Our Blogging Journey – a thought piece for the Flawesome Blogger Award

Our Blogging journey began in 2016. It was two years after we’d left the full-time jobs that we’d nurtured for the past decade.

We’d always travelled extensively, ever since we met in Thailand 20 years earlier. Leaving our jobs was our way of getting back to our true selves, of living the life that we had always dreamed about. But mainly, it was the awareness that our lives are fleeting and choosing to live how we want is the most precious gift.

It had been our goal to save enough money to travel on a budget for 2 years or when the money ran out. Accomplishing this inspiring achievement meant it was now our time to do what we wanted when we wanted. Life was no longer about making money to live. Therefore, making money was no longer an obstacle to finding time to live how we wanted.

Our Blogging Journey

I’d always been a writer since my teens but had exchanged a life of creativity for a life of the fast money available in marketing. This life helped me save money for my beloved passion – travel. But it took me further away from my calling and my dreams of creation.

Therefore, it was finally an ideal time to create, write and share the plethora of travel stories and tips gained over many years of adventures.
So I frantically started writing down the Tales from the Road.

But we were on a mission to see as many towns in Europe as possible in 4 months. And we found that the 2 or 3 days in each destination didn’t allow time for starting a blog. So, our blogging journey was put on hold. And we continued our full-time travel with content creation on Instagram.

Flawesome Blogger Award

Which brings me to No. 1 of my Flawesome flaws.
Hi, my name is Oli, and I am lazy!

But, firstly, I would like to thank Kelly from Poky Little Wanderer for this nomination for the Flawesome Blogger Award! Please check out her travel blog, she boldly travels the world with an attitude of ‘What the hell, let’s try it!’

This blogging award came at a time when I vowed not to be lazy. I started to take blogging seriously and relaunched our blogging journey and our blog in 2018.

The Flawsome Blogger Award is a peer recognition award. Recognition from peers carries with it validation and builds a supportive blogging community. Additionally, these awards are a rite of passage for a blogger.

The Flawesome Blogger Award is an award to celebrate your flaws and, accordingly, grow during the blogging journey.

If you are a blogger or want to start blogging, read our timeless tips – Bloggers Tips for Blog Success in 2023

So… back to lazy.

My flaws:

I am Lazy

Yes, I am so lazy I would rather sit in a cafe for hours watching the tourists queue and scramble from site to site.
I am notably lazy that I would rather lie in a hammock all day than go sightseeing.
Everyone knows that I am incredibly lazy because I think travel is full-time work!
I am so lazy that had I not gotten bored from being lazy, I would never have started this blog.

Is “lazy” a flaw?
Yeh, Nah, Maybe! But being lazy is not bad. It means you have time to chill, zen out, and contemplate life and the universe. It means you are making the choices to do the things that inspire you, to do the things that you want to do.

Who said that I must spend my life working 10 hours a day to save money to have a new car, a mortgage, and a materialistic lifestyle?

To me, being lazy means I am finding time for myself and not menial chores. Being lazy means I am rested, refreshed, and enthused about the things I do, and I embrace it with a vengeance.

I am over-indulgent

I love to eat, drink and be merry. When there is no work the next day, it means I can do that every day. I love a feast with a variety of delicacies. Travelling the world, I want to sample all the diverse cuisine and drinks. So I end up overeating and over-drinking.

Yes, there are serious side effects. Actually, the only two I can think of are weight gain and health.
So… The good seems to outweigh the bad. (wink, wink)
After all, feasting is celebrating life, is having fun, is living!

Note to self – You set the limits. The only thing that stops you is you.

I am remarkably pushy

I like things my way. Sometimes, people think I am abrupt or arrogant. But I know what I want and when I want it. And the other perspective is me charging head forward to live my dreams and getting to do what I want to do. Some people call this ambition.

Note to self – Don’t mow down the people standing in the way. Take them along with you for the ride.

Thanks for reading. It is liberating to write this, and is a step in a broader direction for our blogging journey.

But stick around, soon we will be Live from Thailand with our highlights after 20 years of travel in the country.

It is an honour to receive the Flawesome Blogger Award and be recognized by our peers.