Becoming Yourself

Developing a Better You

Tag: travel

Lisa and I hiking in Alaska

Lessons Learned from One Year of Nomadic Living

July 5, 2025 / / 0 Comments

We’re trying something new.

If you’re a regular reader of Becoming Yourself, you know that my wife Lisa and I live nomadically. On July 4, 2024, we drove away from our condo in Tempe, Arizona for the last time to travel the world, living in hotels, AirBnbs, cruise ships, and with friends and family.

What a year it’s been. We’ve been to fourteen countries, hiked mountains, wandered cobblestoned streets, and fallen into pet sitting. It’s been a huge learning curve, with high highs and low lows, and we love it. After twelve months on the road, we’re ready to pass on some of our hard-won knowledge.

Lisa and I in Chapultepec Park in Mexico City, Mexico

We’ve launched a new blog called Footnote to chronicle our stories, adventures, and lessons learned on living nomadically, travel, and hiking. We’ll even throw in some thoughts on retiring early and realizing your dreams. We’d love for you to join us. You can read our first post HERE, and if you like what you see, you’ll have the opportunity to subscribe and follow us on the road.

Thanks so much for letting me share this exciting new venture with you. I’ll be back next week with another personal development post to help you on the journey to Becoming Yourself.

Scheduled Laughter: Smiling Monkey

A Fun and Easy Personal Growth Practice: Scheduled Laughter

September 5, 2020 / / 2 Comments

Scheduled Laughter: Woman LaughingAs I shared in a recent post (you can read that here), the ongoing COVID-19 induced social isolation and break in routine has caused me to struggle emotionally.  I’ve been finding practices that are helping me regain my emotional balance. One of them is simply laughter. I wrote a post about this topic back in April of 2018 and decided to share it again. I think it’s safe to say that at this point, we can all use a laugh! Enjoy.

Sometimes you just gotta laugh. No, seriously. If you want to become a better version of yourself, laughter is a key discipline.

Sounds strange doesn’t it? To think of laughter as a discipline. But it can and should be. My accountability partner of over ten years, someone I deeply respect for his concerted effort to continually become a better version of himself, actually writes time for laughter into his schedule. It sits alongside his other disciplines like working out, prayer, and listening to personal growth audiobooks.

Scheduled Laughter: Smiling DogSo in honor of that somewhat radical idea, I’m giving you an opportunity to laugh today. Instead of reading more of my words, I encourage you to read those of a traveler who many years ago had a comically bad day and was banned from a hotel. He got the ban lifted through owning his mistakes with humility and humor. You can read his story here.

Scheduled Laughter: Smiling BabySo whatever it is that tickles your funny bone – streaming a favorite sitcom, reading the comics, or watching wipeout videos on Youtube – schedule some laughter into your daily routine. If you do, you’ll take another happy step toward Becoming Yourself.

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