to eat a vegan diet. Not vegetarian. Vegan. But I don’t care if you’re an omnivore. I will date you (err, if you’re female, haha), I will be friends with you, and I will probably even pay for dinner if we go out and you order a meat dish. It’s not my place to force my choices upon you.
There are many arguments against veganism and every single one is unfounded. I won’t go into any of them here. I just ask that you do a lot of research if you really want the truth. Preferably research that’s not funded by the beef or dairy industries, which will be biased.
It sucks when somebody comments on my blog, e-mails me, or discusses in person their misinformed ideas about the meat and dairy industries. But I don’t correct them. I’m not interested in arguments (Life Lesson #8). I simply ask them to research what they’re saying. And so, if you comment below with misinformed arguments you should save your time because they will not be accepted.
How To Make Vegan Travel Easy
Now that we’ve determined that if there is a mistake made you will not disrespect the animal, let’s get into the details of how to actually eat a vegan diet while traveling to unknown lands where you may not speak the language. It’s actually pretty darn easy to eat vegan anywhere in the world!
1) Eat lots of fruit.
Fruit is available and plentiful everywhere. And, of course, it’s vegan and incredibly nourishing. ;) While eating only fruit (Fruitarian) would not work well for me, I have gone a full day eating only fruit on at least 1 occasion. Not sustainable (for me) for the long haul, but one day? Sure, I can handle that.
I eat a lot of fruit anyway.
In India I ate ~20 lady finger bananas per day. These are very small bananas, maybe the equivalent of 6 or 7 regular bananas. In addition to that I ate lots of whatever other fruit was available. Fuji apples, grapes, strawberries, and papaya were plentiful. And, of course, my daily fresh coconut for 20 Rupees. :)
Fruit is an important part of our diet and most of us don’t get enough. I definitely didn’t until I started eating vegan.
I call bananas the perfect travel food. You can pick a banana out of a mud pit, open it up, and eat it. :) No need to worry about the outside getting dirty because you only want the sweet fibrous inside. In addition, no utensils necessary.
My favorite fruit in the whole world (besides the not-so-easily-available Jakfruit) is mango, but I’m not a fan of the preparation. Thankfully, in Thailand I was able to eat mango a few times per day. For 10 Baht (~30 cents) it was freshly sliced and ready to devour. And it’s available everywhere in Thailand (along with many other fruits) at the ubiquitous Thai street carts.
When you arrive in a new city immediately go out and find the nearest market (or corner store or anything) that sells fruit and stock up. It’s simple, it’s cheap, it’s healthy, and it’s vegan.
Note: avocado is a fruit. Mmmm … I love avocado. Here is how to check for ripeness: do not squeeze! You will bruise the insides. Instead, push in the stem a little. If it gives it’s ripe. If it doesn’t give then wait a day or two.
2) Eat lots of beans / whole grains.
Whether you’re making your own food or eating out, beans and whole grains (brown rice, quinoa, etc.) are a perfect combination of food available in most parts of the world.
My favorite dish is a combo of black beans with either quinoa or brown rice (and avocado if I have a ripe one handy). Quinoa is much less readily available so I usually have brown rice. I eat this at least once/day and sometimes twice.
3) Eat lots of vegetables.
Due to so many vegetables needing some kind of preparation I’m not a great vegetable eater. While I eat them daily, I eat far more fruits than vegetables.
My favorite easy to prepare vegetables are tomatoes (crap, another fruit? haha) and broccoli. I eat these raw and sometimes I eat tomatoes like they’re apples. When I was younger I didn’t like tomatoes at all, but as I grew and my palate changed I grew to love them.
If you’re not a vegetable fan you might have to train your palate. Try something new every time you go to the market and you will eventually find something you like. And remember: different varieties of the same vegetable taste completely different. There are some tomatoes I’m not a huge fan of. And mushrooms have so many different flavors it’s insane. Continually test your palate!
Eating a nice salad every day is an easy way to get a lot of your vegetables in one fell swoop. I’ve been known to eat an almost 2 pound salad (lots of greens, LOTS of tomatoes) for dinner. :)
Salads are available in virtually every restaurant in the world. Eat a big enough salad and it is quite filling.
4) Eat nuts.
Nuts are also available everywhere and greats sources of many nutrients. Goa, India is known for its cashews (kaju) and you can bet I ate a LOT of them while I was there. They are my favorite nut. Unsalted, raw, of course. Nuts pack lots of much needed energy in the forms of protein and fat. You don’t want to make nuts your staple, but eat a little bit regularly. They’re also great while you’re in transit (planes, trains, and automobiles).
5) Research local restauarants.
HappyCow.net has listings for veg and veg-friendly restaurants all over the world. (Don’t waste your money on their iPhone app if you have an iPod Touch. It’s a waste.)
If there are a lot of restaurants listed on HappyCow I also post in the CouchSurfing.org Group (message board) for whatever city I’m going to be in to get favorite veg restaurant recommendations.
Restaurants where you should never have a problem finding veg food:
Indian – Channa Masala and lots of other stuff.
Thai – veg/rice/tofu.
You will find Indian and/or Thai restaurants in so many cities in the world it’s crazy. Even here in Wroc?aw, there are two Indian restaurants that I know about.
Bonus restaurant tip: If you pass by a health food type store walk in and ask about local veg-friendly restaurants. I had trouble finding a decent restaurant in Cairns, QLD, Australia and asked a girl at a health food store. She said there aren’t many options (boo Cairns!), but gave me directions to a Mexican restaurant. This Mexican restaurant actually had a vegan menu! :)
6) Allow yourself some junk food.
I promise once you start eating a whole food plant-based diet that your cravings for junk will almost completely subside. I rarely crave junk. But when I do? I go all out. I will happily eat a whole bag of chips or a veggie burger (or 3) or a pizza or a 2 liter bottle of soda. It doesn’t happen often, but when I have a really strong craving I let myself at it. Some people advocate having a “cheat day” once/week. For me that’s far too often and sometimes not often enough. It would be forced. As I sit here right now I am eating a 90% dark chocolate bar. :) I probably won’t finish it, but I won’t deny myself if I happen to want to eat every last bite.
Another thing about junk food: when you’re in new lands you will find some very interesting choices in vegan junk food! The best, by far, is in India. I’ll let you discover it for yourself. ;)
What About Soy?
You’ll notice I don’t mention soy above. I’m not a huge fan. In Thailand I ate soy regularly because it was part of a lot of local cuisine (in the form of tofu). For the most part I don’t eat soy.
That said, I’m currently in a phase of drinking one B12 fortified glass of soy milk every day. B12 is the one nutrient that I have had trouble introducing into my diet without drinking soy milk. I can handle that.
Claims that soy is unhealthy are incredibly overblown. (Again, I ask that you research it yourself. Don’t believe anything I state.)
Learn The Local Vegan Options Ahead of Time
If you can, do a little research about traditional meals that are already vegan. If you know ahead of time which meals should be vegan that will make things a lot easier on you. My best suggestion: utilize CouchSurfing again. :) Go into the Country Group (or any City Group) and ask what meals are traditionally vegan. There may be none, but it’s worth asking.
The Language Barrier
The language barrier is what can sometimes cause the aforementioned un-veganized food at restaurants.
It’s fairly easy to solve: learn how to say you don’t eat meat or milk or cheese or butter in whatever language you’ll be encountering. If you’re not willing to do that then you could always sit at home, watch TV, and do nothing. ;)
Back to keeping things less stressful: don’t worry too much about the language barrier. When you start traveling things seem to just fall into place. I could write for days about this topic (or any topic) and you’ll never learn as much as by experiencing it for yourself.
Emergency Rations
On the overnight train to Chiang Mai from Bangkok there was a menu with 8 or 9 meat options and 1 vegetarian option. I ordered the vegetarian option, but it wasn’t available. Dammit. The lady taking orders refused to accept that chicken was not a vegetarian option. I spent a good 1-2 minutes insisting she not give me chicken because it is not vegetarian. (I run into this a lot. Chickens and fish are animals people!)
I travel with some sort of emergency rations. Currently that is a Clif Bar. Important: these rations must only be used in an emergency! Like, when you haven’t eaten for 14 hours on your train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. :)
Emergency Rations For The Emergency Rations!
As you may know if you’ve gone through my whole packing list I carry a Light My Fire Spork with me everywhere. In case I need an actual quick “meal” and can’t find it this is what I do.
1) Head into any super market / convenience store.
2) Buy a can of beans (my preference is black or kidney) with an easy open top. (If not available, buy the can of beans and a can opener.)
3) Open the can a little and dump out the water. (I usually rinse the beans with clean water as well.)
4) Enjoy!
You might scoff at this, but a can of beans is a filling, healthy, nutritious meal. And it’s cheap to boot!
I don’t always use this as an emergency meal. Sometimes I just want to eat a can of beans and make this a nice little meal/snack. :)
Keep An Open Mind
Would you believe it if I told you that steak houses are one of the easiest restaurants to eat vegan? Think about it. Baked potatoes, beans, lots of salad options. If your friends want to go to a restaurant that is “obviously” not vegan, stop to think about it for a second. When my friends want to eat at a traditionally non-vegan restaurant I don’t usually have any problems eating a very filling meal.
A Learning Process
Eating vegan while traveling is a learning process. Before I embarked on my adventures I was as worried as anybody about being able to eat vegan. It has been a fun experience eating vegan in Australia, New Zealand, India, Thailand, Germany, and Poland.
On many occasions (usually while staying at hostels), when I’d make a meal others would comment on how amazing it looked. When you use lots of fruits/vegetables your meals look quite appetizing. ;)
If you’re worried about traveling to far off lands and keeping a vegan diet, stop worrying. Start living.
Special Note On Comments:
If you have anything negative to say, if you’re not willing to do your research (as stated above), or if you’re making stupid arguments your comment will be trashed.
Feel free to add positive thoughts or helpful points for vegan travel. Thanks!
Advice coming directly from someone who has struggled with confidence …
Being that you’re a human being you’ve probably noticed many things in life are like a game. The rules and score-keeping may be different but virtually every aspect of life can be broken down in this way. Especially when it comes to confidence.
Why don’t more of us use this to our advantage?
It’s especially easy while traveling because nobody knows you, but it’s also be doable if you’ve never left your home town.
What I mean is, you don’t have to be who you are in your head. You can be someone else. You can be “that guy” or “that girl.”
This is sometimes described as “fake it til you make it.”
Let’s specifically take hanging out with or meeting new people because I’ve been having a few conversations (through e-mail/IM) about this topic with you guys lately. :)
Since last week, after waiting far too long to get off my ass and meet people in Wroc?aw, I’ve been hanging out with and meeting people every day*.
*Besides two days I was mostly out of commission due to my hurt knee/foot and I only went out to dinner for a bit. Wroc?aw doesn’t shut down, but no after-parties for me.
Based on the previously mentioned e-mail/IM conversations I know many of you think I’m extremely extroverted.
That is not the case in the slightest.
I am quite possibly one of the most introverted people you will ever meet. Although, depending on if I’m using my own advice, you may never know it. ;)
Let’s take an example of back-to-back nights last week.
First night: hung out on the streets, in clubs, and wherever. Was with a group of 7 or 8 people and because of the noise I didn’t talk much. It was hard to hear anybody, and my Polish comprehension is still at the point where I have trouble with conversations unless they’re 1 on 1 or, if in a group, in a quiet(er) place.
Eventually, since my body is a machine, I outlasted a few people and our group was down to 4. Things went better then, but because I had spent so many hours not talking a whole lot I wasn’t in the right frame of mind.
Second night: hung out on the streets, in clubs, and wherever. Was with an even larger group of people. This time I didn’t want a repeat performance so I purposefully became “someone else.” A fun, outgoing, gentlemen.
“Alright bitch, you’ve got a massive hole in your shirt and pretty much everybody stares at it when they talk to you. You look poor and maybe slightly homeless. Make shit happennow!”
I’m not sure if it’s normal to want to make things more difficult for yourself, but I work well under pressure.
So what happened?
I easily moved from group to group, speaking Polish (or English when necessary, there are lots of tourists in Wroc?aw, after all), and had an amazing time. As an aside, I can now easily achieve my self-defined Level 3 of Fluency in Polish. :)
Oh, and the hole in my shirt? If I caught someone looking at it I would acknowledge it by stating that it’s a space age ventilation system I invented for these humid nights. :) (Wymy?li?em specjalny futurystyczny system wentylacji – who knows if that’s correct. It doesn’t matter. hehe)
How To Improve Confidence
I know I’m not the only person who struggles with confidence, and while I don’t take my own advice every time I need it, this is what has worked for me. The following is especially important in situations where you don’t know anybody else. (Which are the situations I find myself in regularly.)
1) Get Out Of Your Head
You’re overthinking everything. Nobody cares about you as much as they care about themselves. (Life Lessons #2 and #35.)
Obviously if there is something glaringly wrong with your look (err, like a massive hole in your shirt!) you might give off an unwanted first impression. But you can combat that by not being like me. Make things easier on yourself. ;)
2) Become Someone Else
I don’t mean that you should use someone else’s style of dress or speak the way they speak. While you can do that and it would probably be effective in the short run, it’s not sustainable. Be who you are, but use someone else as a basis for improvement.
It doesn’t matter specifically who, but it should be somebody that acts the way you’d like to act. Going back to my Vince Vaughn example: in Swingers his character, Trent, is maybe a bit over-the-top, but a generally fun guy. He has a lot of confidence, but not in an overtly cocky sort of way. He has fun and brings others along for the ride. In other words, he’s not an asshole and he wants everybody to have a good time. (OK, maybe he’s a bit of an asshole when he rips up that girl’s number.)
Your “someone else” doesn’t have to be famous or from a movie. These characters are easy to model if you don’t have anybody else in mind to model. Your someone else can just as easily be a friend of yours or maybe just someone you’ve witnessed from afar.
3) Place Yourself In Situations That Make You Uncomfortable
Confidence grows when you stretch yourself. One of the best ways to really stretch yourself is to do karaoke. Even if you completely bomb (<– rap lyrics show up too slowly on screen so I was always behind the beat) you will have a great time. I promise. My favorite is going up after somebody who can actually sing. ;)
Another situation that may make you uncomfortable: going out dancing even though you “can’t” dance. This is how: get on the dance floor and move. If you look at what others are doing you’ll see most of them can’t really dance either. You’ll also notice that they’re not paying any attention to you. You’ll also notice that there are people on the outskirts of the dance floor glancing at you wishing they were having as much fun as you.
I’m really tall (196 centimeters), I’m a bit awkward, and it’s impossible for me not to stand out. You at least have the luxury of blending in on whatever dance floor or social situation you put yourself in. :)
Everett wrote about uncomfortable situations in the “start taking risks” section towards the end of this article.
4) Don’t Use Alcohol As A Crutch
This is a mistake almost everybody makes when attempting to gain confidence and I’m no exception. I have used it too, but it doesn’t work.
The problem is if you use alcohol as a crutch, you will always need it as a crutch. Hence it being called a crutch. :) It’s a temporary solution and does nothing for you in situations where there may not be alcohol. Break your leg every day and you will always need a crutch to walk, right? Drinking alcohol is like breaking your confidence’s leg.
Does that mean you can never drink alcohol? No, I’m not stating that at all. Drink away! But drink when you don’t actually need it as a crutch anymore.
If you’ve struggled with confidence does this advice help? If you’ve overcome confidence issues do you have a good tip to share with the rest of us? Let us know …
, but I never thought it was possible for the majority of my communication. In October of 2009 Leo published 
A while back I mentioned, in passing, that I want to tour 
I’ve been using since Day 1 in Australia almost 11 months ago! It can’t be used as an actual waterproof bag anymore (I ripped the top), but it still works for washing. :)
with me everywhere. In case I need an actual quick “meal” and can’t find it this is what I do.