The Minority Nomad 30 Day Challenge

Don’t be afraid to fail. Don’t waste energy trying to cover up failure. Learn from your failures and go on to the next challenge. It’s OK to fail. If you’re not failing, you’re not growing. H. Stanley Judd

Long term travel isn’t for everyone. At times it can be boring, expensive, and lonely. The more I travel and interact with my readers the more I realize that some people will never be able to commit to several months or more to travel. This is reality for not some but most people. Some people are blue collar workers. Few worker classes have been affected by the American economy crash than this group. What options do they have? What can they do? My mission is to expose as many people to the world beyond their borders as possible. In an effort to promote not only a travel but lifestyle modification and opportunities, I am creating the Minority Nomad 30 Day Challenge.

Basic training was a defining time in my life. I had never been the most athletic kid growing up. Although I played sports my entire life I was always just good enough to make the team. This led me to doubt myself for most of my young life because where I grew up being a great athlete was the way out. Once I joined the military the physical aspect was my biggest fear. Many reading this were or are currently in the same position. Through hard work, and a drill instructor kicking me in the ass, I made it through basic in excellent physical condition at the top of my squadron. One thing that remains with me to this day is something my instructor always told me. “Little Bill, if you try you will succeed not matter what the clock says”.

Sidenote: Little Bill was my nickname in basic training because my instructor thought I looked like the Bill Cosby cartoon character. I had a big head and an even bigger hat. Plus I’m black.

The physical aspect of my challenge is to show you that no matter your physical limitations there are ways you can be active in your life. As a culture we are becoming unhealthy and lazy. Being physically fit makes everything in your life better. From sex to travel, all aspects of my life improved once I started taking my personal health seriously and decided to MOVE. Although the physical challenge is very important to me the mental challenge is equally so.

Cleveland Public Schools are TERRIBLE. I honestly don’t think terrible is a strong enough word, and we all should be ashamed of ourselves for allowing our American schools system to get to this point but that’s another blog post. Growing up in Cleveland you don’t learn very much. I was constantly in trouble because I never did my work in school and actually failed the 6^th grade. Why? Simply because I was bored. Now I’ve heard this before over and over again used as an excuse for these juvenile delinquents running around setting cars on fire or kicking puppies. I never did anything like that. I just never did my work because I felt it was either pointless or I could procrastinate and do it at the last minute. Often times the work was so easy I could get away with this but sometimes I couldn’t and suffered very much academically.

As American’s we are very rarely stimulated intellectually. We are allowed to skate by with the bare minimum. Where a “C” student can become president (No offense George W if you’re reading this) and college degrees aren’t worth the paper they are printed on. In order to become well rounded individuals we must take initiative to become more intellectually diverse. I don’t mean only book smart but in music, literature, dance, and other forms of intellectual stimulation and production. Only when we challenge ourselves to be better can we hope to share the world stage with the many nations around the world moving forward.

I will spend 30 days in different countries/cities around the world learning to do something and then either competing at it or doing it professionally. What is your dream? Have you always wanted to surf? How about learn how to cook? What about an instrument? Currently I have two months planned. Later in the summer (their winter) I will go to Buenos Aires Argentina and learn how to Argentine Tango and compete in a tournament. In January I will work for a month on a crab fishing boat in Alaska. After each challenge I will take a month to travel. Where I go for each 30 Day Challenge will depend on you. My readers. Using the poll on my front page, tell me where I should go and what should I do. You have already chosen Tango as my first challenge. What’s next? Comment here on send me an email suggesting anything.

Dreams should never remain as such. Through planning and motivation you can achieve that goal that you’ve wanted. Will I fail? Oh, yeah. But I’ll try and that’s the fun thing about life and travel. Western media has created this culture of fear that American’s have become trapped by. You CAN find work in other countries. You CAN learn a new skill. You CAN interact with different cultures. Our theme is YOU CAN. And I’m going to show you how.

The current list is as follows:

Muay Thai (Thailand)

BJJ (Brazil)

Skiing (Europe)

Scuba diving (Thailand)

Surfing (Australia)

Argentine Tango (Argentina)

Salsa (Colombia)

Piano (Vienna)

Voice (France or Italy)

Be a hippie (California)

Meditation (India)