Uncovering your desired "end state" lifestyle

Welcome to Travel Onist featuring lifestyle design inspiration, personal growth reflections, and content recommendations.

Thank you for sticking with me as I experiment with this new subject. Your feedback is especially valuable at this time. I plan to do a full rebrand at some point, but for now, the weekly email will continue to change subtly over time.

Let’s get to it 👇

Lifestyle Design

If you happened to read Michael Karnjanaprakorn’s blog post I discussed last week, you may have seen this exercise from Kevin Dahlstrom, where he outlines his desired “end state” lifestyle.

I enjoyed the framing Kevin provided in the top tweet regarding ambition.

I’ve written about opting for direction over goals in the past.

This perspective offered me a chance to rethink that a bit.

What I like about Kevin’s list, is it outlines a direction, while leaving plenty of optionality for the specifics of what may satisfy that end state.

I thought this would be a great exercise to help me get more specific with my direction, and ultimately, the end state I’d like to achieve through lifestyle design.

Below are some of the things that make up my desired end-state lifestyle:

• 100% control of my schedule — always available for family and core friends

• Intellectually stimulating work done on my terms

• Easy access to clean food — living off the land where possible

• Travel 3 months of the year — with friends, family, and solo

• Maintain my inner child

• Dedicated fitness and wellness time each day

• Be a collector of life experiences, not possessions

• Deep roots in a community (1 or more)

• Builder of boutique travel properties and experiences

• Enjoy the athletic pursuit(s) of my choosing. Allow myself the freedom for that pursuit to change over time

• Equal time in community-driven cities/towns and nature

• Limiting beliefs do not stop me from doing the things I want to do

What are some of the items that make up your desired “end-state” lifestyle?

Weekly Write-up

I was listening to Jerry Seinfeld talk about writing on Tim Ferriss’s podcast the other day when he said something that hit me:

“Never talk to anyone about what you wrote that day. You have to wait 24 hours to say anything to anyone about what you did. Because you never want to take away that wonderful, happy feeling, that you did a hard thing…

Because they’re going to react, and that reaction is going to have a color.”

It’s natural to want to share my work immediately, especially with loved ones.

It excites me, so I assume it will excite others.

That may be the case, but in sharing my writing and ideas immediately, I allow others to define how I view MY work.

I may get lucky and find my work is validated, but more likely than not, it won’t be (at least in the way I had hoped) for two reasons:

1. No one will be as excited about my work as I will be.

2. Ideas often suck at first. They need time to grow.

In giving others immediate power over my ideas, I risk them being crushed before they can become something.

It’s a message I’ve seen a few times recently and a challenge I’ve experienced firsthand.

That initial phase of excitement is powerful. That excitement is energy.

In the day-in, day-out monotony of honing a craft, energy is a powerful force.

It can keep me going when other factors want me to stop.

So, I’m working to harness that energy.

Content Recommendation

Our grounds for hope in dark times

I recently came across Maria Popova’s work after it was originally suggested by my friend Ben. Her writing has been refreshing for me as of late. The mid-week newsletter this week was as timely as ever, discussing the importance and the power of hope in the face of darkness.

Cheers ‘til next week,

T.O.