Kevin Felix Chan

Some of you know that I am working part-time on a web-based education startup called Best Delegate. One of the reasons why I am working on the site is to help learn more about myself. I share a similar sentiment that my business partner Ryan has: “Twenty-somethings like me struggle with the question, ‘What do I want from my work, my relationships, and my life?’”

I had previously alluded to the need to properly deal with the Twenty-Something Life or Quarterlife Crisis in my post from Mini-Retirement. (1) It is important to find what we want from work, relationships, and life. If we do not sufficiently address them, work can be unfulfilling, relationships can be superficial or deteriorated, and life can be pretty hollow.

We talk a lot about a concept called “framing” at Best Delegate – how to frame your topic, how to frame your speech – so that people can turn a complex situation into manageable issues. (2) I believe we can also frame our approach to the Twenty-Something Life or Quarter-life Crisis and find what we want from work, relationships, and life. Here are several ideas to help find what you want in each:

How to Find What You Want From Work

Ryan and I are pursuing our passion for education through Model UN with our startup, Best Delegate. (Photo taken at the United Nations in New York)

3. Know your core motivations. Alternatively, this could be phrased as: what motivates your pursuits in life, what drives you to succeed, or what do you wish money could buy? Core motivations could be to: be creative, conquer challenges, have stability in life, bring about meaningful change, help or teach others, become the best professionally or personally, be recognized or respected, have ownership over something, live your ideal lifestyle, etc. Know the reason for why you want to work. Those who are misguided will pursue fame, fortune, power, and prestige without understanding why and consequently will still be unfulfilled despite seeming to be successful.

4. Pursue your passions. We forgot about our passions because we were told we could only settle into normal, defined (boxed-in) career tracks after graduation. But we did not even think about how we could monetize or make a career out of things that we enjoy and were already doing. It takes some brainstorming and some risk-taking, but I believe if you pursue what you’re really passionate about and good at, the money will come. Also, work should be so fun that it doesn’t feel like work. I stay up late working on Best Delegate because I have fun when I get on a creative streak.

5. Make life your classroom. Create experiential learning opportunities for yourself that will help you find what you like and what you can be good at. If you already know, then try it since it may cost nothing to beta test a career.  Don’t be afraid to dip your feet into something you’re curious about and learn from the experience.  I’ve learned so much working at Best Delegate just by experimenting and addressing questions as they came up.

6. Don’t put limits on yourself. We often think where we can go based off where we are now, but what we should be really thinking about is where we really want to be and how we can get there. Too often we undersell ourselves by boxing ourselves into titles, being deterred by requirements, and not taking the risk to try something unfamiliar. Instead, we should be pursuing what we really want to do and marketing our personal values/qualities, experiences, and transferable skills to get there. I wrote an article for the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program (JET) on the latter that can be found here.

How to Find What You Want from Relationships

Friends and loved ones are sources of emotional fulfillment. (Photo taken in Boston)

7. Care generously. We want people to care about us and vice versa. How you want people to go about doing this is what needs to be figured out. Start with generosity as human interaction is two-way and generosity can be reciprocated.  Generosity can be about giving time and money (or things you buy), but there’s more to that. Being considerate, providing for someone’s emotional needs, and giving someone your undivided attention are some of the many ways to show that you care.

8. Know your emotional needs. We subconsciously place expectations on friends and loved ones to be a source of a certain emotional feeling. Think about what feelings you need your significant other/spouse, your family, your friends, and eventually your kids to provide. Is it happiness, comfort, laughter, pride, or love? Equally important, do you know what type of feeling you are “expected” to provide to those you love? Knowing this will help keep each other emotionally fulfilled and prevent disappointment.

9. Align values, goals, and expectations. We want people who will understand us – where we came from, who we are (and why), and what we want to do or be. More important, we want them to support us in our endeavors and decisions. The closer you are with someone, the more these need to be aligned. The problem for Twenty-Somethings is that fluctuation of some of these aspects creates tiny fractures in relationships that are not easily recognizable until it is too late. It’s essential to continually reflect and realign to ensure that both sides in a relationship are consciously headed in the same direction.

How to Find What You Want from Life

Discover experiences that excite you -- such as adventure and novelty while Tarzan swinging through a cloud forest. (Photo taken in Monteverde, Costa Rica)

10. Discover the type of experiences that excite you. What do you want to experience beyond the daily routine? This could be novelty, adventure, indulgence, winning, etc. From my travel experiences, I know that a fulfilling trip isn’t just about sightseeing and visiting the destination. For me, I always have more fun when there is some novelty mixed into it, whether that is trying something different (e.g. Turkish baths in Hungary or ziplining in Costa Rica) or meeting a new friend.

11. Think production and contribution. Many of us were taught to be results-oriented or to leave something for the greater good of your community. That’s exactly what we should be focusing our non-professional creative energies on – on producing something or contributing something. Resist going through the motions and doing with no end goal in mind. We’re much more satisfied when we have something to show for our efforts or have something to work towards. For example, I feel compelled to upload a photo album on Facebook after every time I travel because that is my artistic production from my trip.

12. Enjoy a slower pace. It allows you to unplug and appreciate the more simple things in life. Perhaps you will recognize that you are rich in many things besides money, time, and generosity, such as the ability to admire natural beauty or be at peace on a nice day. More important, it allows you to focus on yourself and makes for ideal times for self-reflection on what you want in life or what you want your life’s purpose to be.

13. Think bigger. Don’t get hung up on the little things. I’ve realized everyone has certain things that bother them or drive their lives into perceived mini-crises, but it’s really not worth it to get frustrated or panic over these little things in life. To borrow a concept from my friend, just ask yourself if it will matter a week from now (or even a month from now) before pouring out so much negative energy. Instead, redirect that energy to positivity and to think about the big picture.

14. Travel. I mentioned in Mini-Retirement that traveling is a mechanism for discovering what you want in life. But it can offer much more than that. Read a link that my friend Manoje sent me – the 50 Most Inspiring Travel Quotes. It’ll get you thinking.

15. Decide how will you measure your life. I drew some of my inspiration for this post from an article I read in the Harvard Business review. It’s a good read and covers which metrics you should judge by when deciding what you want out of work, relationships, and life. You can read the article here.

***

I do not intend for these tips to be conclusive nor comprehensive as I am still going through the Twenty-Something life myself and have much more to experience and learn about. In fact, I recently borrowed from a friend the actual book The Quarterlife Crisis by Alexandra Robbins and Abby Wilner and I think reading it will help me frame some of these issues even better.

-KFC

Be curious during the job search like you were abroad. (Photo taken in Siem Reap, Cambodia)

This article was written for a brochure for teachers who have just completed their stint with the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program (JET) and want to transition into other careers back home. However, the advice is applicable for many professionals:

1. Communicate your transferable skills. Teaching exposes you to many skills that can be transferable to different jobs. For example, you could talk about how you are a great presenter and good at communicating an idea with structure if you want a sales or consulting job. Having to teach, evaluate, progress, and even discipline someone’s performance is very valuable in operations roles that seek improvement through performance management. And energy spent creating lesson plans that students would find captivating would be a transferable skill to marketing roles which seek to match a product or service with a consumer’s needs. Think about the skills that the jobs you are applying for requires and how you have learned something similar as a teacher abroad. Don’t let requirements such as major or years of experience prevent you from applying for a job that you’re really interested in and think you could do, and address any uncertainties in the cover letter and interview.

2. Highlight the qualities of being a teacher. Being a successful teacher requires many qualities that are valued in the professional arena. Teachers need to have attention to detail, be patient, be organized, work with different people and different learning styles, communicate instructions clearly, understand what it takes to help others be successful, etc. These characteristics are good to mention in the cover letter or interview. Also, having to learn how to become a teacher in a short period of time shows off your ability as a quick learner; being able to demonstrate your experience as a quick learner will give recruiters confidence that you can learn a job quickly even if you are not fully qualified for it.

3. Describe instances of situational leadership. Most recruiters do not expect young professionals to have had professional leadership positions, but they do want to know how you would lead if you were given certain situations or problems. Think about different situations in the classroom and while living and traveling abroad that you encountered and had to step up to resolve. These situational leadership instances make for good stories during the interview and can help a recruiter understand your potential to take initiative, solve problems, be resourceful, handle difficult people, adapt to a new environment, work under pressure or imperfect information, convince others of your idea, etc.

4. Emphasize your cross-cultural awareness. Many companies and organizations recognize the need to hire people with strong cross-cultural awareness skills (as well as language skills) to strengthen their competitive edge and ability to interact with diverse teams or clients in an increasingly globalized economy.  Use this to your advantage to differentiate yourself against others who may just be familiar with working locally or have not had the unique experiences from living and working abroad.

5. Be curious like you were when you were abroad. You were probably curious about different people, cultures, history, etc. and asked many questions to get to know the people and country better while abroad. It’s a similar process when looking for a job; you want to ask recruiters thoughtful questions about the job, company, and industry, and you want to ask networking contacts about what they do, what makes one successful at their job, how they got there, how they like it, and who else they know that you should talk to. Showing genuine interest and having a meaningful conversation will help open doors to other opportunities and networking contacts, much like how doing so opened doors to new experiences while abroad. Start with your peer network, untapped network (e.g. parents/relatives and their co-workers), and college alumni association. A great way to break the ice is by sharing your interesting experiences while living abroad.

I frequently get asked how I am able to afford to travel so much and so often. I make the same as or less than many of my friends, yet I can afford to travel while taking unpaid time off whereas some people I know live paycheck-by-paycheck or in debt. I thought about it and noticed drastic differences in my friends’ lifestyle choices that made me realize it wasn’t as simple as saving money and making time. Here are ten lifestyle choices – five mindsets and five methods – that can help you have more money to travel:

Live for experiences. (Photo taken at the Sarapiqui River, Costa Rica)

5 Mindsets

1. Commit to living well instead of just doing well. To paraphrase Tim Ferriss, it means preferring a life rich in experiences rather than rich in material goods. I suspect most people have not put much thought into their spending habits on experiences relative to material goods and that may be one of their sources of financial and emotional discontent. Determine where you’d want to fall on this spectrum.

2. Prioritize living better instead of just living more. Buying more and doing more on a weekly basis may not necessarily make you happier (have higher utility) if your goal is to travel or live differently from an unsatisfying routine. Think about your priorities and simplify your calendar by cutting out activities and expenses that bring low utility or have a high cost-to-utility ratio, then redirect that saved money toward things you’ll really enjoy, like your travel budget.

3. Spend money in ways that makes you feel rich or happy. Making more money does not necessarily make you richer; it’s really about how you spend it. This concept involves identifying what you love and what brings you happiness or excitement and then being able to splurge on it guilt-free while cutting back mercilessly on what you don’t need.

4. Live simply. Everyone wants to live comfortably, yet we confuse comfort with sophistication rather than attribute it with simplicity. People end up buying bigger and better stuff that will supposedly make our lives better and less complicated when these items bring about maintenance costs, hidden costs, and psychological clutter. The money and peace of mind saved from rejecting unnecessary purchases, especially those with baggage costs, will make it financially and mentally easier to travel. On a related note, I believe appreciating the simple things in life makes one feel rich, whereas constantly trying to one-up and chase after bigger purchasing highs leaves one feeling inadequate.

5. Remember that traveling is not that expensive. I had previously alluded to how traveling is not expensive in terms of absolute costs but it is also worth noting that traveling is relatively inexpensive or comparable with other major leisure options. Compare an average of $50/day backpacking Southeast Asia, Latin America, or Eastern Europe with an average day at the theme park, or $2500 to backpack for an entire month (including flights) once a year with the yearly costs of owning and maintaining a vacation home, yacht, or sports car (assuming people even spend 30 full days a year playing with them).

Dreamline or depreciation item? (Photo taken in Vancouver, Canada)

5 Methods

6. Set dreamlines using monthly savings goals. This method helps you finance large dream purchases by dividing the total amount needed by the pre-set number of months available before purchasing. For example, my dreamline trip to Central America had an estimated cost of $915, which meant saving $183/month for five months to finance the entire trip (I started in January for a May departure). By setting that aside that monthly amount in a dreamline-specific savings account, I ensured that the trip was financed for and was aware of what my adjusted discretionary spending limit would be during those months.

7. Calculate monthly cash flow to determine your monthly discretionary spending budget. This exercise ensures that you can spend guilt-free and debt-free on activities like shopping, entertainment, eating out, dating, bars, etc.. To determine your discretionary spending budget, take your monthly net income after taxes and retirement contributions and then subtract for your average monthly fixed costs (e.g. rent, groceries, gas, phone/Internet, and insurance), your monthly savings goals for dreamlines, and your investment contributions. The net cash is your discretionary spending budget, and it can be increased if needed by earning more on the side or saving in other areas.

8. Do not let economies of scale cut into Pareto efficiency (the 80/20 rule). If you live with others, you’ll find that it’s cheaper for two people to buy an item and share it; you’ll realize economies of scale. The problem is that you’ll keep buying items at their cheap relative costs while your absolute costs balloon. In general, 80% of your needs can be met with 20% of the items you own. It’s more financially sound to make a purchasing decision based off your 80/20 needs and absolute budget rather than on the cheap relative costs of each item; it’ll prevent those expenses from cutting into your travel budget.

9. Consider the depreciation value of the item before purchasing. I take this into account along with an item’s 80/20 efficiency in addressing my needs. The depreciation value will make many items not worth buying. I often also calculate the real cost of an item by subtracting its present cost with its future resale value. For example, if a $300 item depreciates to a resale value of $120, then the real cost to me is actually $180 since I could get $120 back (before adjusting for inflation).

10. Covert time into money, then adjust for purchasing power parity. The converted value of your time and money gives you an opportunity cost to make your spending decision against. An example of converting time to money: one hour of your time could be worth $20 (or whatever your freelancing rate may be) if you spent it tutoring a kid instead of it being sunk into unproductive activities. When adjusted for purchasing power parity, that $20 could buy you half a day’s worth of traveling in Thailand or Costa Rica.

I hope this helps you finance your next trip or whatever excites you in life. At the very least, I hope this helped you understand why I think this NY Time article gets it whereas this CNN Money article does not. I recommend reading Ramit Sethi and Tim Ferriss if you want details on strategies to making more money and time, respectively.

See you on the road! ;)

-KFC

P.S. I’m still learning personal finance and would appreciate any tips that you have.

Atlanta -- my new home!

First, I want to thank everyone for the warm welcome! Special thanks to Carrie and Christyna as well as Laurie for helping me out with my first few days. I am honestly excited to be here and I like it so far. :)

I moved to Atlanta for both a professional and a personal reason. Professionally, I wanted to break into mobility and I am excited about doing device marketing (I am in 1055 Lenox Park, temporarily on the 1st floor but should be joining my group on the 3rd floor in late July). Personally, one of my goals in life is to explore the American South and there is no better base for that than Atlanta.

In some ways, I am imagining the next six months to be like “Shanghai” again; I am approaching it with a similar mindset to when I was studying abroad. Like I did during study abroad, I should be exploring the city and the region, trying different foods, taking in the culture and history, and hanging out and partying with my pre-existing cohort while also making friends with locals. Like study abroad, there is an opportunity to extend in the end if I perform well and if it fits my career and personal goals. And perhaps like study abroad, this will be a life-changing experience.

Given that, I do have a list of activities I want to do for starters and perhaps some of these were on your list as well:

Atlanta
[ ] National Black Arts Festival (July 12-18)
[ ] Drum Corps International in Atlanta (July 31)
[ ] Tour of CNN Headquarters
[ ] Stone Mountain
[ ] MLK Historic District including Ebenezer Baptist Church
[ ] The Varsity
[ ] Jimmy Carter Library
[ ] Lenox Square Mall and Phipps Plaza Mall
[ ] Chastain Park
[ ] Piedmont Park / Atlanta Botanical Garden
[ ] Georgia Aquarium
[ ] Lake Lanier
[ ] Sweetwater Brewery
[X] Atlanta Braves game
[ ] Gone with the Wind Museum
[ ] Atlanta History Center
[ ] Check out the Atlanta bars, clubs, and speakeasies
[ ] Try more Southern food

Weekend Trip Options in the South
[ ] Go to a SEC football game (UGA?)
[ ] Savannah, GA
[ ] Charleston, SC
[ ] Nashville, TN
[ ] New Orleans, LA
[ ] Miami, FL
[ ] Memphis, TN
[ ] Hilton Head or Myrtle Beach, SC
[ ] Asheville, NC
[ ] Charlotte, NC
[ ] Great Smoky Mountains
[ ] Jacksonville, FL
[ ] Tampa, FL

I would be more than happy to help organize the weekend trips. Let me know if you’re interested in doing any of the activities in either category and we can plan to do them together!

-Kevin

P.S. Sorry if I missed anyone! I just got here and am honestly shocked at how many LDPs are in Atlanta. I’ll keep track of everyone eventually!

Take a mini-retirement while you’re young enough to do something like ziplining through a cloud forest. (Photo taken at Monteverde, Costa Rica).

I am back – physically in Atlanta and now digitally with my latest 15 Personal Lessons. I had kept enough notes during my mini-retirement tour of North America to write three editions of my 15 Personal Lessons, but I found it difficult to pen individual thoughts from many weeks ago because I had since been emotionally disconnected from them.

1. Inspiration is contagious though, and everyone who complimented my blog or asked about my next entry in the past few weeks inspired me to keep writing to hopefully inspire others. To Priyanka, Angie, Anthony, Sarah, Ryan, David, Wendy, Danna, my parents, and anyone else I may have missed: thank you.

Anyway, it was much easier to write once I took a step back from my usual format and spotted thematic elements recurring across the notes. These elements all related to an umbrella theme: the Quarterlife Crisis. (Read the article first if you’re unfamiliar with the concept)

The emotional feelings that this photo evokes, if any, depends on one's approach to the Quarterlife Crisis (Photo taken at Playa del Carmen, Mexico).

When I first read the article, I thought I would experience the Quarterlife Crisis perhaps a year from now. Upon re-examination, I realized that I had already started going through it without knowing it. While the word “crisis” may conjure up feelings of stress, insecurity, and other undesirable states, I see the Quarterlife Crisis as anything but that. I think I will actually relish going through it. If I had not recognized this stage in life and its core issues, I may have handled it improperly or avoided/denied it via coping mechanisms, both of which I suspect would hinder adult life and happiness. Instead, I know I will have opportunities to make decisions, grow, and define myself as a young adult.

2. And while I enjoy my current lifestyle and career path, I also know I can’t settle for the present if I want to at least discover if there is a holistically better future worth pursuing. It’s for these reasons why it’s important to identify and address the Quarterlife Crisis issues.

Here are several reflections from mini-retirement that I have since categorized under the four core components of the Quarterlife Crisis:

Climbing the right ladder, or in this case, the right temple ruins, can lead to the right rewards. (Photo taken at Tikal, Guatemala).

Professional aspects

3. Are you doing what you really enjoy? Or did you go to a college that fostered an unhealthy (read: prestige-oriented) career environment that pushed you toward limited career options that aren’t related to your real passions or primary strengths? Here is another take on that topic at the bottom of Guy Kawasaki’s Corner Office interview. What would a former mentor or someone who previously inspired you tell you now?

4. Are you learning valuable, transferrable skills while you are young and adaptable? Marc Andreessen suggests learning communication, management, sales, finance, and being international. I have also noticed Ivy League grads tend to switch jobs and companies after they’ve reached the peak of their learning curve so they can expose themselves to new challenges, learning opportunities, and networks, whereas the average college grad was somehow defaulted to working their way up with one company or making laterals to similar positions with no strategic timeline on when to change, thus limiting the velocity, diversity, and quantity of ladders they can climb in the long run.

5. There are dramatic differences in professional and life trajectories between people from similar backgrounds. Just compare those who went away for college versus those who stayed home now that you’re a few years out of college. I suspect there will also be dramatic professional and life trajectories between grads from the same college depending on the key decisions they make the first few years out of college. It’s important to identify what those key decisions are depending on your goals. On a related note, I’ve also wondered about those who are “too far ahead” of their peers; are they lonely up top by not having like-minded peers act as a support network?

You don't need to be rich in money to volunteer at the United Nations Association, but you do need to be rich in time and generosity. (Photo taken at the United Nations in New York).

Financial aspects

6. I believe there are three currencies in life: money, time, and generosity within relationships. Society often measures our success by how much money we make and subsequently what we own, but “rich people” may not actually be rich in time or personal relationships. You have to first re-think about what you want to have, do, or be and then balance your wealth amongst these three currencies so that you can buy the life you want to live.

7. Don’t just earn money for money’s sake; you have to know what you want to do with it. Would you rather spend $45 on that nice shirt/dress, on salsa dancing lessons, or to go ziplining through the cloud forest in Costa Rica? If you love skiing, why do you need to make millions to be able to only spend one week a year at the ski resort when you can work there and ski whenever you want?

Real friends are there when you really need them... and when it's nice outside to do a photo shoot. (Photo taken at Stanford, San Francisco Bay Area, with credits to David Chu).

Social aspects

8. Start re-parenting yourself on your bad habits. They secretly contribute to your insecurity, lack of happiness or confidence, etc. that could undermine social interaction. My list of habits I should do include: treating people with consistency, not giving off mixed signals, not laughing at inappropriate times, saying a confident “yes” instead of “sure,” taking paths of least resistance (given certain parameters), and being more decisive.

9. Recognize the need to continually manage a fluid social circle. I confirmed in Playa del Carmen that humans are social beings; I was traveling fine alone but I would have preferred having friends to hang out with. Given that, we need to adjust as social circles from the college bubble disintegrate and as life trajectories shift amongst existing friends. Fortunately, I’ve realized that all the alumni from the different Universities of California become part of the alumni network for anyone who graduated from a UC due to the interconnectedness of the social networks among the campuses, and that’s a huge advantage in replenishing the social circle.

10. We need deeper relationships. This includes the need to recognize who your real friends are — those who will help you when you really need it. Also important to the Quarterlife Crisis: we need offline interaction or at least phone/Skype conversations to counter the empty communication done on online social networking sites. Notably absent for me in this category is a romantic relationship, which I will work on.

Snorkeling with sting rays and sharks for the first time can definitely help increase your risk tolerance. (Photo taken at Caye Caulker, Belize).

Emotional aspects

11. Young adults need to be in an environment that is conducive to high risk tolerance. The tolerance includes risk for career choices, pursuing entrepreneurial passions, making independent decisions, being spontaneous, etc. There is probably no better time to work on a startup, live in a different city, or travel abroad not having booked a single hostel than when you are young and can afford to have high risk tolerance. Otherwise living in a sheltered environment will hinder your professional and personal development as a young adult as you become more fearful, doubtful, and conservative toward taking actions with uncertain outcomes.

12. It is necessary to experience the good and the bad. Simply put by my friend: you won’t know what’s good or bad coffee until you’ve tasted good coffee and/or bad coffee (feel free to substitute “coffee” for a variety of situations in life). In addition, you also won’t know what the “best of both worlds” is until you’ve experience it. It’s ok that you had a negative experience as long as you learned from it, and it’s ok to try something different in order to enlighten yourself with a comparison.

13. Surround yourself with people who can provide stimulants that make your life fun and exciting. I discovered while traveling without access to the Internet that I missed intellectual stimulation. I also recognized that I enjoy and value humor, adventure, culture, and social interaction. We were surrounded by these stimulants while in college and I suspect most of us did not identify the correlation between their disappearance and the lack of excitement after graduation. I also think we are subconsciously looking for these stimulants in a relationship and that acknowledging what your partner can or cannot provide will lead to a healthier relationship.

14. Refresh and add novelty in your life. Even activities that once gave you a thrill can become pedestrian. Start with the fundamentals that we may have neglected: being in the moment, not forgetting to look around you for surprises, and not building up expectations since disappointment is often relative to expectations. Go for new or active experiences instead of passive ones (e.g. canyoning in Costa Rica and snorkeling in Belize for the first time). Do activities that require you to produce something – preferably artistic – in the end. In the case of my traveling, it’s composing this blog entry.

15. I’ve come to find out that one shouldn’t travel merely for the sake of traveling. Traveling abroad is not necessarily how one may want to spend life but rather a mechanism for discovering what one wants in life and therefore how to spend it. Traveling is about the journey and not just about the destination. And traveling provides the question and not just the answer. My advice (particularly to those in the lifestyle design subculture) is to not treat traveling as the ends but rather, if necessary, as one of the means to addressing the Quarterlife Crisis.

Environmentally-conscious decisions can help us preserve natural beauty. (Photo taken at Peyto Lake, Canada).

Finally, a few miscellaneous travel notes:

*Globalization has its benefits – I was able to catch the Lakers’ championship-winning series against the Celtics while in Costa Rica, Canada, and the USA. Go Lakers!

* Central America is not as cost efficient to travel as Southeast Asia. Also, travel costs do not necessarily correlate with a country’s level of economic development.

*I chaired the United Nations Environment Program committee during the UNA-USA MUN Conference in May and I thought it was insightful to see afterward why we need to make environmentally-conscious decisions: Costa Rica’s preservation of their rain forests has helped them become close to carbon neutral, and the effects of climate change has made the Columbia Ice Field in Canada recede significantly in the past few years.

* I didn’t realize it then because I hadn’t even planned to do a North American tour, but by re-entering the USA three times during my trip, I had made my break feel like a mini-retirement instead of an extended trip or vacation. The mini-retirement is a significantly different and more rewarding experience than a normal vacation.

Dreams are essentially things you want to do, be, or have. My dreams this year include establishing a professional brand (thing I want to be) and traveling abroad (thing I want to do). I made progress into both this month: I spoke on social media at two speaking engagements to start branding myself as a speaker and social media expert, and I found a travel buddy and booked my flights for a trip to Guatemala, Belize, and the Yucatan peninsula! I want to share these two personal case studies of how I used the concept of “dreamlining” in order to achieve my dreams.

For those who are unfamiliar, dreamlining is applying a timeline of defined steps to what you would consider to be a dream. It requires you to think big as if you had all the time and money to live your millionaire experience, set targeted monthly incomes to finance the dream within six months, and execute immediately on concrete steps to make the dream happen.

Here’s how I did both:

I decided to beta test a career as a speaker and social media expert.

Case Study #1: Beta Testing a Career as a Speaker

Think Big: My goal was to start specializing in one skill or area of expertise so that I could stand out and brand myself professionally in that skill or area. I decided to try speaking about social media. It was a total thrill speaking to a chamber of commerce on how to leverage social media to grow small businesses and to an audience of 100 at an employment non-profit on how to use social media to find a job.

Targeted Monthly Income to fund the dream: $0. It costs nothing to beta test a career!

Four Key Steps:

1. Redefine what it takes to be an expert. Realize that you have valuable expertise to share; you just have to think about what you’re good at relative to the audience you are speaking to. What do you do that others wish they could do or do better? What passions could you speak about off the top of your head?

2. Use a combination of networking and marketing to create opportunity for yourself. In other words, let others know what you’re good at. I was first invited by the chamber of commerce because an AT&T co-worker who sat on their board knew I was knowledgeable about social media because I had explicitly mentioned that I was good in social media and open to teaching about it in a non-related meeting.

3. Perform low-risk and time-efficient beta experiments of your dreams. Testing out what it’s like to be a speaker didn’t require monetary investment or a time-consuming and conventional job search. All I had to do was ask if people were interested in learning what I have to offer and spend some time creating a PowerPoint deck.

4. Leverage others’ competitive advantage for efficient results; use Pareto’s 80/20 rule. I was able to do an entirely different presentation for the employment non-profit on two days notice because I reached out to an AT&T recruiter (@campusdiva) to get advice on content instead of spending time researching from scratch; I got 80% of my content ideas from 20% of my time used.

A friend inspired me to visit the Yucatan peninsula with this photo of Tulum

Case Study #2: Destination Central America

Think Big: My goal was to travel abroad; I had listed Greece/Turkey, Costa Rica, and several places in Europe and Asia as options. I ended up booking a trip to Guatemala, Belize, and the Yucatan peninsula, as well as a separate shorter trip to Costa Rica! I’m so excited about exploring Central America!

Targeted Monthly Income to fund the dream: I need to save or make $183/month for five months to fund a May departure for the Guatemala, Belize, and Yucatan trip (estimated $915 total), and $141/month for six months to fund a June departure for Costa Rica (estimated $845 total). Traveling is really not that expensive; I’ll teach you some tips on hunting down travel deals.

Four Key Steps:

1. Schedule in liberation so you can start thinking big. The first step to making a successful travel plan is to schedule vacation or negotiated unpaid time off. It’s much easier to start dreaming and planning once you have solid dates of free time that you are committed to filling up.

2. Ping constantly. I prefer traveling with a travel buddy, so I made efforts to go find one. I asked different friends about their travel plans to make a list of potential travel buddies. I also initiated conversations with those I don’t talk to as often; I usually ask people “how are you” in addition to wishing them “happy birthday” on Facebook. You’ll be surprised how far a simple “how are you?” could go – I found my travel buddy for the Guatemala/Belize/Yucatan trip this way!

3. Share your goals to build a reservoir of feedback and ideas. I would ask people who returned from trips about their interesting adventures so that I could get a sense of what’s out there. When people ask me how I’ve been, I would share my travel favorites with them, and some would reply back with their own travel favorites. In fact, my friend Cynthia was the one who first shared with me beautiful pictures of the Yucatan peninsula, and that significantly influenced me to want to explore it!

4. Outsource the heavy duty research to experts. Once Central America was determined to be the location, I went into STA to look up different sample itineraries and spoke with an STA travel agent to get a sense of what was do-able in each country – all for free. That made it easy to plan our own itinerary for Guatemala, Belize, and the Yucatan peninsula modeled after one of their trips.

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What are your dreams; what are the things you want to do, be, or buy? More important, how will you get there and how can people help?

Natalie questions Ryan Bingham on his emotionless life philosophy in "Up in the Air."

I thought I would do a thematic approach on career and work-life balance considerations for this month’s 15 Personal Lessons since this month had been dominated by conversations about career: I am in the process of looking for a third rotation, had a tough month a work, watched “Up in the Air,” helped organize the CAAEN Leadership Training kickoff, am helping a relative find a job, and had two friends who just changed jobs. I hope these spark some thoughts about your own career paths and work-life balance.

1. What are you working for? (Or if you make a lot of money, what’s the point of being so baller?). Think about what really matters to you in your life and whether the money you are earning allows you to enjoy those things that matter.

2. Money can’t trump personal dignity. My friend was making good money but decided to change jobs for more time, happiness, and respect at work. This CareerBuilder ad hits it on the spot, albeit with some humorous exaggeration.

3. You always have the opportunity to say no. Be assertive and manage your own career and life to the way you want it to be. Just because you are given an opportunity doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the right one for you.

4. The people who really care about you are the ones who will be real with you. Find these types of people so that you have someone to turn to when life presents you with tough decisions. It’s always enlightening to be able to have someone provide candid feedback on what has honestly been going through your mind.

5. Don’t beat around the bush when it really matters. If you really want something, then let that person know. Dropping hints or making suggestions won’t compel someone to take the action you want them to take. This is especially relevant for people (i.e. many Asian Americans) who grew up being taught to be non-direct or non-confrontational.

6. We are all free agents in the new global economy. The concept of employment-for-life or “铁饭碗” doesn’t exist anymore, so you need to be flexible and manage yourself as your own company. Your loyalty to a company or your connections with your group’s boss can’t immediately save you when your entire group including your boss is being outsourced.

7. Don’t get too comfortable with where you are. I had a friend explain why that was the reason he didn’t even know about all the different opportunities available to him, much less pursue them. Always involve yourself in something new, especially when it’s related to career paths, skills, and networks.

8. Broaden your network. I went to a gala dinner that was well-attended by the San Francisco political and community leaders and realized I didn’t know anyone there besides the person who invited me. These are the moments that tell you to start making inroads into another network or community.

9. Remember that networking means relationship-building. People feel more compelled to help others who they know or like. I recommended Keith Ferrazzi’s book “Never Eat Alone” to multiple friends this month and I highly suggest you go read it if you haven’t already.

10. Backup your resume! When my flash drive died, there were only two documents that I knew I really needed or couldn’t afford the time to recreate, and my resume was one of them.

11. You know you are overworked when you have trouble being spontaneous. I tried being spontaneous instead of planning everything during my trip to LA and it was more difficult than I imagined. Then again, I just have to learn to unplug myself from this overworked, must-be-efficient mentality to be able to appreciate spontaneity.

12. Does your life philosophy sync with your long-term goals? I realized I hold similar life philosophies with Ryan Bingham from “Up in the Air,” but I still have the opportunity to make choices that would lead me to a different path than his emotionless life. Have a clear vision of your long-term goals and future lifestyle so that your current life philosophy does not lead you astray.

13. Setting arbitrary goals may lead to disappointment. In “Up in the Air,” Ryan Bingham hits his goal of 10 million frequent flyer miles, yet the moment wasn’t nearly as exciting as he had thought it would be. Instead of setting arbitrary goals (e.g. high salary, prestigious title, expensive purchase), try imagining the experience or feeling that you want and then execute on an action plan that can get you there.

14. It’s increasingly difficult to find people to spend time with. Specifically, I am having a hard time finding someone to travel with this May/June. I wish more people could prioritize and actively manage their work-life balance rather than let it come to them.

15. Have something to look forward to. I was having a bad month but luckily I had scheduled a trip at the end of the month. That allowed me to break away from routine and refresh. Turn on your own flashlight if you can’t see light at the end of the tunnel.