Find Success In Your Career & More By Treating the Journey Like An Adventure Into the Great Outdoors

Image by: maf04
By Mike Venture

I’m not sure if you guys enjoy a good camping trip or not, but I for one cannot think of a better way to release stress than venturing out into the great outdoors. Yea you have to sleep on the ground and be at the mercy of nature, but you really do get a lot more from it than you have to give.

And I’m not one of those crazy avid hiker/camper types either. I’ve only been a handful of times in my life, but each trip was extremely memorable, impressionable, knowledgeable, and humbling in ways I will forever be affected by.

In fact, the lessons you learn from swimming in a waterfall after an eight mile hike through a canyon, ironically freezing your butt off in a place called the Valley of Fire, and battling an ACTUAL army of ants in the middle of the night because you think you may have angered the local spirits, can be applied to many areas of your life long after the sleeping bag gets haphazardly rolled up and stuffed away.

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Is the American Dream your dream? If you can avoid it at all costs see why home ownership is more like a prison of debt
Get a little extra money this tax season with these 3 tips if you make less than $50,000 a year
Let’s put this nice guy thing to rest and hear from a woman who explains why it will be worth the wait if you are one

When you go camping you are looking for a freeing experience, one that you set the pace of and determine the destination. But to make the journey a pleasant one, you have to have the right tools and be prepared for certain situations.

Starting a freelance career is similar in that if you want to achieve success, you have to decide where you want to go and how you are going to get there. In writer Jeff Haden’s piece How to Become a Highly Paid Freelancer While Keeping Your Full-Time Job, you’ll earn that the first step is deciding on a niche.

What are you good at? What could you be good at if you learned a little more? And most importantly, what do you ACTUALLY want to do?

When you can answer those questions you can decide the details of your services, like how specific of an area you want to focus on. It’s important to remember that even if you are good at a lot of different things, it’s better to be really awesome at one thing.

That’s why you should stick to your own dreams and not what other people think you should or shouldn’t be doing. Like buying a house.

Everyone’s circumstances are different, but when I recently read entrepreneur Grant Cardone’s article on why home ownership is for suckers, I was kinda convinced he was right. The biggest myth that Cardone says is perpetuated throughout our culture is that buying a home is as good as making an investment.

Well unless you are flipping that house for a cool $50K, it’s actually the opposite of an investment because all you wind up doing is feeding it your money every month. I recommend you take a look and see some of the other ways you can invest in yourself that will have much greater payouts.

So how does camping tie into saving money on your taxes? It means you can afford a better tent!

I’m sure you will find many great ways to spend your refund money, but if you want to get a little more this year have a glance at these 3 ways to get some breaks if you make less than $50,000 a year.

Writer Matthew Frankel starts with your retirement and savings by explaining how your yearly contributions can actually get you a credit based on how much you put away.

There is also the Earned Income Tax Credit you can qualify for if you made under a certain amount and had a certain number of dependents. Not to mention the credits and deductions you can get if you provided child or other dependent care any time during the year.

Here are a few more articles to help you think about all those other deductions and credits you might be able to take:

The most important part of a great camping experience, is having someone there to share it with

That’s why if you have been waiting longer than Foreigner for a girl to come into your life, writer Stephanie Barbarino wants to reassure you that she is out there. She is just busy living her life.

Barbarino explains how women these days enjoy extended periods of freedom to explore their careers, their interests, and all of the other experiences life has to offer. They simply don’t want to feel tied down yet.

It doesn’t mean that you have to sit around and wait for the possible woman of your dreams to decide she wants to “settle down.” It just means you need to have faith that your good nature and real man-ness will prevail in your pursuit.

Whatever you do, don’t try to be something you’re not, embrace the fact that you have characteristics good women are always looking for and know that they will be drawn to you for them.