A few months ago I quietly launched my first paid-offering in the 10 year history of this site. The launch coincided with an essay I wrote on permission pricing and in that essay I announced the results of a pricing survey I conducted for this offering.

As much as I don’t like focusing on marketing, I also know that unless I tell you the offer is there, you might not know about it.

So here it is: the Journal.

The journal is exactly that, my journal. It’s where I share everything behind the thoughts and essays on this site. With a subscription to the journal, you’ll receive new entires in your inbox and gain full access to the archives.

The current price is $7.00/month.

I offer a lifetime money-back guarantee.

You can read a sample journal entry and learn more about how I share bits of what inspires me through my Notes.

There’s a full page with more about the journal, or you can subscribe here.

Early Sunday morning, two brothers will pick me up from my hotel in Kathmandu. We will drive several hours to a place called Sole Bazaar and from there I hear it’s an eight-hour hike by foot, through areas infested with leeches, to the remote village where the project is located.

This isn’t a photo expedition or a mini-vacation. If the weather holds out, I will be taking plenty of photos but that’s not the purpose of this trip. I’m doing this for the kids like those in the photo above.

So where am I going? I’ll be visiting the project site for a small non-profit organization called Nepal FREED, whose primary goal “is to make education more accessible for the children of Nepal”. The group helps build, fund, and run schools using local materials and local labor.

As I’ve mentioned before, I wholeheartedly believe that the best way to change the future is through our children. Their education will determine their ability to continue working towards a better world.

Nepal FREED is a very small organization founded by a man who grew up in Nepal and who now lives and works in California. His entire family is involved in the project — it’s his two brothers who are picking me up. Neither of them speak English, so hopefully they bring an interpreter (maybe I should’ve taken that crash course in Nepali after all).

How I heard of project is a story of its own. A close friend of the founder read the Small Ways to Make a Big Difference ebook and he was intrigued by my vision for using technology to help make the world a better place. He has similar ideas and sent me an email asking if I would be interested in getting involved with his friends’ project.

It would’ve been easy to say yes and write a long blog post about the organization asking everyone to go support them (that’s not what this is). I could’ve helped them redo their website and set up a Twitter account. I could’ve used my own Twitter account to spread word about their cause. But I didn’t do any of those (at least not yet).

In a world where people are doing and saying anything to clamber for attention, all we have is who we are; all we have is our integrity. If who we are is tarnished — if our integrity is weakened — we stand little chance of really being trusted.

One way to weaken our integrity is to jump on any and all available opportunities without hesitation and without putting much thought or research into who or what is involved. Taking the easy and cheap way out rarely builds integrity.

I’ve always been extremely skeptical and cautious when it comes to money. I know how powerful a drug greed can be and how quickly even the best intentions can turn evil (I wrote about this earlier).

So I replied to the email and explained that before I used my voice to spread the word about this project or support them, I wanted to see for myself the work they’re doing. I wanted to see the schools with my eyes and shake hands with the people in charge.

You can really tell a lot about a person just by meeting them and if the past four months have taught me anything, its that firsthand experience in any situation has enormous power.

I also realized that I needed to put my feet where my mouth was — I needed to start turning all those feel-good words and big dreams for a better world into tangible actions on the ground. If the ebook project was my first digital step in this new direction, this was to be my first step in the real world.

There are lots of ways to start making a difference. Is this the best thing for me to be doing with my time? I’m not sure, but it’s definitely better than sitting in a cafe.

Any action is better than no action. My instinct told me to go with this, so that’s where I’m going. This decision is way outside my comfort zone, so at the very least there will be plenty of inner development.

But I really need your help on this one. This is my first time touring an NGO project or doing anything like this and I have no idea what questions I should be asking.

If you were in my place and you were considering helping support Nepal FREED, what would you want to know? What questions would you ask the people in charge? Please share this post with others so they can provide feedback as well!

Exactly three weeks ago, I started working on a collaborative project that had no name. I sent out dozens of emails requesting participation and quickly realized that I needed some way of organizing the emails so they wouldn’t get lost. So, I created a tag in Gmail for this project and I named it with the first thing that came to mind: “Change the World”.

Every time someone replied to an email for the project, the “Change the World” tag in my Gmail account lit up and it put a smile on my face.

Every time I got an contribution, it reminded me why I was doing this project. It reminded me that there are so many people all over the globe who genuinely care about this world and who have ideas for how to make it a better place.

In just three weeks, over 40 bloggers contributed more than 100 ways to live more sustainable, to live happier and healthier, to get more out of life, to inspire and share, to reconnect with our true selves, to be a leader, to exist more intelligently.

More than 100 ways that you can begin setting an example to be the change you wish to see in the world. More than 100 ways to make a difference in the world right now.

Please visit the page for Small Ways to Make a Big Difference to download the PDF ebook and share it with the world.

It has been a privilege to have had the opportunity to organize this book. The quality and quantity of contributions surpassed everything I could have hoped for and the real authors of this book are the contributors themselves.

It’s my hope that you will find as much value in this ebook as I found while preparing it. This ebook is free and will forever remain that way. All of the content is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License, which means you can do with it as you like so long as you don’t make money from it or pass it off as your own work.

***

If you’ve been reading this blog for the past few weeks, you’ve heard how traveling through India, Vietnam, and Nepal has transformed my sense of purpose. This project is my first step on that new path; my first step towards helping empower people be the change they wish to see in the world.

With the release of this project I’m also launching a newsletter and I invite you to join our community of passionate changemakers and share your thoughts, your wisdom, your insights, and your perspective. But most of all, I invite you to take this ebook and start setting an example for others to follow.

Mohammed Ali said, “Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.” This ebook is my first payment on an account that is long overdue. I look forward to the journey ahead and to sharing every step along the way with you.

I’m staying with close friends whom I consider family and they have been incredibly generous to me; tea in the morning, home cooked meals for lunch, afternoon naps, a nice place to sleep, and an abundance of love and kindness.

Their home is located in a relatively new area of Delhi, with gated communities, wide streets, and a partially running metro that is still under construction. The wedding itself took place between their home and the only five star hotel where pure vegetarian food is served.

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A few weeks ago I announced that I was doing a reader survey to help me better understand what you were interested in hearing more of on this blog. The response has been fantastic and I really appreciate everyone who took the time to complete the survey.

As promised, here are the results:

The current publishing schedule is three times per week (Mon, Wed, Fri). Are you happy with this frequency?

• 89% said I’m happy with the current posting frequency.
• 10% said I want to see more!

Would you like to see more travel-specific content about the places I’m exploring, or do you enjoy reading about the philosophical life lessons that I learn through my travel experiences?

• 52% said I’m happy with the content; don’t change anything!
• 37% said I would like to see more travel-related content.
• 10% said I would like to see more life lessons and philosophical-type content.

I’m working on a free eBook about how to be the master of your own destiny. It’s basically going to use bits and pieces of my own life to show how you can live more independently and grow your knowledge without limits. Does this sound like something you would download?

• 84% said Yes you would download my upcoming ebook
• 16% said Maybe you would download my upcoming ebook

Why do you read my blog?

• 79% said For the different perspective you bring
• 74% said To read about the places you travel
• 68% said For inspiration & motivation
• 63% said To read about being a minimalistic nomad
• 47% said For personal development content
• 31% said Just to see what you’re up to

What would you like me to write more about? How can I help you?

There were several overlapping suggestions in response to this question. I will list the most common ones here:

• Continue writing the Frugal Travel Reports, as they are both insightful and motivational
• Make my posts more conversational and encourage commenting and discussion
• Write more about my past adventures, life, and lessons learned
• Write more on my view of happiness and the day-to-day things that influence my mental and emotional states
• More photos
• Write more about the social interactions and people I encounter during my travels

This survey generated exactly the type of feedback I was looking for and I have already begun to implement some of the suggestions. I’m considering doing a quarterly reader survey to keep the feedback coming in. What do you think?

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The new experiences over the past two days have left me in a very reflective state and my head has been overflowing with ideas, observations, and blog topics since arriving here in Delhi.

I will spend the next two weeks exploring the city, writing, catching up on several freelance projects, working on my ebook, and relaxing before hopping on a plane to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia en route to Vietnam. I don’t know what the Internet situation will be like when I arrive in Vietnam, so I’m trying to get as much done as possible before I leave.

Note to RSS & E-Mail readers: You may need to visit the site to watch the embedded video.

This is my first “video blog post” from Bangalore, India. I’m thinking of mixing my writing with one or two video blog posts per week. The video would allow me to give everyone a better perspective of the places I visit. Maybe I could even shoot other videos and then compile them into mini-documentaries.

My writing and photos wouldn’t go away — the videos would just complement them and give me another way of reaching out to you, my wonderful my readers. :)

Thoughts? First impressions? Please leave feedback below!

My name is Raam Dev and I’m a twenty-something searching for purpose and meaning to life. I’m an aspiring writer, runner, solo-entrepreneur, photographer, and geek. If you want to see what that guy on the left looks like as a three-year-old, see the about page. :)

I’ve been a landlord, software engineer, IT support technician, carpenter, business owner, and even a mad scientist. I love simplicity and minimalism.

Currently, I’m in the process of transitioning to a nomadic lifestyle and I invite you to follow my journey.

I’m still ironing out the details, but here’s the rough plan: I’m headed to India in about three weeks with nothing more than what will fit in a 30 liter backpack.

By the time I leave, I will have gotten rid of my pickup truck and nearly all my possessions. I will live a minimalist and frugal life, soaking up new experiences and sharing them here on my blog with the goal of inspiring and motivating my readers.

In addition to photography, I have a passion for hiking and nature (I thoroughly enjoy being engulfed by the remote wilderness and I have no problem with isolation), so you can expect to read about and see many of the interesting places I visit.

If you enjoy reading about new perspectives, personal development, travel, entrepreneurship, personal branding, or ways to make an income online, you’ve come to the right place. If you want to be motivated or inspired, or if you’re passionate about discarding the status quo in favor of living life on your own terms, you will enjoy this blog.

I’ve been blogging since 2002 and there are over a thousand posts here. I’m in the process of reorganizing things and making them more accessible, so please bare with me.

I’ve committed myself to publishing at least one post per week, usually posted on Monday or Friday. If you’re looking for more frequent updates, I suggest you follow me on Twitter. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS feed to stay updated.

If you have a moment, please drop me a message using one of the methods on my contact page. I’d love to hear from you!

The site update is part of the rebranding I’m working on and it’s meant to simplify my writing outlet. The new theme (a modified version of Cleanr) has larger fonts and less clutter.

There is something very motivating about writing a blog post with large font; it makes me feel as though I’d better get to the point and not putz around. It also encourages me to improve my writing. I’m all for getting to the point, so I really like the effect of this new theme.

Besides the new theme, I also updated the About and Contact page, changed the URL (using raamdev.com instead of blog.raamdev.com), and changed the permalink structure (instead of /year/monthnum/postname/ I’m using /postname/).

While changing the URL may seem like a trivial task, it was a delicate process. I had to ensure all links redirected to their new location so that I wouldn’t lose pagerank in Google (a large portion of my traffic comes from Google searches). I also didn’t want to break any other incoming links to my site that exist on the Internet.

If you’re interested in the technical details of how all this was done, check out my latest post on Solid State Raam.

Here are the obligatory before and after photos:

Before

Modified version of Grid Focus – November 2008

After

What do you think of the new design? I love feedback, so if you have any suggestions for things you’d like to see on this site, please share them in the comments!

Do one thing every day that scares you posted January 11th, 2009

“The yard was empty. There were no armed guards with guns ready to fire upon me. There were no gates preventing me from passing. In fact, there weren’t even any signs that said ‘No Trespassing’ or ‘Official Use Only’ and not a single person in sight to stop me! I drove up to the huge pile of sand, filled my truck, and drove away.”

Continue reading…

The Pursuit of Knowledge posted February 19th, 2009

“I came to the conclusion that it’s our bills and our standards of living that are holding us down. By living paycheck to paycheck we make it impossible to take six months or a year off from work to explore some new thing that has peaked our interest. Socially, we’re expected to follow the same routine advancement in our current field from one position to another, making a bigger paycheck and being able to raise our standard of living that much higher (thereby putting us back to where we started and resulting in yet another desire for a raise and advancement).”

Continue reading…

The Three W’s: What to Write Where? posted April 15th, 2009

“But I digress. Perhaps all the definitions and various places to write are slowly killing my creative outlet. Perhaps making the decision of what to write and where is becoming difficult enough that I choose to simply not write anything. My time can be used for more important things than figuring out where I should write, let alone what I should write.”

Continue reading…

The more we have, the less we appreciate posted August 8th, 2009

“We’re all human. If we really want to be happy we need to look deep inside ourselves for happiness. It’s there. Everyone has it. No one person has less happiness-making-capacity than the next. It’s really tough to forget that all the material stuff around us, regardless of how much importance we place on it, really has nothing to do with our true happiness. That’s a tough pill to swallow when some of us work day and night to afford the stuff.”

Continue reading…

The bad guy isn’t technology, it’s our inexperience posted on September 14th, 2009

“The acceptance of mundane tasks and jobs as a part of our daily lives slows the progress of human civilization. While there are many socially, physically, and even culturally harmful effects of technology today, I think they can be directly attributed to the fact that this stuff is so damn new to us.”

Continue reading…

Create and Share Value posted on November 11th, 2009

“The Internet makes it easy for us to keep sharing useless stuff that we think is important because we don’t see anyone’s reaction to what we’re offering. If you stood on the sidewalk and asked strangers to listen to how your day went, how many people would care? With the in-your-face feedback that you’d receive on the sidewalk, how long would it take you to realize that what you’re offering is valueless and adds nothing useful to the lives of others?”

Continue reading…

Choose Happiness and Growth posted December 12th, 2009

“So what’s life? Well, we know that death most often brings sadness and is associated with the ending of progression, so this would mean that life, being the polar opposite of death, should be associated with happiness and growth. I propose that choosing anything less than happiness and growth in our life is associating ourselves with death and thereby ignoring life.”

Continue reading…

For example, 18:30 (24-hour clock) = 18 – 2 = 16, drop the first number and we’re left with 6. Therefore, 18:30 is 6:30 on a 12-hour clock! It gets slightly more tricky when the 24-hour clock gets to 22:00, because 22 – 2 = 20. But now you simply replace the leading 2 with a 1. Therefore, 22:00 = 10:00. Telling AM vs PM is easy: if the time is greater than or equal to 12, it’s PM. Less than 12, it’s AM.

Once you’ve used a 24-hour clock long enough, you won’t need such methods of converting between the two types. For me, when I see the number 18 I now automatically see 6pm, and when I see the number 23 I automatically think 11pm. However, for those who are clueless when it comes to 24-hour clocks, this simple method of converting between the two might help. Of course, the only way you’re really going to get used to reading military time is to change all your clocks (at least as many as you can) to use a 24-hour clock.