For Bourne, travel is a necessity. It's required to find out who he is or to evade those who are looking for him. Travel for you should be similar...to find out who you are and to evade the constant hassles of life. Don't travel for the sake of traveling or taking a vacation. You can take a vacation at the local beach or community swimming pool. Travel to indulge your senses and figure out what inspires you. Are you interested in the arts? Travel to Florence to look upon the great masterpieces. Interested in martial arts? Travel to China, Japan or Thailand and spend a week or more brushing up on a specific martial art from where it was born. Travel to explore what you set your horizons to be and escape the mundane life.
Traveling like Bourne is making most out of your resources. Use what you can, then improvise. Can't afford a business class ticket? Then try and secure a free upgrade by shmoozing with the ticket or ramp agent. If that doesn't work, then make your economy class experience a business class one with the right sight, meal from the airport, sound system, entertainment system and accessories. Need to find a great hotel for a reasonable price? Use Priceline.com or try your corporate travel program and find a hotel that will offer a discount to your firm. These little tricks will make your experience much more comfortable and will help you maximize your dollar.
When traveling to a foreign country, always learn some of the local language and culture. Bourne was well equipped in this aspect; usually by speaking the native language (French, Swiss German, German and Russian) or by learning to adapt in that environment (while living in India, and other places).
By following these tips, you can escape to another land and search for yourself like Bourne...
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Resource allocation...
When Bourne goes to the Swiss Bank in Zurich to see what's in his money box, he realizes he has various resources at his disposal. By resources, I don't mean how much you have in your bank. What I mean is what resources are valuable to you. For example, in the safe deposit box, there were various items such as a Tag Heuer watch, multiple passports, and loads of cash. Now the cash part is pretty easy; it's a valuable resource to purchase other items and generally to survive. How are the watch and multiple passports important? The watch is a trustworthy brand that can be used in any scenario. The passports provide Bourne with multiple identies and safe havens when he travels. Both are valuable resources in their own right.
For your first 6 months, what valuable resource do you wish to allocate or how do you wish to further the allocation of that resource? For me, it was very simple: I wanted to create a way to earn more money without allocating excessive effort on my part. So I decided to create a website that would bring in about $1000 per month. I started to think of various ideas on how to do so, and I used a great resource called "The 4 Hour Work Week" by Timothy Ferriss. It describes how you can use your social network and contacts to start a side business that can prosper. The best way of creating such a business is online.
Other ideas for resource allocation is trying to earn frequent flier miles (which will help your Travel goal category). You can sign up for a major credit card that gives 20,000+ miles with your first purchase with the card. Further, you can pay all your bills through that credit card to earn the most amount of points possible.
If you are thinking along the lines of accumilating more wealth, always remember: do what you love. It sounds like a cliche or it sounds overused, but it's very true. You need to do what you're passionate about. If you enjoy sports, then find a business idea that will incorporate sports in it. If you love cooking, then create a business about cooking or recipes. Do what you enjoy most.
For Bourne, resources were a matter of survival. In away, it's a matter of survival for you as well...survival from the mundane.
Some great reads on resource allocations are the following:
For your first 6 months, what valuable resource do you wish to allocate or how do you wish to further the allocation of that resource? For me, it was very simple: I wanted to create a way to earn more money without allocating excessive effort on my part. So I decided to create a website that would bring in about $1000 per month. I started to think of various ideas on how to do so, and I used a great resource called "The 4 Hour Work Week" by Timothy Ferriss. It describes how you can use your social network and contacts to start a side business that can prosper. The best way of creating such a business is online.
Other ideas for resource allocation is trying to earn frequent flier miles (which will help your Travel goal category). You can sign up for a major credit card that gives 20,000+ miles with your first purchase with the card. Further, you can pay all your bills through that credit card to earn the most amount of points possible.
If you are thinking along the lines of accumilating more wealth, always remember: do what you love. It sounds like a cliche or it sounds overused, but it's very true. You need to do what you're passionate about. If you enjoy sports, then find a business idea that will incorporate sports in it. If you love cooking, then create a business about cooking or recipes. Do what you enjoy most.
For Bourne, resources were a matter of survival. In away, it's a matter of survival for you as well...survival from the mundane.
Some great reads on resource allocations are the following:
- The Unemployed Millionaire: Escape the Rat Race, Fire Your Boss and Live Life on YOUR Terms! by Matt Morris
- The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss
- Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Your goals and what you want as Bourne...
To begin with, you need to separate your life as Bourne as your normal everyday self. Realize that what you do as Bourne are the things you desire. You'll notice that many of things you want to do will also trickle to your everyday life. For example, if you've ever wanted to learn how to speak Mandarin, you may get an offer for a position at work involving international trade with Chinese based-businesses. If you wish to learn how to drive like Bourne, you may take a driving education class that will help you reduce silly errors while driving, hence leading to reduced traffic violations.
But in order to start your Bourne-esq life, you need to being with a list of goals you wish to accomplish in a 6 month or 1 year span. No, not 3 year goals or 10 year goals, but a short term time frame. The shorter you keep your goals, the more realistic they are to achieve them. Leave the 3 year plus planning to your normal, everyday life.
I personally am a big fan of keeping a notebook or purchasing a planning tool like Franklin Covey or other life planning programs. These will help you keep track of where you are in achieving your short term goals and how far you have to go. It will also assist in scheduling your training of what you need to accomplish the goal.
For the first 6 months, I had 6 goals in the following categories:
1. Resources
2. Travel
3. Language
4. Fitness
5. Physical Skills (Sport/Martial Arts, etc)
6. Intrinsic Skills (Race car driving, computer skills, etc)
I then selected at least one goal in each category that I wanted to accomplish in that time frame. In some categories, such as travel, you can have more than one goal. My six month goals were the following:
1. Resources: Establish an online business earning $1,000 per month.
2. Travel: Visit a Far East country
3. Language: Learn German at a conversational level
4. Fitness: Drop 10 pounds of fat and put on 15 pounds of muscle
5. Physical Skills: Begin Krav Maga training and reach Level 2
6. Intrinsic Skills: Learn basic camping and survival skills in the woods
Even though in my first post I said that Jason Bourne's missions are not planned out, he obviously needed the skills to become the man he is. In order for you to reach that level, you need to plan first. But while you're reaching your goals, you'll notice how different your Bourne life is becoming and how much more adventure you're seeking. In the next posts, I'll discuss each of the 6 categories in detail and how I went through them.
But in order to start your Bourne-esq life, you need to being with a list of goals you wish to accomplish in a 6 month or 1 year span. No, not 3 year goals or 10 year goals, but a short term time frame. The shorter you keep your goals, the more realistic they are to achieve them. Leave the 3 year plus planning to your normal, everyday life.
I personally am a big fan of keeping a notebook or purchasing a planning tool like Franklin Covey or other life planning programs. These will help you keep track of where you are in achieving your short term goals and how far you have to go. It will also assist in scheduling your training of what you need to accomplish the goal.
For the first 6 months, I had 6 goals in the following categories:
1. Resources
2. Travel
3. Language
4. Fitness
5. Physical Skills (Sport/Martial Arts, etc)
6. Intrinsic Skills (Race car driving, computer skills, etc)
I then selected at least one goal in each category that I wanted to accomplish in that time frame. In some categories, such as travel, you can have more than one goal. My six month goals were the following:
1. Resources: Establish an online business earning $1,000 per month.
2. Travel: Visit a Far East country
3. Language: Learn German at a conversational level
4. Fitness: Drop 10 pounds of fat and put on 15 pounds of muscle
5. Physical Skills: Begin Krav Maga training and reach Level 2
6. Intrinsic Skills: Learn basic camping and survival skills in the woods
Even though in my first post I said that Jason Bourne's missions are not planned out, he obviously needed the skills to become the man he is. In order for you to reach that level, you need to plan first. But while you're reaching your goals, you'll notice how different your Bourne life is becoming and how much more adventure you're seeking. In the next posts, I'll discuss each of the 6 categories in detail and how I went through them.
Freedom from the mundane...
On the edge, resourceful, nomad, multilingual, skillful, tactful and deadly accurate. These are just a few words that come up when you think about Jason Bourne, the ultimate spy who lost his memory and become rogue. Although Bourne is a fictional character, Matt Damon made him into an international hit on-screen. Millions followed his story, and now many men and women long to live like Bourne. Obviously, you can't be the spy who lost his memory, but you can make your life a little more like Bourne's.
Let's face it, most people go through life in a certain zone. This zone mostly deals with getting a "normal" education, going through a professional life, starting a family and then retirement. Sure people travel and do certain things to pass their time with, but do they rarely live on the edge. What I'm introducing is to that you can have both...you can have your everyday zone and you can have your "Bourne Zone".
I'm using this blog to share my experiences on what I've done to live a little like Bourne and what you can can do as well. I'll cover topics ranging from how to be resourceful with funds to learning how to defend oneself. Also, I'm hoping that others could comment on their experience or what they recommend for others, including myself. I'm not an expert, just someone willing to share his journey and someone trying to look for other ideas.
Also note, many people put Jason Bourne and James Bond in the same category. Don't make that mistake! People who dream about being Bond usually need the lavishness of life, go to exotic and expensive locales, wear dapper clothing, use their playful gadgets and have a structured mission. The Bourne's of this world are resourceful of what they have, improvise in difficult situations, explore different parts of the world (no matter what condition) and create the mission as they go along with life. This blog is about the now and what you can do to tweak it to become more like Bourne.
Let's face it, most people go through life in a certain zone. This zone mostly deals with getting a "normal" education, going through a professional life, starting a family and then retirement. Sure people travel and do certain things to pass their time with, but do they rarely live on the edge. What I'm introducing is to that you can have both...you can have your everyday zone and you can have your "Bourne Zone".
I'm using this blog to share my experiences on what I've done to live a little like Bourne and what you can can do as well. I'll cover topics ranging from how to be resourceful with funds to learning how to defend oneself. Also, I'm hoping that others could comment on their experience or what they recommend for others, including myself. I'm not an expert, just someone willing to share his journey and someone trying to look for other ideas.
Also note, many people put Jason Bourne and James Bond in the same category. Don't make that mistake! People who dream about being Bond usually need the lavishness of life, go to exotic and expensive locales, wear dapper clothing, use their playful gadgets and have a structured mission. The Bourne's of this world are resourceful of what they have, improvise in difficult situations, explore different parts of the world (no matter what condition) and create the mission as they go along with life. This blog is about the now and what you can do to tweak it to become more like Bourne.
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