Flightster

Travel as Lifestyle

• by Colin Wright
• on July 7th, 2010
• 6 Comments

My Epic Plan

I’ve always wanted to travel extensively.

I think it was the movie ‘Before Sunrise’ that really made me consciously aware of this desire. The quick story is that this guy’s riding a train across Europe when he has a chance encounter with a girl. They don’t have the chance to talk too much, but he asks her to hang out with him for a night, getting off at his stop to keep him company. She agrees and they have an amazing night-long discussion, meandering around town and falling for each other.

There’s a romance about this idea, and I don’t mean in a sexual or relationship-focused way. The idea of traveling around from place to place, meeting strangers, building up meaningful relationships out of circumstance and little else, expanding your world view, exploring and chatting and accumulating stories…it’s sexy as hell, and I wanted a piece.

But unfortunately, life had other plans for me.

My Self-Built Cage

I started up my first couple of companies while in college, and between those efforts and earning a few degrees, my schedule was so full that I was never able to travel further than the surrounding states (with a few jaunts off to New York for flavor).

My dreams of travel were pushed further and further back. Eventually I justified my persistent procrastination by telling myself that I would travel a lot after I made my first million. At that point I’d have a solid financial foundation and would be able to travel the RIGHT way: in style.

This excuse became my light at the end of the tunnel…the soma that I was breaking my back for each and every day.

‘Just wait and see, Self! It’ll all be worth it when we’re drinking mimosas on the beach in Fiji! We’ll buy a parrot and some board shorts and wander around the planet with not a care in the world. It will be mah-velous!’

I was a liar, and when I got to the point where that first million was actually in site a few years down the line, I had one of those shocking realizations that come to you when you’re really drunk or just hit your head really hard …I was NEVER going to travel.

I would keep putting it off. Forever. When that first million was earned, I would have so much stuff that I would still be living essentially the same way I already was, just with nicer stuff. I’d still be working 120 hour weeks and busting my butt to get to the elusive ‘next level’ and doing my best to keep up with the entrepreneurial Joneses of the world.

I was slowly building my own prison cell, and breaking my back doing it.

My New (Even Epicker) Plan

As an entrepreneur, I have a penchant for calculated risk, so when an burst of inspiration hit me a month or so after I realized I was locking myself into a very confined lifestyle, I acted on it immediately.

The setting was as such:

My girlfriend (whom I was living with) and I were in Seattle, hanging out with from friends of hers from high school and enjoying a night alone at a fusion Jazz-Latin bar with live music.

There were a half-dozen other people in the place, scattered about the room, and we both sipped at our wine, enjoying the atmosphere and the moment. We clinked our glasses and watched the musicians perform until she turned to me and drops the bombshell.

‘I think I want to move to Seattle.’

It’s amazing how much can happen in a moment.

My Moment

In the split second between her spoken revelation and my whipcrack response, my mind raced through the history of my professional life as if I were encountering a near-death experience and being shown how I arrived at a gate blocking my path.

I’m STUCK, I thought. My studio is flourishing, I’ve got clients coming out of my ears and the money that’s coming in is absolutely ridiculous. I can be THAT guy. The guy with all the stuff and money and the LIFE. That’s the American dream! That could be me! So why do I want to say

‘I think I want to leave the country.’

Oh shit.

I said it out loud. It’s out there. It’s real. It’s no longer just a fleeting fantasy that I may or may not reach someday. It’s got verbal tangibility now and I’m screwed.

And then the second realization. If we both follow what we want in life, we’ll have to break up.

I could tell that this thought hit her at the same time as her eyes widened and lips tightened with resolve. We had always been very open with each other and had a fantastic relationship, but we had also always said that we lived our own lives first, and if we happened to meet in the middle, fantastic, but we would never stand in each other’s way. And we would always be friends.

The test of this idea was nigh, and we moved forward with the conversation, trying to ignore the logistical nightmare we had just created.

My End and New Beginning

She jokingly suggested that we have a breakup party, you know, to celebrate our amazing relationship and say goodbye to all our friends before we move (and to show them we’re still on good terms and they don’t have to choose between us). I pounced on the idea and insisted that we make it a reality.

With frightening quickness, we worked out the details: in 4 months we would revamp and reshape our lives so that we could be where we wanted to be.

A deadline. Holy cripes. That means this is real. REAL. Wow.

We spent those 4 months learning all we could about our new paths (she wanted to start up a design studio, so I helped her learn what she would need, and I did a lot of research about long-term travel) and I started up my blog, Exile Lifestyle.

And then….we launched.

The breakup party was a hit (and the trend has spread virally since) and for the past year I’ve been traveling full time while running my businesses, learning about my new lifestyle, the cultures and people that I encounter along the way.

It’s been hectic and scary and awesome and sweaty and freezing and a ridiculous number of other adjectives all at the same time, and it gives me an alarming number of stories to write about.

At what point does travel as a lifestyle become as monotonous as staying in one place?

I’m really not sure. I haven’t gotten to that point yet, and I hope it doesn’t happen any time soon.

And even though I haven’t had my ‘Beyond Sunset’ moment yet, I’ve seen plenty of sunsets – from many different countries – that make the whole thing worthwhile and worth writing about.

Colin Wright

Colin Wright is a minimalist, branding expert and serial entrepreneur. While running his blog Exile Lifestyle ,his branding studio Colin Is My Name and his e-publishing business ebookling. Colin travels the world (moving to a new country every 4 months), meeting up with amazing people, giving talks (to audiences ranging from tech industry professionals to college students to Catholic school girls) and hunting down new and interesting experiences.