Work Life Play with Aaron McHugh

I am listening to Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown on repeat. I keep revisiting a phrase he uses, Protect the Asset. His idea is that you and I are the asset of every story, every beginning, every good endeavor that we imagine and therefore we need to protect us.

Protect the asset.

Rolf Potts is a travel writer, essayist, adventurer and teacher. I discovered Rolf Potts from listening to Tim Ferriss. Rolf’s book, Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to The Art of Long-Term World Travel is attributed by Ferriss […]

Rolf Potts is a travel writer, essayist, adventurer and teacher. I discovered Rolf Potts from listening to Tim Ferris. Rolf's book, Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to The Art of Long-Term World Travel is attributed by Ferris as the basis for his stick-it-to-the man 4-Hour Workweek.

I sat down with Rolf Potts over Skype from our Joy Bus to learn from him about learning to live curiously. Potts calls rural Salina, KS home after having his pick of equitably frugal options abroad. His Mid-West roots pulled him back to be near family and friends.

Key insights from Rolf

• Reframing your thinking enables you to power jettisons from real life to discover long-term world travel.
• If you wait until society tells you to go, you never will.
• We forget how easy it is to give to ourselves.
• Insulating yourself from discomfort limits our travel adventures.
• How to build a Time-Wealth philosophy to create enough time to experience the travels you dream about.
• GO. GO. GO. Stop waiting.

About Rolf Potts

Rolf Potts has reported from more than sixty countries for the likes of National Geographic Traveler, The New Yorker, Slate.com, Outside, the New York Times Magazine, The Believer, The Guardian (U.K.), Sports Illustrated, National Public Radio, and the Travel Channel. His adventures have taken him across six continents, and include piloting a fishing boat 900 miles down the Laotian Mekong, hitchhiking across Eastern Europe, traversing Israel on foot, bicycling across Burma, driving a Land Rover across South America, and traveling around the world for six weeks with no luggage or bags of any kind.

The importance of creating a life list and define what you're aiming at. In this episode, I share my list with you as examples of the kinds of stuff you might want to consider yourself.

I updated my Life List in 2016. It sits above my desk on my wall, notated with progress, adjustments and new additions. The point is to make it apart of your everyday life. It provides me a filter for my decisions and priority setting.

This Life List is a reflection of the Work Life Play that is important to me today, Saturday, January 2nd, 2016. It is subject to change and revision. I am aiming my intentions towards these goals, events, experiences and quests. I want to live a life of Adventure, connection, passion and curiosity. I will invest in meaningful relationships, experience all that this life has to offer and challenge myself in my Work and in physical accomplishments.

The importance of creating a life list and define what you’re aiming at. In this episode, I share my list with you as examples of the kinds of stuff you might want to consider yourself. […]

Last fall, I gave this keynote address at USA Cycling’s annual coach’s summit event on the topic of my book, Fire Your Boss. Accomplishing Big Things: Acting Like a Pro 8 Minutes At a Time […]

Last fall, I gave a keynote address at USA Cycling's annual coach's summit event on the topic of my book, Fire Your Boss.

Accomplishing Big Things: Acting Like a Pro 8 Minutes At a Time Big goals are sexy. We love the idea of tackling big life-changing achievements. A funny thing though, not everyone makes it to the finish line. But what happens when we start breaking down those big goals and finding a space for them in the small margins?

In this keynote, I'll teach your team how Acting Like a Pro 8 minutes At a Time will transform how they maximize their small margins to help: *Close the gap between where you are and where you want to be

*Identify the voice of the Amateur and the Pro in your life

*Understand the next right thing is within your control

*Regain power over the story you want to live

"Aaron McHugh was an outstanding keynote at USA Cycling's 2016 Coaching Summit. In the coaching world it is imperative to be and act like a pro. Aaron's anecdotal stories and life experiences were easy for coaches to understand and apply to their world. Aaron knows what it means to go PRO."

—Kevin Dessart, Director Coaching Education and Athlete Development, USA Cycling

I met Rachael O’Meara in 2013 on a boat ride on the Columbia River in Portland, OR. We were both attending Chris Guillebeau’s WDS event. We share a similar story of pushing the pause button on […]

I met Rachael O'Meara on a boat ride on the Columbia River in Portland, OR. We were both attending Chris Guillebeau's WDS event. We share a similar story of pushing the pause button on our lives to find a new and improved path. You're going to love her story.

Rachael O'Meara was a customer support manager at Google when she realized she was burned out and needed to reassess her path. The best way to do this was to take a "pause"—a time-out to create space for her inner voice to be heard and to align her actions to lead a more fulfilled life. Pause: Harnessing the Life- Changing Power of Giving Yourself a Break (on-sale April 4, 2017) is her new book, serving as a GPS for others looking to slow down before speeding up again. So what is a "pause"?

Rachael defines a pause as any intentional shift in behavior that allows you the space to experience a mental shift in attitude, thoughts, or emotions that otherwise wouldn't have occurred. Pausing can be as simple as a five- minute walk outside, or a day spent unplugged from digital devices. A pause is about taking a time-out to create the space for your inner voice to be heard and to align your actions with that voice in order lead a more meaningful, fulfilled life.

Pausing offers you a chance to remember what "lights you up," and allows you to identify your yearnings, shift your limiting beliefs, recognize and better understand what's called "amygdala hijacks," and discover how your relationships with others affect you.

David Wilcox is an American folk musician and award-winning guitarist. He picked up a guitar after hearing a fellow college student playing her guitar in the stairwell. He quickly discovered the power and authority that music […]