Project Hitchhiker | travels, stories and adventures in lifestyle design
welcome to my blog
Project Hitchhiker is the online creative outlet of Mike H.
Mike’s adventures have taken him across 3 continents, including driving a motorcycle for 6 months across Southeast Asia, hitchhiking across Canada and Japan, and walking 1000 miles along the coastline of Nova Scotia.
Mike’s passions are music, travel and motorcycles (in that order).
Mike’s dislikes include writing about himself in the third person.
This site is a collection of his travels, stories and adventures in lifestyle design.
February is my month of French in the Power of Less Challenge. I committed to studying French at least 30 mins per day for the month. This goal in particular, is really important to me, as I want to come away from this job with a working ability in French.
But first, a quick thought about the language learning tools I’ve chosen. I recently had a discussion with a friend about why I gave up using Rosetta Stone for learning languages. My reasons for stopping have to do with effeciency and adherance.
I came across this video, and could not, not share this with my readers/friends. (This is from a guy who absolutely hates those motivational email forwards, so trust me, it’s something).
The video is of professor Randy Pausch’s last lecture at Carnegie Mellon before his death from pancreatic cancer in 2008. The lecture is entitled Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams and the runtime is 1 hour 16 mins — I PROMISE it’s worth your time (at the very least to see a top notch public speaker at his best).
Hope you enjoy the video. If you feel in the mood for more potentially inspirational/life changing talks, TED.com is a great place to start (a long-time favorite of mine) or check out the list and comments on this post at ZenHabits.com (where I found the above video).
Have a favorite inspirational/motivational video? Share it in the comments below.
“I’m going to quit smoking, lose 20 pounds, give up drinking hard liquor and run at least an hour every day.” How many people out there have ever actually succeeded with New Years Resolutions? Why does it always fail? My theory is that it’s too much all at once. It becomes more painful to continue with the extreme lifestyle makeover than the short-term pleasure you would get reverting to your old habits.
2009 is going to be fantastic. But first, a cliche look back at 2008:
Most important lesson learned in 2008
The number one rule: Do what you love. Don’t give a *** about what anyone else thinks about you.
Top Non-Fiction reads of 2008
Vagabonding by Rolf Potts and The Four Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss. These two books are required reading for anyone who wants to travel or doesn’t like the idea of spending their life in an office cubicle.
Self-help, personal development, call it what you will – it has a bad rap. Cheesy guys running around on stage in 2-star hotel lounges with audiences of hundreds of guys who have lame lives. These are the pictures that come to mind when someone says “self-help”. That, or those Chicken Soup for the Soul books…
If people were to get around the stereotypes and open their minds, they would find that there are some fantastic, potentially life-changing products out there.
My friend Josh recently wrote a blog post about learning Spanish — what has been working, and what hasn’t — and asked for strategies from his readers. When I sat down to write a comment, I realized I had too much to say for just a short paragraph, so here it is. These are strategies that have helped me (and people who I have recognized as effective second language learners) pick up a new language quicker than average — not because we are smarter, but simply because we focus on time-efficient and effective strategies.
I’ve recently started a new job and have a new home for the next ten months. Seems to me a good time to reevaluate what’s important to me, set priorities and really focus on the next big goal: buying my freedom.
