The biggest reaction I had once I got to this exercise was “Wait… where is the action items? Where is the strategy?”. If you were paying attention, Vision Day isn’t at all about strategy or implementation. It is about intention and clarity so that when it comes time to act, you are putting effort toward things that have high impact where it matters, rather than blindly following what culture or your gut tells you.

Once you have reflected on the past, took inventory of the present, and asked what you want in the future, then you are fully equipped to start strategizing on what it takes to have a growth year.

If you haven’t read my introduction to what vision day is, read the intro post here.

Here are the two previous parts as well:

• Vision Day: Past
• Vision Day: Present

It isn’t required to read either of these first, but important to do first if you are following along in the exercise.

The future exercise has two parts:

1. Future Projection: Write a narrative of where you are a year from now if everything went according to plan
2. Theme Extraction: What is the theme throughout your narrative that you can extract?

At the end of this entire exercise, you should have a theme you can rally around that will drive you toward your goals and toward your ideal life one year from now.

You can follow the guided meditation on the Vision Day Replay as well.

Here we go!

Future Projection

The future projection exercise is just meant to be a stream of consciousness exercise. The idea is to really get you to think about what you want and what you want your life to look like.

Rather than dealing in abstracts like “I want to be healthier” it goes to the heart of the issue. It looks at the transformations you are actually seeking as a result of being healthier, such as “I want to be able to hike Mt. Tam”.

Imagine your ideal self one year into the future. Go forward from this exact moment in time and imagine everything you wanted to happen, did happen. Really go into depth into what you look like, who are you with, what are you doing, etc. Explore who you are a year from now and just start writing about yourself from the perspective of your future self, so everything you want to happen is in past tense because it DID already happen.

I recommend following along in the replay, but I’ll drop my own projection below as an example.

One Year From Now: My Future

I am more confident in my risk taking now and have started a few side projects in an effort to generate income outside of just consulting. One of them even turned a bit of profit! My consulting career is still going strong as well and I’ve expanded my expertise to keep it interesting. I’ve even hired a part time personal assistant to help deal with the day to day operations of my business and social life. My work is still remote and it allows me to travel as needed.

I have little debt and my income has broken 150k/yr. I’ve been funding my retirement consistently and have saved enough liquid cash go without money for 3 months.

I had a few months of fun dates until I found a beautiful, fun, intelligent women who I travel and explore with. She has a healthy balance of career, social life, and hobbies. We do a lot of stuff together, but make it a point to maintain some autonomy too. We are silly together and maybe just a bit childish at times. She helps me plan social events so we keep busy. We don’t live together, but we have talked about the possibility of moving in together in the future.

Once I found my girlfriend, it became easier to focus on my health. We are accountability partners and make sure we are on track for healthy decisions. I was already losing weight and becoming more fit before I met her, but afterward it became a more enjoyable routine to go with her to a class or for a hike. She’s even taken up dancing with me! It wasn’t a struggle anymore to get in activity.

I am not in perfect health yet, but I am making good strides and recognize I’ve come a long way. My positive outlook also helps my emotional health a ton: I no longer feel less than or lonely. I am more confident overall and my friends have noticed how much better I feel. Without the negativity weighing me down, many of my relationships have improved.

I’ve taken steps to get a little closer to my brother and sister, made visits to Visalia, South Bay, and Phoenix regularly. Because my emotional health is in a better place, the tension that existed in some of my familial ties is less strenuous now. I’ve also gotten closer to a few of my cousins by chatting with them more and visiting them.

I still make it a point to spend time with friends here in California and abroad. My improved emotional state has had the side benefit of becoming closer with friends and in the past year we’ve take a few trips together or met up with them abroad. I really continued to work to maintain strong social ties.

The biggest change was in some new friends I made. I found a group that really enjoys traveling, most of which live a digital nomadic lifestyle. Among them, I forged bonds with a few that are a bit more entrepreneurial and they are the ones that pushed me to start a few more projects and gave me confidence to pursue multiple income streams. They’ve become a big support when I am traveling and in my career.

Theme Ideas: Runner-ups

After going through that exercise, I re-read the narrative a few times and extracted a few themes I saw throughout. Here are a few ideas I had:

Year of Love and Adventure

A lot of the above narrative is around my future girlfriend and traveling, which makes sense since it combines some of my favorite activities and improvement in an area I really wanted to work on: intimate relationships.

Love in general goes beyond just intimate relationships though, it extends to all relationships, which is ultimately probably the most important category to me.

Year of Courage

2018 was very characterized by fear, loneliness, and scarcity. In opposition to that, this narrative tells a story of courage: following ideas, venturing out, pushing boundaries, etc.

So I thought maybe naming the year the “Year of Courage” would be appropriate.

Year of Stability

I initially wrote this down because when I read sections around my intimate relationship, it felt stable and felt overall nice. Many people talk about stepping outside your comfort zone, and I think that is necessary. At the same time, sometimes you need stability in one area to get truly risky in others.

So I imagined 2019 being the year of building that stable foundation before using it to launch into a powerful and bold 2020.

Year of Strength

Similar to courage, a common theme I saw throughout the narrative was strength or grit. But this somehow felt generic and uninspiring since I closely associated it with physical health and not anything else. I wanted something that was more aligned with more important areas of my life.

After iterating on this a bit though, I eventually came to the theme I chose below that really captures what I was looking for.

2019: The Year of Fortitude

I ended up picking this theme because it really encapsulates a lot of the themes above and more. I liked it because it comes from courage in the face of adversarial forces and evokes emotions of endurance and power that resonate with me.

The reason I chose fortitude over something more drastic or evolutionary is around the meaning of it: inner strength. I don’t feel I need to completely change who I am – I mostly love who I am. What I do think needs to happen is a strengthening of certain areas and build upon what I’m already good at.

A few examples might be:

• Be bold with love and intimacy – take risks
• Show grit when it comes to health and fitness
• Have the tenacity to chase a work style that works for you
• Be fearless when it comes to entrepreneurship, ideas, and failing
• Fortify relationships with Family, Friends, and my Network
• Persevere though external pressure and self-doubt

What’s Next?

Now that we have a theme, an idea of areas we’d like to improve, and armed with highlights and lowlights from last year, its time to get strategic with the upcoming year.

The next post will be much more concrete and action-oriented in how we want to approach the first quarter of the year.

When it is available, you’ll be able to check it out here:

Vision Day: 2019 Q1 Strategy: Coming Soon!

In case you landed here first, this is part of a larger series.

• Vision Day: Intro
• Vision Day: Past
• Vision Day: Present

Thanks for reading!

The post Vision Day 2018/2019: Future first appeared on Distilled Nomad.

If you haven’t read my introduction to what vision day is, read the intro post here.

You can also find the first part of this series, the Vision Day: Past Post Here. It isn’t required to read first, but is the first part of the Vision Day exercise and important to do first if you are following along.

The “Present” portion of this exercise is probably the most straightforward section.

Given ten areas of your life, how do you rate them on a scale from 1 to 10.

• 1 being it is not where you would like it to be at all
• 10 being this area is exceeding all expectations
• Then write a small blurb why you rated it with that score

The areas can also be divided into 3 categories – Health, Wealth, and Relationships.

• Health
  • Physical
  • Emotional
  • Intellectual
  • Spiritual
• Relationships
  • Social
  • Family
  • Intimate
  • Sexual (Omitted)
• Wealth
  • Financial
  • Career

I am going to go category by category, area by area and discuss what I wrote down. You can follow the guided reflection on the Vision Day Replay as well.

At the end of this exercise, you should have a snapshot of how you feel about different areas of your life and some strengths and weaknesses.

Note: I’ve omitted sexual relationships because while I find it important, its deeply personal, so noneya

Here we go!

Health

Physical: 4/10

I have improved my workouts and diet in the latter half of the year, but that hasn’t really played out in visible results. I do not struggle in any of the activities I enjoy. I go on 10+ mile day hikes, I kayak, I dance, and have more energy than a large majority of my friends. I am also in healthy/optimal ranges for all blood tests.

Because of that, I expected that by adding consistent workouts and a better diet that I could also lose weight and look more fit. That wasn’t the case this past year and It makes me feel shitty since I hate working out – I do not get energy or a sense of accomplishment from it whatsoever.

I think I would need to see physical improvement in my body and a lower body fat percentage to raise this score.

Emotional: 4/10

I struggled a lot emotionally this past year. From the stress at work to the loneliness, this past year was definitely defined by turmoil. A lot of this was driven by rumination on M and not being so lucky in the dating department this year.

It would be lower if I didn’t have friends and family to rely on. I think it would be higher if my dating life was a little bit better and I spent more time traveling and doing things I love rather than stressing about work.

Intellectual: 6/10

This suffered a little this year because I was in a job that kept me mostly stagnant. I did gain experience in leading a team and mentoring people though. In the latter half of the year, I refocused on learning more programming and management skills, so that helped the score too.

I think this will improve by learning a new programming paradigm and working on a product or side project outside of normal consulting efforts.

Spiritual: 5/10

I gave up on organized religion a long time ago, so to me, spirituality is linked to personal philosophy, peacefulness, and being “one with the universe”. Yeah, I know, super hippy but whatever

I expanded my horizons a bit this year by adding some buddhist teachings to my stoic philosophy. I’ve gotten a little bit better in studying stoicism, but not much better in implementing the teachings in day to day life.

My negative emotional health definitely impacted my “connectedness to the universe” and I felt more alone. If I am able to improve emotional health, this will likely follow suit. Meditation and exercises like these may help a bit as well.

Relationships

Social: 7/10

I made some new friends this year and spent time with those that uplifted and energized me. I connected with friends here, abroad, and at home. Overall, I feel very positive about this area of my life.

I didn’t rate myself higher though because I think I have a bit of a friend void when it comes to those who are more into traveling or bootstrap entrepreneurship.

I also think I could benefit by finding friend groups that are a bit more higher energy and extroverted to help fuel expanding my social circle. In many of my friend groups, I am usually the one doing the introductions, and I need to flip that on its head.

Family: 6/10

I spent a lot of time with family this year and pretty happy with the frequency of visits I paid to both South Bay and Visalia.

Over the years we’ve grown apart more, but I wish I was a little more plugged in with my sister and brother, as well as my cousin who I used to be closer with. I also know my emotional health weighed on my family (especially my mom), so that impacted this score a bit too.

I docked myself a bit for not making it out to Phoenix to see my dad too.

Intimate: 1/10

Given that 2017 was mostly recovery from a previous thing and focusing on myself, I came into 2018 ready and willing to find someone new. I met and talked to a few women I found interesting and fun, but it never panned out. Despite focusing a lot of attention on this area in Q1/Q2, it was fruitless and left me a bit disheartened for the rest of the year.

This, coupled with an onslaught of weddings/marriage announcements, left me feeling fearful about my romantic future, especially as I near my last year of a twenty-something. I want to be a dad someday and rather not be the 60 year old at their childrens’ high school graduation.

This is easily my most insecure and painful area.

Wealth

Financial: 6/10

I don’t feel particularly good or bad about my finances at this time. I contributed to my retirement regularly and at a higher rate than previously, but I also racked up a little more debt than usual and my income stayed mostly stagnant.

I would feel more comfortable with more liquid cash in the bank and less debt and a raise, but it’s not bad by any means. I just want to be trending more in a positive direction.

Career: 5/10

My previous job was a bit of a backslide. I felt like it instilled a few bad habits and I spent time without getting much of a self-development return on that time. I did gain friends and mentorship experience, though.

Going back to consulting was the right decision, though I think for this to be higher I would like to increase my income, improve my offering, and find ways to have multiple income streams. I’d like to move away from the simple “money for time” model.

Overall Quality of Life: 5/10

My life is just in a so-so spot at the moment. The amount of effort poured into physical health, emotional health, and intimate relationships didn’t really pay dividends in 2018 and it only made me feel worse when I didn’t see the results I wanted.

A lot of areas of my life were largely stagnant, including areas where I usually perform well with ease such as Career and Financial. I also reduced a lot of activities I enjoyed, such as traveling, and traded in things I felt like I should do, like working out.

Areas that I am happy with were mostly around social and family. Career is on the up too now that I am back to consulting.

Largely the low score is from the poor score in intimate relationships and lack of growth in most other areas. I think by adding back in more travel, refocusing on consulting, and continuing to explore intimate relationships, I can likely raise this score for next year.

Summary

Scores

• Health: 5/10
  • Physical: 4/10
  • Emotional: 4/10
  • Intellectual: 6/10
  • Spiritual: 5/10
• Relationships: 4/10
  • Social: 7/10
  • Family: 6/10
  • Intimate: 1/10
  • Sexual: Omitted
• Wealth: 6/10
  • Financial: 6/10
  • Career: 5/10
• Overall Quality of Life: 5/10

Strengths of 2018

• Wealth in general is fine
• Career trending in the correct direction again with consulting and entrepreneurship
• Social ties were good and still improving

Weaknesses of 2018

• Health in general was poor
• Physical health was a big challenge
• Emotional health was impacted by other areas a lot
• Intimate Relationships (or lack thereof) had the biggest negative impact

Other Notes

• Physical health improvement will not impact anything else, though may help intimate relationships
• Improving intimate relationships will likely improve every single area since it created the most stress by far
• More money could help certain areas, but not by much

Conclusion

That’s it for my present year scoring!

Next up, is the future portion where I will write out a bit about what would my ideal world look like in a year from now, then from that, extract a theme.

Check out my next post on Vision Day: Future or if you haven’t yet, my previous post on Vision Day: Past.

Thanks for reading!

The post Vision Day 2018/2019: Present first appeared on Distilled Nomad.

If you haven’t read my introduction to what vision day is, read the intro post here.

The “Past” portion of this exercise is divided into two main parts:

1. Reflection: Lowlights and Highlights from the year
2. Lessons: from the lowlights and highlights, what lessons can be extracted

At the end of this exercise, you should come away with what pieces from the past year you enjoyed or disliked, and the lessons you can take away into the new year.

Here we go!

Reflection

I broke the reflection exercise into four sections. The vision day video doesn’t prompt or require all of these, but I found these areas to be important for me. For yourself, you may want to tweak them based on your own values.

1. Timeline: Lowlights and highlights of the year
2. People: Positive and negative people in my life
3. Activities: Likes vs. dislikes of activities I did this year
4. Other: Various lowlights and highlights

Timeline

I started working on my timeline by reflecting on the year and writing down a timeline of memorable events that happened and whether it was considered Positive (+), Negative (-), or Neutral (•).

I first focused on what I could remember via the guided meditation in the Vision Day Video. Afterward, I did a sweep of my email to trigger a few more memories. You could use your Snapchat memories or Instagram archive to do the same if you find that more useful.

Note: Just because an event isn’t here doesn’t mean it wasn’t important. I just omitted it for brevity.

January

• (•) I spent New Years with my friends in Visalia. It was just alright, since it involved drinking a little too much and some conflict

February

• (-) I spent a lot of time/effort/money on trying to get in shape and improving my dating profiles without much of a win on either front
• (+) Sumita had a housewarming party that was a success and very fun

March

• (•) Went to EmberConf in Portland, OR.
• (-) Drank a bit too much a few nights while in Portland and felt like crap
• (+) Got a Happy Birthday song and slice of cake from my dance studio. Was very sweet of them and a highlight of March for sure!

April

• (+) Went to Coachella (some rockiness but overall fun)
• (+) Traveled to Japan with Greg, Ted, and Mike

May

• (+) Traveled to Brisbane, Australia and visited Ashley
• (+) Traveled to New Zealand and visited Aria and Sophie
• (+) Performed Extravaganza for my dance studio and went well!
• (+) Stayed at a Cabin with Sumita, Teddi, Jayleen and co. in Arnold, CA

June

Couldn’t remember anything noteworthy, so here is a picture of a cute cat

July

• (+) Fourth of July with the family is always fun
• (+) React Training with Louis
• (•) Joined Precision Nutrition

August

• (•) Started fitness classes at Yubalance

September

• (-) Started seriously considering leaving my job at the time
• (•) Started personal training at Yubalance

October

• (+) Started interviewing and ramping up into consulting
• (+) Accepted consulting offer and resigned from my job at the time
• (+) Went on Retreat for my job and ran Bar 275
• (-) The process of resigning was difficult to say the least

November

• (+) Last Day at my job
• (+) Start full time consulting
• (•) Thanksgiving with the family
• (+) Spent time in Visalia working remotely after Thanksgiving and saw friends

December

• (•) Many Parties and events: At this point loneliness was getting the best of me and I was struggling to enjoy these
• (•) Christmas was also hard to enjoy because of stress coming from loneliness
• (-) The cost of the New Years Eve Party stressed me out and I didn’t plan it soon enough
• (+) NYE Party itself went pretty well

People

Beyond just the events throughout the year, people can also contribute to highlights and lowlights. I wrote these down specifically for my own note-keeping, but decided to redact them from the public.

Overall, I definitely noticed a few people that I really enjoyed spending time with, specifically a few of my solid friends I’ve had for a while now, friends abroad, and some new friends I made through work.

That said, there were also people in my life that contributed to a more negative experience.

I believe in a Social “Cultivate and Culling” cycle, so while I need to continue to cultivate existing friendships and create new friendships, I also actively practiced removing or reducing time spent with people who impacted me negatively. I am pretty happy with my management of this this year.

I also think I need to cultivate friendships in two main areas that I don’t have many in:

1. Traveling
2. Entrepreneurship

I will be working on strengthening social ties those areas a bit more this year.

Activities

Liked

• Hiking: Both domestically and abroad
• Dancing: Developing dance as a skill is fun
• Going to concerts: Still fun, though this started fading a little lately
• Traveling: Specifically when meeting with friends
• Parties: This was hit and miss, but overall positive in my mind
• Cocktail Making: Learning the art and flavors is fun and others get to enjoy it too!
• Cooking: I hate my kitchen but enjoy cooking when I have a good place to do it

Disliked

• Working out: Didn’t see the results I wanted to see given the input of effort
• Going to lower-end bars or clubs: I will do it for friends from time to time but I don’t find myself wanting to spend the calories on poorly made drinks at a loud, ratchet bars/clubs
• Getting (too) Drunk: I drank a lot less this year than last, but still got a bit too intoxicated a few times
• Traveling alone: When I had no friends to fallback on, it got a bit lonely at times

I think overall the takeaway is pretty simple: do more of what I like and less of what I disliked. The only caveat there is working out, which I need to figure out how to make more interesting and fun if I want to get fit. Luckily dancing and hiking can help with that.

Other Lowlights/Highlights

Lowlights

• Felt less connected to my social self
• Not as much travel this year time-wise
• Lack of intimate relationships weighed on me a lot
• Career was mostly stagnant for first 3 quarters of the year
• I would like to have an apartment with a better kitchen and maybe just getting tired of it – this also might be linked to being home more this year

Highlights

• Made a lot of new friends and visited a few abroad
• Saw 3 new countries in two new continents
• Went back to consulting remotely and enabled more travel
• Drank less overall compared to last year
• Started exercising more consistently
• Developed more professional confidence

Lessons

Honestly I ended up with ALOT of takeaways from this exercise. I’ll just jump right in.

1. I lost my ability to travel as much to my job in 2018 and that had a noticeable negative effect on me. Many of my highlights from my timeline involve traveling, being abroad, and connecting with people.
2. A lot of my current hobbies are expensive or rely on a third-party. It would probably be beneficial for my financial health to develop a few less expensive hobbies and beneficial for my mental health to find hobbies that don’t require another person.
3. For as much money as I poured into fitness and dating this year, it was largely fruitless. I think I need to step back and rethink my approach to these things since throwing money at the problem didn’t work.
4. I need personality and interest diversity in my friends, so structured groups and settings only work for a little. I need to find a way to generate more diversity in the new people I meet.
5. A lot of my highlights come from partying, concerts, and nightlife, but a few of my negative experiences stemmed from getting too drunk. Even though we are talking a few times in the entire year, it still wasn’t enjoyable. So I need to continue to work on that.
6. I focused a lot on trying to address shortcomings this year (fitness, love life, etc.) and not enough time on nurturing things I am good at and enjoy (travel, programming, social activities). This was likely to my detriment.

7. I let loneliness really crush me this year. M’s ghost haunted me and my early failures in the beginning of the year around dating impacted my confidence a lot. Later, I was able to start appreciating time with M more instead of taking it as a sign that I was somehow fundamentally not enough. That said, my lack of love life was my single most powerful hinderance last year.
8. I suffered a lot this year for not being assertive or aggressive enough. It’s a theme that pops up not only in my love life, but at work, with family, and with friends. I started being a bit more assertive later in the year and its only been positive.
9. I am at my best when I am mentoring, leading, or alone. I am at my worst when I have to blindly follow orders with no clear reason or no clear win to be had. People who control without leadership skill leads to conflict.
10. Inability to appreciate process and celebrate small wins hinders me and provides fuel to many of my lowlights. I need to figure out who to better appreciate the process in order to unlock wins in certain areas in my life.

Conclusion

That’s it for my reflection on the past year! Next up, I am going to be rating and reflecting on the present and where I stand in various parts of my life.

Check out my next post on Vision Day: Present

Thanks for reading!

The post Vision Day 2018/2019: Past first appeared on Distilled Nomad.

I know what you’re thinking: “I’m different! I set SMART Goals!” or whatever tricks of the goal-setting trade. If it works for you, great. In my experience, the pop-culture of resolutions don’t tend to lead to people making targeted goals; instead, they make vague visionary statements that they would like to achieve with no real plan.

So what do we do if resolutions are dumb? Give up and crawl into a hole and wait until 2020 comes around? NO! We are all about a growth mindset so instead, we find another way.

There are plenty of options out there for reflection and goal setting, but here I want to talk about one particular reflection and goal setting exercise I’ve been doing the past few years that has brought me some success and lots of reflection: Vision Day.

What is Vision Day?

Vision Day was started by Andy Drish and I encountered it when I was part of The Foundation. It’s essentially a day you take to really examine your life in three phases:

1. Past: What happened this year and what can you learn from it?
2. Present: How do you feel about certain areas in your life right now?
3. Future: Where would you like to go in the next year?

I won’t go into deep detail here, since it is much easier to show rather than tell, which is exactly what I will be doing in the next few posts – breaking down each section and reflecting on my results from doing Vision Day.

If you are interested in learning more about it in depth, there is a webinar that leads you through the main exercise here: Vision Day Replay

Why Vision Day?

It’s in my nature to be goal-oriented. To add even a well-defined resolution on top of my goals would not be much of a departure from my modus operandi. The reason I really enjoy the process of Vision Day is because it is about 80% taking inventory and personal reflection with 20% goal setting. By using most of the time looking inward, I am able to more authentically and powerfully create goals that I believe will move the needle rather than surface level desires.

In 2015 going into 2016, I set an intention of making 2016 my “Year of Living Freely”. I wrote down in my notebook that this meant:

• Freedom of location
• Freedom from the fear of loneliness
• Freedom to carve my own path in my career and life

Coincidentally, 2016 was the year:

• I traveled the most I ever have to date (3 months abroad)
• I made a ton of friends around the world I still talk to today
• I developed ties with a girl who impacted me as a person
• Achieved many of my bucket list items

I feel compelled to say I’m not a woo-woo believer in “you can manifest with thoughts”, but it was pretty scary how well it played out when I looked back on my 2015/2016 Vision Day. Maybe action followed thoughts? I don’t know but honestly, I don’t care since 2016 was easily the best year I’ve had since 2008. All I know is I’d like to repeat the results.

My Results

I’ve already done the entirety of Vision Day: 2018/2019 on my own, but I wanted to also write these posts for three reasons:

1. Accountability
2. Transparency
3. Inspiration

By making it publicly available and known what I want out of 2019, I am hoping my friends, family, and network will not only hold me accountable, but perhaps understand me a little better too. Finally, if I can inspire others to really reflect and go after their goals too, I won’t be alone in this pursuit of happiness

Vision Day: Table of Contents

With vision day introduced now, I divided up the sections into separate posts since they are big. See below as I post them.

Thanks for reading and hope you gain insight from my own reflections!

Vision Day 2018/2019

• Past: Read Now
• Present: Read Now
• Future: Read Now

Vision Day: 2019 Quarterly Strategy

• Q1 Strategy: Coming Soon!
• Q2 Strategy: To be written by April 7, 2019
• Q3 Strategy: To be written by July 7, 2019
• Q4 Strategy: To be written by October 6, 2019

Vision Day: 2019 Quarterly Review

• Q1 Review: To be written by April 7, 2019
• Q2 Review: To be written by July 7, 2019
• Q3 Review: To be written by October 6, 2019
• Q4 Review: To be written by January 5, 2020

The post Vision Day 2018/2019: Intro first appeared on Distilled Nomad.

I was already homesick for Copenhagen.

It can be hard living a traveler’s lifestyle at times. Yeah, yeah, such an entitled thing to say right? ??

I don’t travel nearly as far or as much as some of my other friends, but one of the most common things I hear often is how it can be lonely traveling. It makes sense. Being away from friends, family, and have to constantly be social and meet new people along the way in order to stave off the loneliness can be exhausting. I’ve dealt with this loneliness before and it sucks. The worst of it was when I had a panic attack while traveling in Stockholm. Who knew a combination of the sun setting at 4:30 PM, missing friends, and having to constantly cycle through “travel friends” would be so triggering?

While this affects a lot of travelers and is probably the most common reason “Digital Nomads” call it quits, this isn’t what I want to talk about today. The feeling I opened up with is actually the complete opposite side of the spectrum that I don’t see mentioned much – Nomadic Homesickness.

We all get homesick from time to time, but what no one told me is that homesick doesn’t just apply to your actual home, but can happen when you just really click with a place and the people there. Nomadic Homesickness is the term I coined to describe that yearning for that place that isn’t your home, but feels like home when you are there. Here’s the kicker though – that yearning travels too. I am living the hygge life in Copenhagen, but miss the warm nights of Valencia. I am enjoying coffee on the beach with friends in Buarcos, but missing my friends and our misadventures back in Visalia. You can’t win.

At the current moment, feel this deeply for Copenhagen. I miss my friends there. I miss walking the streets of Vesterbro in the morning. I miss drinking at Curfew. I miss the energy and atmosphere. Did I mention I miss my friends there?

So then the question is how does one deal with this? Maybe this is more of an issue of being present. Not sure, but I am curious how other travelers deal with this feeling. Do you even get this feeling at all? Are you always happy to be home or in a new place or do you get caught up in the place you left at times?

All I know is I am blessed that I can miss several homes. Copenhagen is a home for me. Valencia is a home for me. Visalia is a home for me. San Diego is a home for me. San Francisco is a home for me. and I miss them all in their own way.

To more future homes – skål! ?

The post Nomadic Homesickness first appeared on Distilled Nomad.

Oregon is home to a couple heavy hitting not-so-microbreweries like Widmer Brothers Brewing and Deschutes Brewery (Bend) that decided to take on the American Beer Goliaths – Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors. Aside from these national brands, Portland has spawned a real passion for microbrewing and unique flavors. The culture really provides a great opportunity to expand your palette and learn more about beer.

Today I have three breweries that the seasoned beer drinker will surely enjoy and provide the tenderfoot with a way to get out of the comfort zone and try something different.

Cascade Brewing Barrel House [icon name=’google-maps’ size=’small’]
Sours

I’ve been on a sour kick the last year (yeah, yeah, I jumped on the hipster train) and while in Portland last February, I discovered this gem. Cascade Brewing Barrel House is easily my favorite brewery in Portland. I had never heard of Cascade until I had stumbled across it online and asked my beer-loving boss about it. His eyes widened and he immediately started telling me how much he loved their sours. I was sold.

If you haven’t been introduced to the world of sours, then this is the perfect venue to expand your beer knowledge. Sours are not like typical beers. When you think of beer, tasting notes like bitter, hoppy, and malty tend to come to mind. Sours are quite literally sour and have tasting notes across the fruit board; expect flavors like cherry, citrus, and fig. Many people I have been with when trying sours for the first time often say they are reminiscent of ciders.

My recommendation is you and those you are with each place an order for tasting flight and organize a huge sampling. There are a ton of brews to pick from and honestly, almost every beer I tried was awesome. My favorite absolute favorite was the Sang Noir but the brew year does influence the taste since they are a small operation.

Hair of the Dog [icon name=’google-maps’ size=’small’]
Barrel Aged and Bottle-Conditioned

I found Hair of the Dog on a whim, searching the web for Portland’s highest-rated breweries after walking out of another brewery slightly buzzed. Luckily, it was within stumbling distance They boast an unusual beer selection for the beer lovers, so I figured why not try it.

Most of their “unusual” beers are either part of their “from the wood” barrel aged beers or bottle condition beers. Now if you thought sours are different, these are a completely different game. Unless you are an enthusiast, chances are these beers are going to deliver on the promise of being “unusual” and will be very different from any beer you’ve ever tried. The easiest way I describe these beers is having a more wine-like, vinegary, and pungent taste.

If you are looking to expand your palette with a barrel aged beer, their most popular beer is Adam From The Wood. I particularly enjoyed Bourbon Fred From The Wood, but I am not a huge barrel aged fan in general. Even if you are unsure if you will like these beers, I encourage you to at least try one. It gave me a deeper appreciation for the spectrum of beers out there.

Green Dragon [icon name=’google-maps’ size=’small’]
Craft Beer & Education

I haven’t been to this pub yet, but I love the mission behind it. The Green Dragon is dedicated to the education & appreciation of craft beer, so it perfectly complements this article. They have 56 rotating taps to enjoy and offer flights for tasting.

Every Wednesday, they release a new brew into the rotation and every Thursday they host a brewer from local and regional breweries. Even if you can’t make it on either of those days, I can tell from their site that whoever is pouring your pint is going to be able to educate you on your brew.

All in all, you have a very large selection of breweries and bars to check out in Portland. It is going to be tempting to stay around Pearl District and Downtown, but I urge you to go out and explore. You can find a lot of great breweries and places in general if you cross the river and will find some hidden local gems off Hawthorne street.

Honestly, I could go on and list many more breweries to visit. So I will list a few before I go

• Rogue – Not as well known as Widmer or Deschutes, but on the rise. Lots of interesting brews
• BridgePort Brewery & Brewpub – Good location to hang out, drink, and eat
• Bailey’s Taproom – Doesn’t produce it’s own beer, but has a great selection accompanied by an awesome electronic tap system

My final advice is a tangent, but I found very helpful on my trips: download the TriMet App. You can use the app to purchase public transit tickets on your smart phone, so no more carrying around change! The MAX (Portland’s Street Car system) is pretty nice and in combination with the buses, you can get most places easily.

Good luck on your trip and drink up!

Cheers

The post Portland: Expand Your Beer Palette first appeared on Distilled Nomad.

I think it’s that discomfort that tends to scare some people away from traveling in the first place. They get scared and overwhelmed to the point where they don’t want to deal it. So they stay home, or they go to the same vacation spot, or they go somewhere new and do exactly what they would do at home anyways.

This is not inherently a bad thing. Routine is a powerful tool that is needed to accomplish things at a higher level. If you had to find a new grocery store every time you wanted to shop, suddenly picking up grapefruits just became a whole lot harder. I would go so far as to say shunning routine completely is not only dangerous but a waste of time as well.

On the flip side, routine can be an avoidance pattern too. We use it to justify everything from what districts we go out in, what bars we try, and what places we visit. What we are missing here is the opportunity cost we pay when we continue to do the same thing. I actually think this is where a lot of people struggle; we are so used to routines that we use them as a tool to eradicate discomfort. Don’t do that.

Discomfort is where you grow. It’s where you challenge yourself to do more and learn more. The world honestly doesn’t give a crap who you are or where you are in life. The fact is that “discomfort” is where the work happens. The more you do something that is uncomfortable, the more it will become comfortable, and then finally it will be time to move the bar forward again. That is what us nerds call “Leveling up”. That is growth. That is personal development. So if you avoid discomfort, you are essentially robbing yourself of the chance to grow. What a shame.

I can hear it now – “Bryan, WTF does this have to do with my Euro trip this summer?”

This mindset and how much you can enjoy discomfort is intimately correlated with the experience of your travel. The more you can align yourself with this mindset of embracing discomfort, the more possibilities will open up. My best stories are never from the time I rode the tourist bus around whatever city. It is always the time I took a risk and did something uncomfortable and maybe bordering on crazy sometimes. It’s a beautiful thing to do something maybe a bit wild and end up with a cool story.

For those who want the TL;DR; it’s essentially this:

Instead, I encourage you to take a moment today and ask yourself “Am I uncomfortable enough?”

Cheers

The post Enjoy Discomfort first appeared on Distilled Nomad.

More on the flexible mindset in a later post. As DJ Khaled would say, it is a Major Key.

For those that don’t know, Northern Europe, specifically Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, are not known for being cheap countries to visit. They are actually pretty expensive if not done right. I knew I had to start looking for cheap accommodations right away. Using pretty much exactly the same tactics I outlined in my cheap accommodations post, I quickly rooted out the Vesterbro neighborhood as a slightly rough, but very central and up-and-coming neighborhood with reasonable prices.

Neighborhood Vibe

When I say it was “slightly rough”, you have to keep in mind that we were in fact in Denmark – named one of the happiest countries in the world for several years. I expected something on par with the Mission District in San Francisco from how websites described it. What I found was closer to the level of Powell Street on a bad night (occasional prostitutes and drunks). I would say if you don’t mind a 20-30 minute walk or 5-10 minute transit ride to the city center, the outskirts Vesterbro are a good option and much cheaper than staying anywhere near Tivoli Gardens or Nyhavn.

Vesterbro in general has a very hipster and young energy to it. On weekend nights before going out, younger people gather at the parks scattered around the neighborhood and drink with friends, and it reminded me somewhat of the energy I encountered in Lisbon’s Bairro Alto (people are very different though). There are many cafes, restaurants, and bars scattered around the three main streets: Vesterbrogade, Istedgade, and Sønder. So if you are in an exploratory mood, just pick one of these and walk it.

I would also be doing you a disservice to not mention that this city is bike crazy. Chances are that your Airbnb host may have an extra bike and you can use to explore this very bike friendly city. You can also rent a bike for a few days too to make getting around easier. Copenhagen is not a large city and transit runs 24 hours, so biking or public transit is a very viable option.

Alright, on to the meat!

Coffee: MAD & KAFFE [icon name=’google-maps’ size=’small’]

I had trouble with this C in C³. I went to a few places in Vesterbro for coffee on my way out to explore each morning, but nothing really jumped out at me. I would love to get input from my Danish friends on this topic, but for now, I will give you MAD & KAFFE.

MAD & KAFFE is more of a breakfast place than anything, and starting at 65 Kr. (about $10 USD) you can take your pick of 3 or more dishes that they serve. Ranging from smoked salmon [icon name=’heart’ size=’small’] to a delicious avocado dish, even vegans and vegetarians will find enough options here.

The food is great for light eating and their coffee and espresso drinks are good too (at least the latté was good). As I said earlier, you aren’t going to find anything crazy out of the ordinary here in terms of coffee. The most important part though was that I liked the atmosphere; it was a good place to start the day and center yourself before exploring.

Cuisine: Café Dyrehaven [icon name=’google-maps’ size=’small’]

One thing you learn about Northern Europe quickly is that many countries don’t really embrace their own cuisine too much. It’s actually pretty funny. When I talked to my friends in Berlin about where to find good traditional German food, they were not too enthusiastic that I wanted “German food”. They wanted to give me Italian! Something similar happened in Stockholm too. So I didn’t know what to expect from Copenhagen in the food category.

Luckily, Café Dyrehaven caught my eye when I was walking down Sønder Blvd. Their logo reminded me very much of Jägermeister’s logo, so I wrote it off as another neighborhood bar at first. Then I did some digging and found it was actually rated pretty well for some it’s open-faced sandwiches; a very Danish thing apparently.

It gets pretty busy, and they don’t serve food all the time, so make sure to check the hours. They serve a lunch and dinner crowd, and the rest of the time it serves coffee and drinks only. It took me a few tries to finally make it in, but was worth it.

Trained by my Dad, I immediately ordered the weirdest thing on their menu – a fish ball sandwich. It was basically a fish meatball sandwich with a remoulade and other fixings on some bread. It was really good and pretty cheap in comparison to Danish standards. Don’t worry, they have other options if you aren’t into fish balls [icon name=’emoticon-tongue’ size=’small’]

Cocktails: Curfew [icon name=’google-maps’ size=’small’]

I am not exaggerating at all when I say finding Curfew was, without a doubt, one of the pivotal moments of my trip. The bartenders, owners, and the staff at this bar were just amazing. I immediately clicked with them and the drinks they make here are among the Top 5 bars I’ve been to in the world. You don’t have to take my word for it either – they are featured on several “Best Bars in Copenhagen” lists.

The vibe is definitely a bit more formal and old-time loungey, so I recommend business casual attire as the lower bound, but they probably won’t care either way. Expect the normal price for a good cocktail in Copenhagen – a lot. Remember when I said friends gathered in the parks to drink before going out? That’s why. Don’t let the price deter you, it is worth the cost. You’re on vacation anyways, right? Curfew serves as a good last stop to cap off the night as well.

Most of the drinks here tend to lean toward the sweet, citric, or floral/herby side. I think this was actually a common theme in the Copenhagen bar scene – drinks are not as spirit forward as stronger drinks tend to be in America. If you are really into drinking whiskey neat, now is a good time to explore the other side of the spectrum. The one drink that sticks out in my mind is the Ampicilin, but the seasonal menu is where it’s at. The seasonal drinks are their specialty and always changing. I recommend talking to the bartenders to figure out which one will best suit your taste.

This wraps up C³: Copenhagen, Vesterbro. I just want to give a shout-out to my friends at Curfew. So glad to have met you guys and I will be back this summer for another drink. An open invitation to SF is always extended to you all! Also, I borrowed a lot of your pictures – so if you need me to give a different photo credit or take them down, let me know.

If you haven’t already read up on C³: NYC East Village – Lower East Side, make sure to check that out. I’m torn on the next edition right now, but it’s currently between Berlin and Portland. We’ll see

Until next time, Cheers

Featured Image: Queen Berengaria and Humberto by Curfew – Photo Credit: @curfew_copenhagen
Header Image: Edited – Queen Berengaria and Humberto by Curfew – Original Photo Credit: Curfew

The post C3: Copenhagen – Vesterbro first appeared on Distilled Nomad.

The mindset of “I could never” and “expensive” are useless ways to think about something, so I want you to change how you phrase this. Instead, you should be saying “How can I afford this?” and “How can I make this possible?”. Without making this mindset shift, you won’t travel or be so worried about the finances that the travel will be less pleasant with all the stress that surrounds it.

The High-Level Overview

I am going to treat you like intelligent adults and assumed you’ve heard the classic financial advice – skip the lattes, don’t eat out so much, sell your first born, etc. You may heed advice like this and they may have some effect, but I don’t think this is a realistic approach when it comes down to it.

Instead, I am going to turn to one of my favorite financial advisors and authors – Ramit Sethi. I highly recommend you read his book, “I Will Teach You To Be Rich” if you haven’t yet. Yes, the title is a bit scammy, but look past it because not only is Ramit hilarious, his content is gold.

So inspired by his mindset, we are going to look at how to optimize the financials of travel. There are four main costs when traveling:

1. Accommodations
2. Fights
3. Tours and Other Tickets
4. Food

In the next few articles in this series, we’ll look at each of these topics and try to break down each on how to optimize them to work with your needs. Today, we are going to focus on accommodations.

Accommodations

When you are traveling, you have to sleep somewhere. This is probably where most of your money is going to go. The first part of optimizing accommodations is really stepping back and asking yourself a few questions.

• How easily can you sleep?
• How much do you value privacy?
• How much time will you be out exploring vs spending time at the place?
• Do you feel comfortable taking public transit?
• Are you afraid of having to communicate with people whose first language may not be English?
• How immersed do you want to be with other travelers or locals?

The first three questions really determine what type of accommodation you may want to look into while the other three speak more to location.

Accommodation Types

There is a reason why accommodation is one of the top expenses when traveling; it is probably the most important investment you can make when traveling. If you are not comfortable in your situation, you are going to enjoy your trip less, so it is important you don’t skimp on comfort for a few hundred bucks unless you are sure it is a situation you are fine with.

If you are already 100% set on your accommodation type, then skip down to accommodation location.

Hostels

The very cliché answer to the costliness of accommodations is “Why not do hostels?”. Hostels are almost always going to be the cheapest option out there, but this comes at the cost of privacy and comfort. Maybe you rather not be woken up in the middle of the night by the French Canadians who partied until 4 AM. You also might sleep through tornados like a zen master.

If you can sleep easily and don’t care too much for privacy, this may be a good choice. This may be a good choice if you plan on being out all the time, since you will only be there to sleep anyways. I could go into a lot more detail about hostels, but there are so many articles and travel books out there already that I am not going to, especially since I am not a hostel traveler anymore. All I have to say to my American readers is that no, it is not like Hostel the movie

Home Sharing

Typically people think about two options only when traveling: hostels and hotels. But there is a whole other market that has completely changed travel for me – home sharing. Home sharing is basically Airbnb and any similar service where it allows you to rent out shared rooms, private rooms, or entire houses from the owners. Some of the services include Airbnb (my favorite), VRBO/Homeaway, and Wimdu.

Depending on what you are looking for, this option can be priced as low as hostels or higher than hotels. The typical price falls between the two, making it the next step up. They also tend to offer much more privacy and comfort than a hostel does, which is why it is my ideal choice.

I think a lot of people tend to be afraid of this option because it is less known and comes off as a bit less formal. You have to understand that it is mostly an irrational fear to be afraid of renting from a home sharing site, and it is costing you money. I have never had a bad experience with home sharing and many of my rooms were on par or better than hotel rooms. I’ve even been lucky enough to find rooms cheaper than hostels.

The other benefit this has over both hostels and hotels is that this will likely introduce you to some locals, which could result in some great connections. I highly recommend this option for you if you don’t want to do hostels, but want to still save some cash.

Hotels

This type of accommodation really needs no explanation since it is so mainstream. Expect hotels to be the absolute most expensive option, but with the most privacy and comfort.

The other trade off that turns me off to hotels is the tourist bubble that comes with staying in a hotel. You will not meet as many people in a hotel as you would in a hostel or in a some home sharing situations.

There are other types of accommodations you could look into like Couchsurfing, but that deserves a whole post within itself and is a very different experience than the options above.

Once you have your type of accommodation picked out, now its time to do some searching. During this search, the other variable for price is going to be location.

Accommodation Location

The easiest way to save money when booking your accommodations boils down to this; don’t stay in areas frequented by tourists. Don’t be afraid to stay outside the main tourist areas and catch public transit or walk to them.

The main tourist areas have the demand, so they can set prices much higher. Other areas will be priced lower because they aren’t premium real estate to the tourists. Now this suggestion is pretty broad. There may be huge chunks of the city that are not “touristy”. I’ll help you narrow it down in a few simple steps.

1. Pick your city
2. Search for “Districts in X”, X being the city
3. Find a recently updated site that describes the districts of the city you are going to
4. Read through the districts and find a district that is described
5. You are looking for districts described as
   • Reformed
   • Revitalized
   • Up and Coming
   • Trendy
   • Once Blue Collar, Once Slums, etc. and now home to new trendy cafes, bars, etc.
6. You are avoiding districts described as
   • Tourist Center
   • City Center
   • Industrial
   • Anything signifying it may still be a rough neighborhood

To put it simply, you’re basically looking for districts that are undergoing gentrification or clean up. They are probably going to have a bit of edge to them still, so it attracts locals, but no tourists yet. You will find some pretty sweet places to stay using this technique, just make sure the sites you use to research are up to date and look up a secondary source for your district to verify it is fine.

When you do start looking for a location, be conscious of where the locations are that you want to visit relative to where you are considering staying. Most cities in first world countries (except US cities) have good or decent public transit, so it is easy to get around without a car, so just check out Google Maps to see how long it would take on public transit to get around. Make sure you aren’t staying an hour out of the city center just to save $10 a night, as that is time lost you could use to explore.

Well, that ended up being much longer than I thought it would! Next time I write about this topic, I am going to explore optimizing the next most expensive part of travel – the flight.

Cheers

The post How To: Travel Cheaply – Accommodations first appeared on Distilled Nomad.

Many dreams, once achieved, tend to lose its luster. Not this one. Every day I walk around my home base of San Francisco with wide eyes and a spirit of adventure. This city has so much to offer, and even with its large array of problems, it has a lot to be proud of too. San Francisco’s selection of specialized spirit bars is no exception.

Hard Water: Whiskey [icon name=’google-maps’ size=’small’]

Hard Water is an American whiskey bar with a whiskey selection numbering in the hundreds. When you walk into the bar, you will be overwhelmed by the wall of whiskey bottles that will bring any whiskey lover to their knees. Whether you are a casual drinker or a whiskey connoisseur, you will find something here to quench your thirst.

Hard Water is conveniently located on Pier 3 off the Embarcadero, just a brisk walk from the Embarcadero BART and MUNI station. Its location makes it a popular spot for after work drinks, so be prepared to face the crowds if you are going around 5 PM on a weekday. Oh, and make sure to fill up on the delicious appetizers so you don’t have to drink on an empty stomach.

Tres: Tequila [icon name=’google-maps’ size=’small’]

Now I have to be honest, I am not a tequila fan. I’ve already been berated by my Mexican family about this, so please, no hate mail haha. Don’t fret, I have a lot of friends and sources to pick up the slack in this category. After tireless research and a blistering amount of typing, I have decided to recommend one of my Boss’ favorite Tequila spot, Tres.

Finding its roots in tradition, Tres specializes in cuisine coming out of Jalisco, Mexico. While you enjoy delicious food, you can sip one of their many tequilas imported from Mexico. Tres will teach you the world beyond Patron, with their slogan “Rocks – no salt”. If you aren’t a fan of straight tequila, they also have a large selection of margaritas and tequila cocktails.

Located near AT&T Park, it’s accessible from the 2nd and King MUNI stop. It can get pretty busy during Giant’s games, so be aware of the game schedule and make a reservation if you can.

Smuggler’s Cove: Rum [icon name=’google-maps’ size=’small’]

Hidden on the outskirts of the Hayes Valley neighborhood, you will find this Carribean-themed pirate bar, only marked by a single red light and a line waiting to enter. Smuggler’s Cove describes themselves as specialists in “Traditional drinks of the Caribbean islands, Classic libations of Prohibition-era Havana, and Exotic cocktails from legendary Tiki bars” and they absolutely deliver on that statement.

For those here for the rum, you will want to ask about the “The Rumbustion Society”. With over 400 different rums offered, this “society” is based on trying several different rums and learning about the different flavors and profiles. There are different levels of the society to climb, but don’t expect to reach even the first level with the requirement of trying 20 different rums.

Make sure to arrive early to avoid the line. This place is small and only allows 49 people at a time, so large groups aren’t recommended. You can reach this bar via Van Ness MUNI station or Civic Center BART/MUNI Station.

Whitechapel: Gin [icon name=’google-maps’ size=’small’]

Whitechapel isn’t just any gin bar, it has the bragging rights to say it has the largest gin selection in North America. With numerous awards and owners from other successful bars (including Smuggler’s Cove), this isn’t just a stop for gin lovers, but for anyone who loves a good drink.

From gin and tonics to martinis, this bar has a wide breadth of cocktails to go along with the gin selection. The menu is huge and can be a bit overwhelming with over 120 different cocktails. If you aren’t sure what to get, just ask the bartenders and they would be happy to help. Personally, I’m a fan of the Cucumber Lavender Sour and Spanish Gin and Tonic. As always, I encourage you to try at least one drink that has you questioning whether those ingredients could possibly make a good drink. This is one of the places I feel you will be wonderfully surprised.

This bar is located on Polk Street, just north of Civic Center Plaza. It is relatively new, so I am not sure what their peak hours are. Whitechapel also has food and accepts reservations for parties of 8 or more.

That wraps up this edition of City Spirit! San Francisco has a lot more bars specializing in different spirits; think of this as just the tip of the iceberg. Being my home base, expect more editions of City Spirit: SF in the future. Until then, have fun exploring these world-class bars.

Cheers

The post City Spirit: San Francisco first appeared on Distilled Nomad.