A Different Hunger - A Blog for Cannibals

Just kidding. But no joke, someone asked me (albeit jokingly) if my blog was about cannibalism. Sorry to disappoint, but I just don’t see the potential there. I really think cannibalism blogs are a dying market….

Punny right? Alright, enough corny jokes. Sorry. I want to talk to you guys about why I decided to launch this blog and the circumstances leading up to it.

Rewind to to December 2013:

After spending the previous 5 months living in Sydney, Australia, it’s just about time to come home. I’ve spent the last two weeks on a cruise ship with my lovely mother exploring the unbelievably beautiful country of New Zealand, both the North and South islands. I did feel a bit out of place while on the ship though, as the average “cruiser” was 60-70 years of age. Needless to say, the nightlife got pretty rowdy.

During the four months prior I was fortunate enough to explore up and down the coast of Australia and even made it to Thailand for 9-days during our mid-semester break. These trips made for the absolute best times of my life for so many reasons. Check out some of the awesome things I did here. After my time abroad, those countries and continents on the opposite side of the map were no longer abstract shapes, they were no longer “maybe one day’s” – they were real and they were amazing, and all I wanted was to see more.

Upon returning to the good ole’ US of A, I was of course very happy to be home, but I had certainly caught “the bug” and came down with a bad case of wanderlust. Travel allowed me to see just a glimpse of some of the beautiful people and places that our planet has to offer. And now, after getting a taste of some of these unbelievable places, I became hungry to see more. Much more.

I had certainly caught “the bug” and came down with a bad case of wanderlust.

I began researching to satisfy my itch and see how in the world I could somehow make my aspirations to travel the world a possibility. I then stumbled across the exciting world of travel hacking (in short, travel hacking is the process of collecting frequent flyer miles, points and awards to travel for free, or close to nothing). I came across awesome blogs of “professional” travel hackers such as Nomadic Matt, Benny Hsu at GetBusyLiving, The Points Guy, Chris Guillebeau and many more.

And then I came across one article titled, “How to Travel Around the World for $418” written by Steve Kamb of NerdFitness. I read a few paragraphs before my brain imploded. My mind was blown. Steve went on to tell the story of how he hacked his way using awards miles and credit card signup bonuses to book a round-the-world plane ticket that would have cost more than $6,000, for yes, you guessed it, ONLY $418.

Steve’s incredible itinerary: 35,000 miles, 15 cities, 9 countries, 4 continents = $418

The article was a few years old but Steve mentioned that he was moving out of his apartment in Atlanta, where I currently reside. I figured I would be super creepy and look him up on Facebook – maybe he was still in the area. So I did, and it turns out we had a mutual friend… I started getting pretty excited.

Fast forward two weeks and Steve and I are video chatting! Yes, Steve Kamb, the travel hacking celebrity and blogger with nearly 200k followers is talking to some random creepo on the internet (me) for no other reason than he is a genuinely good guy who wants to help others. Steve was already a huge inspiration prior to our talk but speaking with him only ignited my fire to travel and take action to accomplish what I wanted to do. Steve provided me with tons of invaluable information and I couldn’t thank him enough. (We actually ended running into each other just a few weeks ago! See pic.) Before we ended our call, he said, “Don’t do anything until you read the 4-hour Work Week by Tim Ferris”.

The nerdiest guys at the show

Just to give you guys a bit of background about myself, I think the last book I actually read on my own, was “Java for Dummies” when I was failing my CompSci class sophomore year. And that was because I was in desperate need to do so. Books and I just never really got along – or should I say my ADD and books never got along? Anyways… what was I saying?

Back to the 4-Hour Workweek. After about 5-10 pages of reading 4hww, I was HOOKED. The book was a complete lifechanger. The book challenged the conventional way of doing things – work the 9-5 and put off “enjoying” your life until retirement – and instead challenged you to live the life you wanted to live, spending the majority of your time with family and friends and doing what you love. The book opened up my eyes and made me think in ways I never previously thought about. It really got my gears turning and I was determined to do something. I began to read up on some of the names mentioned in the 4HWW. I discovered that there was an incredible community of likeminded people who shared the ideals shared in the book. The majority of them were online business owners/bloggers and most of them able to work from anywhere in the world. And they were committed to two things – living the life they wanted to live and helping others do the same. Their content was incredibly motivating and inspiring. Guys like Jonathan Fields, Sean Ogle of Location180, David Moore of The New Rich, Scott Dinsmore of Live Your Legend, and many more. (do yourself a huge favor and check these guys out!)

After reading and researching these guys and their content it was time I turned my ideas into actions. I was determined to do something – something that aligned with my passions and something that I could help others with.

“The biggest difference between the person who lives his or her dreams and the person who aspires is the decision to convert that first spark of motivation into immediate action.” – Adam Braun

I began thinking, writing lists, researching and trying to find what market(s) I could appeal to. I decided that today the easiest way to reach a large amount of people in the shortest amount of time was via the internet. I thought about what I was most passionate about and how I could use that to add value to others’ lives. I had previous writing experience during my college years in which I wrote for fitness websites, OneResult and TheRxReview. I really enjoyed the researching and writing that I did when I was writing for these sites and the majority of feedback I received seemed to be positive so that was a plus. I began to think about where I gathered my most valuable information regarding my passions and starting thinking back to my reactions while reading Steve Kamb’s and other travel hacker blogs, as well as fitness and psychology blogs. Aha! That’s it!

I’ll start a blog! about my passions in hopes of relating to and helping others.

All the while during my reading of the book and trying to figure out what I want to do, I am in the process of finalizing my class registration for the semester. I end up taking a few lousy classes per usual but also an Intro to Marketing course as well as a Sociology of Happiness class. It truly seemed like the perfect storm: having just returned from an amazing semester abroad I decided to start a blog and now I was taking both a marketing course and a class on the sociology of happiness. On top of all this, remember I am a second-semester senior trying to figure out my post-grad plans, my career path, and my answer to that dreaded question: “So what are you gonna do after graduation?”.

Many of my buddies were stressing out about finding an apartment in the city and landing a well-paying job. Meanwhile, I was stressing out about how I could fit all my belongings into a suitcase to live in a hammock on the beaches of Thailand (maybe a bit hyperbolic there, but you get the point). I had never been motivated by material things, rather I had always craved adventure and experience doing the things that excited me and brought others joy and happiness.

It seemed that I was hungry for something different.

And that’s how I came up with the name of this blog – A Different Hunger. Each of us are hungry for something different and its important that we are able to determine what it is that motivates us and gives us purpose. I hope to help my readers in that sense and in other relevant areas. This blog is the product of my passions for fitness, travel, positive psychology and helping others.

I have spent many months, many hours and many sleepless nights researching, compiling and perfecting the content and the site in order to best serve YOU, the readers. I hope that the words of this blog will resonate deeply with you in one way or another. I hope that the professionals I interview and speak with in the fields of fitness, positive psychology, business and others will inspire you and be as influential in your lives as they have in my own.

The content will be extremely informative and relevant to your everyday life. It will also be engaging and thought-provoking and make you think in novel ways. Many of my posts will finish with a challenge or call to action. Why? The answer is simple: knowledge is meaningless without action.

I hope to generate an interactive community of likeminded individuals that share my passions and hunger to live a meaningful life. I am incredibly excited about growing this community over the next several months and years. I have big plans for this site and for you all. I will leave you with the quote that most deeply resonated with me from Tim Ferris’ 4-Hour Workweek.

“‘Someday is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you.”

Welcome to “A Different Hunger”. Are you in? Comment below and let me know!