Plans and Goals for 2014

Happy New Year everyone! After recapping my epic adventures from 2013, here are some of my upcoming plans and goals for 2014. If everything goes well, I should be traveling just as much as last year and checking some things off of my bucket list.

Travel Plans (so far)

My first trip of the year will be out to Chicago this weekend for the Chicago Travel & Adventure Show. It will be a lot smaller than WTM was, but still looks like it should be productive. I almost don’t even consider Chicago traveling any more because it’s only a few hours away and I’m there all the time it seems like.

Next week, the North American International Auto Show begins in Detroit, so I’ll definitely be attending that (probably more than once).

June will begin with what will be my 4th TBEX event, wherever it happens to be. As of now the location hasn’t been announced yet.

After that I’ll be heading out to SoCal to start my 2nd annual West Coast Craft Beer Tour. This will be a road trip from San Diego, up through L.A. and Santa Barbara, back to the Bay Area, and up to Portland, finding all the best craft breweries along the way. Also, there are a few big breweries in San Francisco I didn’t get to last summer.

Then I’ll head up to Portland for my 2nd World Domination Summit. Last summer we broke a Guinness World Record, so I can’t wait to see what they have in store for this year. It will be great to reconnect with a lot of the people I met there the first time around.

In August, I’ll probably be heading back to Europe. Slovenia will be holding a 2,000th anniversary festival for their capital, Ljubljana. I got the rundown at WTM from their tourism director and it sounds pretty exciting. While there are events spanning most of the year, the main celebration is towards the end of August. Plus, I need to get some more of the honey wine they were serving!

In the Fall, I want to go back to Thailand to do Dive Master training because I’m in love with scuba diving. Also, I’d like to spend some more time exploring Southeast Asia, including Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Taiwan, among others.

Also, depending on where I am and what I’m doing, I’ll try to make it to TBEX Europe and WTM in London again.

Blog Objectives

As I continue to grow this blog, I’m always thinking about ways I can improve things and make it more useful for my readers.

• This year I’ll be providing more practical travel tips in addition to my adventures and stories. Hopefully this will assist you when planning your trips and help you get the most value out of your travels.
• In addition, I’ll be writing reviews for some of my favorite travel gear.
• I want to continue to increase my blog and social media interactions with my readers as it’s my favorite part about running this site.
• Very soon there will be a monthly newsletter keeping you updated on my travels, providing recaps of all my recent posts, giving you travel deals and discounts I come across, and other interesting stuff from around the web. If you want to be awesome and get in early, you can sign up here.
• I only have a couple of pieces left before I launch my site redesign, so look for that coming soon.
• Now that I have a GoPro camera, you should be seeing more travel videos this year.

Other Goals for the Year

• Explore micro-finance opportunities and begin working with entrepreneurs in developing countries to help grow their businesses.
• SKYDIVE! There’s a good chance that my first skydive will happen in San Diego.
• Figure out ways to generate income while on the road.
• Get back in shape, which will include some combination of working out, tennis classes, and eating somewhat healthy more often than not.
• Continue working on my photography skills, and gain proficiency in Photoshop & Lightroom.
• Pay off most of my personal debt.

Who’s excited for 2014? What are some of your plans?