Posts tagged with summer

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May 9, 2010

How to Take Back Your Summer: Test Your Assumptions

Summer for most college students tends to consist of these four things:

- Traveling to another country

- Taking part in a more-than-likely unpaid internship

- Getting a job (like my roommates are doing)

- Or simply taking it easy at home

I could just as easily do any one of these. But, as per usual, I’m choosing a more interesting route.

Instead of staying at home, writing irregular blog posts, and working for my parents for the next three months like I’ve done every summer, I’m going to strike out on my own. I’ll be away from the lazy day doldrums of the suburbs and will remain in the thick of Chicago.

I’ll still be writing posts, but I’ll also be testing my assumptions:

  • Can I make money from the blog?
  • Can I get over 1,000 subscribers before summer’s end?
  • Can I have interviews with some of the best entrepreneurs on the net?
  • Can I guest post on Zen Habits?

The time of playing video games and watching TV during the majority of my vacation is long over. Those were the days of my younger years — now is the time to do something amazing.

Summer vacation will be a great time to experiment. A time to go on new adventures and walk down new paths. But what about you? I understand that you may or may not be in college anymore and vacations for you aren’t usually three months long because of your job, but isn’t it about time you just went out and did something about it?

Go on a vacation

I can guess your objections to this already. Maybe they’re pre-laid out excuses like mortgages/bills to pay, kids to take care of, and a job to get paid for.

Dump these as reasons for not living your life during the best season of the year. In reality, there are simple solutions to all of these problems.

You don’t have to travel to an exotic land in another country over the summer. Maybe it’s better to just get out of town and live somewhere new for a while.

Your kids aren’t going starve if you decide to take a break from working. Take them with you.

But really, it seems that the real issue with going on vacations is whether our not you’ll have enough money for it. Don’t worry, I’ve got that avenue covered.

Start preparing by considering these steps:

1. Sell things you don’t want/need

Summer is a great time to clear out all the stuff that you don’t use anymore, but instead of throwing it away, try selling it instead. Have a good, old-fashioned garage sale and watch the money roll in for stuff that you though nobody would even consider paying for.

This year, I’ve sold most of my old college textbooks and even my Ipod Touch that hasn’t been used for over a year.

2. Negotiate summer employment

Tell your boss (or plead with your boss, depending on his/her generosity) that you’d like to take a few hours off from working at the office. You may not be able to be completely free from your job if you really need it, but try and negotiate some sort of deal so you can still have money coming in and have time for other things you enjoy.

More information on how to do this here and here.

Thanks to money I’ve saved up from working for my parents, I will not have to worry much about employment…for now.

3. Start saving money

It’s easier to save up enough money to go on a three-month break than you think. All it takes is for you to consume much less than you normally would and keep an eye out for the best deals so you don’t have to spend so much.

Stop buying in bulk and only buy the amount you need.

Buy sweaters during the summer so you don’t have to pay more for warm clothes during the fall and winter.

See? Simple frugality.

4. Teach yourself something valuable

There are a lot of skill you can learn during your break that can prove to be very valuable. I myself plan on playing around with Photoshop, CSS, and HTML code so I potentially won’t ever have to pay for expensive web design.

Some suggestions:

- learn web design (like me)

- have conversations with random people to improve your social skills

- speak a new language

- practice writing stories to improve your writing

A lot of changes are already underway

After you finish taking these steps into consideration, just get up and go. Stop thinking about the consequences and just do it. This is the mindset I’m taking this summer. Nobody has asked me to do this. No own gave me an incentive to cultivate this lifestyle.

But I do it because I know it’ll make me happier in the end.

It’s the same with you. You can either continue on with the same summer you’ve had year after year, or you can start preparing right now and use your vacation doing something you’ve never dreamed of.

Just try it. The sun will be shining with not a cloud in the sky. What better day is there on which to take a chance?

Creative Commons License photo credit: seanmcgrath

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September 2, 2009

Reflections Upon a Summer’s End

“Summer is the time when one sheds one’s tensions with one’s clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit. A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all’s right with the world.” – Ada Louise

As the title of this post suggests, my summer will soon be coming to a close. Yes, I’ll be the back in the dorms doing the soul crushing work laid out by my sometimes fascinating, but always ruthless professors.

Part of me is excited to return to college, but part of me really doesn’t want this summer to end. While the summer days have been quite tame in terms of the things I’m actually doing (reading, social media, listening to music, playing video games for an half hour, and writing blog drafts), I like the solitude of the suburbs. And with this solitude comes more time to think and put down ideas.

However, my summer break is slowing detracting from the source of all my writing material – life.

Though I do love writing about personal development, how can I actually develop myself if I’m just stuck at home all day? If I don’t have anymore of these experiences, what can I write about?

To be honest, I’m surprised I’ve come this far with writing on the blog. That has to be some sort of accomplishment.

But what surprises me the most is that I actually created a blog that people like. I thought that for someone like me, this was impossible. Last year, when I told my housemates the idea for my blog, some of them said to me “Who’s going to read what you write? You write like sh**!” Hearing those words, I began to doubt myself and  think that maybe I should give up. Maybe my efforts weren”t worth the criticism.

But then I looked at bloggers who’ve been at it for years. I saw the ones who succeeded, the ones who made better incomes and new lifestyles from their blogs. I read their stories and was touched by their beginnings. I soon learned that some of their stories weren’t so different from mine. In fact, some of their stories were much worse. Most notably, Jonathan Mead and his story of change - it opened my eyes.

You can have the entire world against you. All of the people who once stood beside you can abandon you. You can have no prospects and seemingly no hope. But if you have the will – the burning desire to change yourself – you can live your dreams.

Well, this pretty much sums up my summer. Anyway, starting September 28th, my posting schedule of Mondays and Thursdays will resume. Sure, I’ll be writing less, but I’ll be experiencing more.

I’d like to thank all of my subscribers, mentors, readers, and friends. Many of you have shown me a world of happiness and support that I can’t even begin to describe.

“We thought a life, by analogy, was a journey with a pilgrimage , which had a serious purpose at the end, and the thing was to get to that end. Success, or whatever it is, or maybe heaven after you’re dead…but we missed the point the whole way along. It was a musical thing and you were supposed to sing or dance while the music was being played.” – Alan Watts

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Creative Commons License photo credit: Kansas Poetry (Patrick)

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