September 17, 2015

Rajiv Nathan

Crafting Your Voice, Becoming an Expert

Road Trip Diaries: The Real Life Diaries Of A Nomad (Austin)

September 17, 2015

Rajiv Nathan

Crafting Your Voice, Becoming an Expert

Idea Lemon is on an epic road trip August 8 - September 20, taking our Discover Your Inner Awesome podcast around the country in partnership with our friends at the kickass travel community Under30Experiences. If you daydream of going to places like Bali, Costa Rica, Belize, Peru, Iceland and more, you HAVE to hit up U30X. Their trips have changed our lives. We're all about helping you do more of what you love, so use Promo Code "idealemon" for $100 off your booking.

Here are our final notes from Austin!

Back when we spent time in Belize this past January as part of an Under30Experiences vacation, we noticed several people call out that they wished they had the life of the company founder Matt, and trip leader/adventure photographer Courtney Slade. It’s something we found interesting because the life of the nomad is something that’s often glamorized but rarely analyzed.

As we’ve been on this road trip, we’ve encountered several instances where people ask what we did during the day and our answer is, “we worked,” much to their surprise and confusion.

Being a nomad is definitely an amazing thing, but to know if it’s right for you it’s important to understand everything that goes into it.

As we get closer to closing out our road trip, we were able to catch Courtney at her home in Austin, Texas while she was on break from leading Under30Experiences trips for 9 straight months. We explored nearly every detail of life as a nomad and tackled the question, “What’s the best approach to a nomadic life?”. We covered the highs, the lows, the parts where you have to pinch yourself, and the parts where you just need to let out a good cry.

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s truly like to live a nomadic life, listen to this episode.

Back when we spent time in Belize as part of an Under30Experiences vacation, we noticed several people call out that they wished they had the life of the company founder Matt, and trip leader/adventure photographer Courtney Slade. It’s something we found interesting because the life of the nomad is something that’s often glamorized but rarely analyzed. As we’ve been on this road trip, we’ve encountered several instances where people ask what we did during the day and our answer is, “we worked,” much to their surprise and confusion. Being a nomad is definitely an amazing thing, but to know if it’s right for you it’s important to understand everything that goes into it. As we get closer to closing out our road trip, we were able to catch Courtney at her home in Austin, Texas while she was on break from leading Under30Experiences trips for 9 straight months. We explored nearly every detail of life as a nomad and explored the question, “What’s the best approach to a nomadic life?”. We covered the highs, the lows, the parts where you have to pinch yourself, and the parts where you just need to let out a good cry. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s truly like to live a nomadic life, listen to this episode. You’ll learn: +Dealing with the ‘real world’ things while traveling +Realizing the things that are truly important +Finding ways to cut out the noise +How routines are crucial to living nomadically +The effects changing time zones and climates on a regular basis has on your body and psyche +The benefits and drawbacks of overpreparing and underpreparing +Why we need comfort even when we break our comfort zone +Why it’s necessary to be okay with the unexpected while traveling +Whittling down to the essentials +The smell of your laundry can sometimes tell you where you’ve been +Thriving off of not knowing what each day brings +How to let go of the little things +How travel makes you find new solutions +Taking an “I’ll be back” mindset to be more relaxed as you travel +Living for the “in betweens” of your journey +Being a solo flyer versus a social flyer +The difference between good movies, and “airplane good” movies +How you sometimes crave alone time when traveling +Finding the activities that help you recharge and recenter +Listening to your mind and body to become more in tune with yourself +The culture shock you can experience when you take a break from being a nomad +The beautiful moments you experience where you have to pinch yourself +Traveling through the eyes of a photographer Find Courtney online at @sladesstory on Instagram www.under30experiences.com This episode is sponsored by Under30Experiences, an amazing travel community that allows like-minded young adults to explore the world. Use promo code "idealemon" at under30experiences.com for $100 off your next booking.

LISTEN ON YOUR PHONE'S PODCAST APP

In this episode, you’ll learn:

+Dealing with the ‘real world’ things while traveling

+Realizing the things that are truly important

+Finding ways to cut out the noise

+How routines are crucial to living nomadically

+The effects changing time zones and climates on a regular basis has on your body and psyche

+The benefits and drawbacks of overpreparing and underpreparing

+Why we need comfort even when we break our comfort zone

+Why it’s necessary to be okay with the unexpected while traveling

+Whittling down to the essentials

+The smell of your laundry can sometimes tell you where you’ve been

+Thriving off of not knowing what each day brings

+How to let go of the little things

+How travel makes you find new solutions

+Taking an “I’ll be back” mindset to be more relaxed as you travel

+Living for the “in betweens” of your journey

+Being a solo flyer versus a social flyer

+The difference between good movies, and “airplane good” movies

+How you sometimes crave alone time when traveling

+Finding the activities that help you recharge and recenter

+Listening to your mind and body to become more in tune with yourself

+The culture shock you can experience when you take a break from being a nomad

+The beautiful moments you experience where you have to pinch yourself

+Traveling through the eyes of a photographer

What up! My name is Rajiv Nathan and I'm the Cofounder of Idea Lemon. That banana peel you slipped on to land here came from me. That's because I fancy myself a human Curious George, and the yellow hat I chase is life's authentic moments. I share my chase one story at a time through this blog, our email newsletter, and as a rapper. Follow along here to learn how to build a fulfilling lifestyle that gets you noticed for what you love.

September 16, 2015

Rajiv Nathan

Crafting Your Voice

Road Trip Diaries: Living The Dream (Austin)

September 16, 2015

Rajiv Nathan

Crafting Your Voice

Here are our first notes from Austin!

Are you living the dream? Yes? No? Sometimes?

We hear that phrase thrown around a lot, especially on this road trip as we talk to people about how we’re traveling the country, many say, “wow you guys are really living the dream huh?” (or in Austin it’s, “y’all are really living the dream huh?”).

At the same time, ‘living the dream’ often gets mentioned during water cooler talk.

“Haven’t seen you in a while, how’s it going?”

“I’ve been busy…ya know, just living the dream…”

So what the hell is living the dream?

*okay so that's a photo from LA, but it looks like one of those stock 'living the dream' photos, right?*

In our first of two podcasts from Austin, we sat down with Lindsay Tomson to tackle this question. Lindsay works in People Operations at Google, a company many consider a dream company. According to her Linkedin profile, she’s also interested in becoming a professional quesadilla eater and top secret spy.

Are you living the dream? Yes? No? Sometimes? We hear that phrase thrown around a lot, especially on this road trip as we talk to people about how we’re traveling the country, many say, “wow you guys are really living the dream huh?” (or in Austin it’s, “y’all are really living the dream huh?”). At the same time, ‘living the dream’ often gets mentioned during water cooler talk. “Haven’t seen you in a while, how’s it going?” “I’ve been busy…ya know, just living the dream…” So what the hell is living the dream? In our first of two podcasts from Austin, we sat down with Lindsay Tomson to tackle this question. Lindsay works in People Operations at Google, a company many consider a dream company. According to her Linkedin profile, she’s also interested in becoming a professional quesadilla eater and top secret spy. In this episode, you’ll learn: +The correlation between money and happiness +The truth behind many ‘creative’ industries +Taking a different approach to your relationship with time +The reality behind many company perks +How what we dreamed of as kids doesn’t typically align with what happens now +How we’re typically taught to stay away from the non-traditional career paths +How expectations dictate our actions and warp our ability to be satisfied +Distinguishing between the things you really want, versus the things you’re told to want +What happens when you go the ‘safe route’ +Staying persistent to get the things you want +The struggle of feeling validated +What many colleges say they want students to strive for, versus what they actually promote +Embracing unexpected outcomes +Understanding your extraordinary abilities +Finding creative ways to inject the things you love into your non-career related activities +Using your free time as your opportunity to live your dream +Taking time to think about what another person’s dream might actually be +You have to pay your dues in order to build your dream life +How dreams change, and how to manage that change +The people around you ultimately shape your own reality +Removing yourself from a ‘victim’ mindset Find Lindsay @lindsleazy on Instagram www.geekswhodrink.com This episode is sponsored by Under30Experiences, an amazing travel community that allows like-minded young adults to explore the world. Use promo code "idealemon" at under30experiences.com for $100 off your next booking.

LISTEN ON YOUR PHONE'S PODCAST APP

In this episode, you’ll learn:

The correlation between money and happiness
The truth behind many ‘creative’ industries
Taking a different approach to your relationship with time
The reality behind many company perks
How what we dreamed of as kids doesn’t typically align with what happens now
How we’re typically taught to stay away from the non-traditional career paths
How expectations dictate our actions and warp our ability to be satisfied
Distinguishing between the things you really want, versus the things you’re told to want
What happens when you go the ‘safe route’
Staying persistent to get the things you want
The struggle of feeling validated
What many colleges say they want students to strive for, versus what they actually promote
Embracing unexpected outcomes
Understanding your extraordinary abilities
Finding creative ways to inject the things you love into your non-career related activities
Using your free time as your opportunity to live your dream
Taking time to think about what another person’s dream might actually be
You have to pay your dues in order to build your dream life
How dreams change, and how to manage that change
The people around you ultimately shape your own reality
Removing yourself from a ‘victim’ mindset

We have one more podcast out of Austin to share tomorrow with our friend Courtney Slade from Under30Experiences that I can't wait to release, before closing out our epic road trip in Nashville this weekend.

Take care and be awesome today,

Rajiv

August 10, 2015

Rajiv Nathan

Crafting Your Voice

Road Trip Diaries: Do You Have Tourist Eyes? Notes from Kansas City

August 10, 2015

Rajiv Nathan

Crafting Your Voice

Idea Lemon is on an epic road trip August 8 - September 20, taking our Discover Your Inner Awesome podcast around the country in partnership with our friends at the kickass travel community Under30Experiences. If you daydream of going to places like Bali, Costa Rica, Belize, Peru, Iceland and more, you HAVE to hit up U30X. Their trips have changed our lives. We're all about helping you do more of what you love, so use Promo Code "idealemon" for $100 off your booking.

These are our notes from Kansas City.

We started our epic road trip with a weekend stop in Kansas City. We arrived on Friday night in the midst of a really cool event called First Fridays, where they basically open the streets of the Crossroads neighborhood for art displays, music, and you get to walk around with beer. Plus, we got this caricature done:

Now, ladies I don’t know about you, but all you dudes out there will be able to relate to this next part.

The first thing Martin and I noticed as we pulled into KC was the plethora of hot girls. No offense to you ladies, but spotting the hot girls before anything else is just how guys operate.

So we’re walking through First Fridays checking out the cool art and music going on, and every few steps we take, a cute girl walks past us and Martin and I do that thing where we look at each other and smirk without saying anything--the guy code indicating a mutual acknowledgment of hotness in the vicinity. Think of it like a mental high five.

This goes on for a while, and at some point one of us just says, “Why are there so many more hot girls here than in Chicago (where we’re from)?!”

We thought about it for a few, and realized from a pure population standpoint that it just couldn’t be possible.

That’s when it hit me that we had Tourist Eyes. I don’t know if this is already a thing, but if it is, I haven’t heard of it, and therefore am staking claim to the phrase Tourist Eyes.

Tourist Eyes are when you hype up the attractiveness of the girls or guys around you when you are somewhere new, purely for the fact that it’s something you’re not used to.

Let’s face it--yes KC, you have many hot girls, but Chicago does too. The thing is, we’re used to Chicago. We had never been to KC before, so OF COURSE we’ll think it’s like this sexuality mecca, because it’s new and different.

Now let’s think about getting Tourist Eyes in other areas. Maybe you hate your job, so you develop Tourist Eyes for any opportunity that’s not your job, and you jump on a new offer because it’s an out. Or perhaps you’re sick of being single, so you get Tourist Eyes for the first person who shows interest. In both cases before you know it you’re just as unhappy again.

So how can we stop ourselves from getting bitten by Tourist Eyes?

The first step is to do a gut check and acknowledge you have Tourist Eyes. Once you do that, take some time and reflect on what you’re used to, how that makes you feel, and why you feel that way. Some ways you can reflect are:

Journal
Meditate
Talk to a friend
Remove yourself from the situation entirely (When I left my job at an ad agency, I did it without having a new job lined up so that I could give myself time to figure out what I really wanted, and I soon found out entrepreneurship was my path.)

Everyone refers to doing something new and different as ‘making the jump’ or ‘taking the leap’. Jumping and leaping are what you do when you have Tourist Eyes. You can turn that jump and leap into a baby step, and get rid of Tourist Eyes completely, when you give yourself solid reflection time.

Do you have Tourist Eyes in your life? Take the first step in catching yourself and leave a comment below.

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Lastly, here are some additional notes and travel tips on Kansas City:

Hit up the Power & Light District and Westmore areas for a fun night out.

Try Jack’s Stacks BBQ. Anton’s Tap Room has good beer and good food too. If you want a good coffeeshop to get some work done, go to Thou Mayest. While there, see if you can find the Art Alley nearby which has some amazing street art like this

If you’re in KC on the weekend and into yoga, there is a free AM class on the lawn of the Art Museum. Great scenery while practicing. Shoutout to guest yogi Beau Campbell for an awesome class! Find her classes if you’re in KC--she’s also leading a January yoga retreat in Nicaragua, more info at triptribe.com.

Get dinner before 10:30 pm, because all the kitchens close at 11!

First Fridays is great! We met a dude named Jason Sivewright exhibiting a new children’s book he authored that is now a live Kickstarter campaign. The book is titled The Sugar Lion.

If you’re into baseball, add Kauffman Stadium for a Royals game to your to-do list.

A HUGE thank you to our Under30Experiences alumni friends who we met in Belize earlier this year, Michelle and Catherine. Michelle is probably the nicest person ever, letting us crash at her place even while she was in Colorado for the weekend. Catherine took us through Power & Light District and Westmore, making for a kickass Friday night!

Denver and Boulder--we got you next! We're in your hood August 10-12, and we'll be hosting an Under30Experiences meetup the night of the 11th. Check here for details!

Remember to follow our journey on instagram @idealemon and Periscope @idealemon

Take care and be awesome today.

Rajiv

Oh and I'm a WWE fan 4 lyf!