A couple years ago I was sitting around with my friend Jamie. I knew that the time was coming to make a change to Location 180.
The blog was getting stale.
It wasn't responsive, and it wasn't a very good representation of what the site and this business had become.
Jamie is not only a very good friend, but he's one of the most creative guys I know.
We've run an unsuccessful business together, slept on a beach in the French Riviera, but now we mostly hang out and drink beer.
During one of these beer drinking sessions we began a conversation that we've all been through so many times:
What If….
Wouldn't it be cool….
One day I'd love to…
And we came up with some truly amazing ideas.
Jamie had just transitioned from working for one of the biggest ad agencies in the world to opening up his own shop in Bend, Oregon.
Like me, he was all about the lifestyle business and wanted to be able to what he wanted, when he wanted.
While this conversation was going on, I began to realize what a fortunate position I'm in.
I literally can do whatever I want, whenever I want.
But in some ways, it was a bit of a sad realization.
I have the freedom to do ANYTHING, yet it was during a period of time where I wasn't taking advantage of it.
I was going through the motions and the routines of life – and for the previous few weeks really hadn't done anything that I'd characterize as memorable, interesting, or meaningful.
So during this conversation, as we began to talk about ideas for Location Rebel that would be fun, unique and different, we stumbled across one that sounded truly epic.
"What if we filmed you behind a desk talking about Location Rebel is, but without acknowledging it at all – the desk kept moving to different locations all across the world?
Then at the end, we blow up the desk!"
My response?
"Man, that would be awesome."
Notice the tense. Would be. Not will be.
And it was in that moment I realized something needed to change.
Again, I have all the flexibility in the world – and at the time, Jamie did as well.
The more we talked about the idea, but more excited we became.
The more inevitable it became that we were going to do this.
And eventually, the conversation went from "would be" to "screw it, why not?!"
And thus the desk was born.
We recruited my dad who has been in video production his whole life, and we became the renegade trio of film makers, that was stupid enough to carry a desk to over a dozen locations across Oregon.
The final result?
Probably my favorite thing I've ever created. As well as the foundation for everything Location Rebel has evolved into.
So, where's the point in this history of The Desk?
I promise it's in here somewhere.
The point is that language and mindset can be a powerful thing.
The would be's and some days are dangerous.
In fact, most people let them take over their life.
They don't take chances, but even more important than that, they simply don't do anything.
You have a lot more control right now than you think.
Even if you're in a day job, you still have the freedom to say "Yes, this is cool and I'm going to do it. Or "no, I'm going to continue to sit on the couch today."
And that decision that you make on a daily basis, will form the basis for everything you do from here on out.
In the end, there's one very important lesson that I've learned in life. (Actually, here are 32 of them).
What is it?
Quite simply, the person who has the most stories, in the end, wins.
You can't take stuff to the grave, but experiences, memories, and stories can be shared for a life time.
We still talk about the time we somehow carried a desk into the forest, shimmied it up to the top of a waterfall, and almost fell over the edge in the process.
Or the time we tried to blow up a desk, and almost failed miserably.
Had we not said, "Hey wait a minute, there is literally nothing stopping us from doing this" and pressed forward, we would never have had these great stories to tell.
And the Location Rebel brand?
Well, who know's where it'd be.
Walk the Talk
That was two years ago that we did that – and since then, I've done a lot of stuff. But not necessarily as much as I'd have liked.
I'm a firm believer of the idea that the more you talk about or joke about doing something, the more likely it is to actually happen.
Like the time my wife and I kept joking we should fly to Vietnam to get custom suits made for my groomsmen because it'd be cheaper than renting tuxes.
Well, two years of jokes later:
The latest example of this?
My wife just hit ten years at her job at Nike and gets a 6 week paid sabbatical. So we're tacking a few extra weeks onto it and setting out to do a bunch of the things that in the past were just the "wouldn't it be cool ifs…".
- Living like a local in New York City.
- Oktoberfest in Munich.
- Hiking in the Dolomites
- Driving a Porsche on the Autobahn.
- A day at a panda reserve in China (I'll let you guess whose that one is.)
I know I haven't been the most regular of posters this year.
But over the next couple months, expect a little more encouragement to do more regardless of your current situation.
This doesn't mean flying across the world. It could simply be starting that blog you've always said you were going to do. Making an interesting recipe from another culture. Or visiting something in your home town you've never seen more.
So in the words of the brand that has become the impetus for this trip:
Just do it.
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