Have You Heard of Digital Nomads?
What were you guys doing in Portugal? What is this NomadX thing? What are digital nomads, anyway? Hopefully, this post clears it all up. When will you be joining the movement? Sooner than you think...
Back in 1998, I was interviewed by Lynn Lamousin, freelance writer and early-adopter in the tech space, for a magazine called Atlanta Citymag. I had gained some local popularity writing a very wide-open, online diary called phatz.com - this, of course, was back before 'blogging' was a thing. We just called them, "online diaries."
If you want, you can even take a look at the intro for my website back in 1998. Yup, I was a Flash guy. You should get a good laugh out of it.
The point is, throughout my career, I have consistently found myself on the cutting edge of creative ideas and new ways of doing things, usually in an effort to upset the status quo.
Digital Nomads
Screen shot of https://christian.nomadx.com
When I left the 9-5 world of structured days, one-hour lunches, vacation time, and office drama, my goal for Live for a Living was rooted in one, simple idea - "work in the way the suits me best, and I will do my best work."
For me, this means working in spurts, then playing in spurts whether that's riding my beach cruiser for two hours, climbing a rock wall, catching some surf at the pier, land paddling down 3rd street, ...whatever. It can be any number of things, but for me to do my best work, I must focus. To focus, I must be fatigued. That's just me.
Oh, and I don't really like to be nailed down to one office, one city, one state, or even one country while I work. This is a big world and I want to explore it. Furthermore, I have found that travelling actually makes me better educated, more tolerant, and my mind wide open.
There is now a term for this - digital nomads.
NomadX Embraces the Movement
Since returning from Lisbon, Portugal, I have been struggling to explain to people what my experience as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at NomadX was all about. When you are doing something so new and so radical with an institution that most people tend to understand in only one way, it makes for confusing conversation.
But I'm going to try:
NomadX is built on the concept of live/work/play balance, with a built-in flexibility to upset this balance as often as necessary. This new way of living empowers individuals to be better versions of themselves and encourages open sharing, collaboration, idea generation, friendship, mutual respect, and a general sense of well-being and contentment. It's living to your own beat, eliminating the angst of living by others' beats and freeing you to get more enjoyment out of every day of your life.
Like that? I do. But in case you need more, I documented all 15 days of my live/work/play experience with NomadX. Maybe through these posts, it will all begin to make more sense.
15 Days of NomadX
5 Things I No Longer Fear
Fear can be crippling. What does so-and-so think about me? Will I get that raise? Why doesn't he like me? What if I get fired? How come she has all that? Why am I not wealthier? What if I fail?
I believe I have successfully erased fear from my life. See how...
October 2015 became a turning point for me. I quit my job, alienated some colleagues and "friends," and set off to live life on my terms. No apologies. No regrets.
This last year and a half has been a complete blur. In that time, I have completed the Survival Run in Australia, launched a company, ran around the Island province of Phuket, met a beautiful woman who challenges me every single day, lived in Nicaragua, competed on American Ninja Warrior, completed a brutal special forces selection experiment on national television, took on strategic leadership for a worldwide charity, stood in the 'Blue Hole' on the island of Kauai, racked up 50 miles at World's Toughest Mudder in Las Vegas, plus another 14 ultramarathon races around the world; and then, out of nowhere, bought my dream beach house a baseball's throw from the pier. But, among all that, the greatest triumph, ever, was coming to grips with the demons I developed as a victim of childhood sexual abuse, and in the process, getting the necessary treatment.
Eliminating Fear
Fear can be crippling. What does so-and-so think about me? Will I get that raise? Why doesn't he like me? What if I get fired? How come she has all that? Why am I not wealthier? What if I fail?
I believe I have successfully discovered how to erase fear from my life. Here are 5 examples:
1. Fear of Losing Everything
This is a big one, so let's start with it first. If you know me, you know this story, but, when I left my comfy, cush, high-paying job(s), I had fear. I walked away from a guaranteed lump sum of money, in my account, every two weeks. The number of fears that come with life changes at this magnitude are immense, but eventually all point to, "what if I end up homeless, in the streets?"
Guess what... I won't. You won't. That's right, there is a 99.99999% chance that I will never be homeless unless I want to be. Can my life look different? Sure, of course, but will I ever be homeless, unable to secure a meal, a place to sleep, or safety and security? Hell no. I am the same dude who achieved all I have achieved, and I could do it again upon the press of the reset button - But what if I didn't want to? What if I wanted life to look differently? What if I wanted to teach kids to surf in Bali, Indonesia? Guess what? I can. I can do anything I want to do because you can't take away the intangibles that make me ...me: my thoughts, my drive, my intelligence, my tenacity, my charisma, my dedications. All those things no one else can take. from me, nor you.
I will never lose everything because I can aways make something.
2. Fear of Relationships
I hate it when someone doesn't like me. It used to really drive me crazy. If I really like someone, platonically or romantically, and they didn't seem to show interest the way I expected, I tried extra hard to win them over. So much so that I believe the thrill of turning them around became more eciting than my actual desire to be friends or lovers with them.
Guess what... Not everyone is going to like you. No matter how funny you are, some people won't laugh. No matter how attractive, someone will think you have a big nose. No matter how many people think you are inspirational, someone will think your cheesy. We have no control over other people, nor what drives them. I know, I know, there are 15,000 sales seminars that will tell you differently, but is it worth the energy? and how authentic is crafting your behavior, in an unnatural way, just to "win friends and influence people?"
I try to be the most authentic version of myself, and sure, I fail. Often, really. But, the focus remains on being true and authentic to me, and let the chips (and relationships) fall where they may.
3. Fear of Rejection
There is an incredible TEDx talk on this subject of overcoming the fear of rejection, which you can watch below. It's a great story from someone who immigrated here and learned to overcome rejection in a foreign place.
To me, rejection and failure are very much the same. If you fear rejection, you probably also fear failure, but here's the thing - we need rejection. We need to fail. These are the times in our life when we grow the most. We don't grow when we are right or correct or exact. We grow when we are wrong, incorrect, and way off. These are the times of "going back to drawing board." The times of greater discovery, deeper thinking, and alternative ideas.
Don't be afraid of rejection. Embrace it. Consider failures and rejections as lessons in the school of life and as ways to learn things that make you smarter, stronger, and more resilient.
4. Fear of Love
Who could fear love, right? A lot of us. I feared love for a long time. In my particular case, the one I should love the most, I don't. The one who should have taken the best care of me at the most vulnerable time in life, didn't. She failed me, and worse, contributed to me learning about sex, love, and relationships in some of the most perverse and disgusting ways imaginable, leaving me with reactive, dark behaviors developed directly, and indirectly, from those scars of insanity.
I was afraid to love because I was afraid to be hurt. Or worse, I was afraid to hurt others as I bounced between stable Christian and unstable Christian. My own heart, the one that feels for others, can so often turn black when demons of the past show up, and I found myself being the one that cheated on love, lied to get what I wanted, and treated women with disrespect.
I say all this in the past tense as if I am cured. I am not. I still say shit I don't mean at times. I still can be hurtful with my words. I can still, "verbally abuse." The difference between now and then is that I am not afraid to love, nor accept love - both outwardly and inwardly. I am not perfect, but I am awake, and around every turn possible, I am choosing... to choose love.
5. Fear of Ostracization
Big word, huh? Yup, I had to Google the spelling before I wrote it to make sure it was even a word, but naturally, it comes from the word "ostracized."
“Ostracization: to exclude, by general consent, from society, friendship, conversation, privileges, etc.: His friends ostracized him after his father’s arrest.”
I am actually including this fear because I lied. This is, in fact, something that I do fear. I fear it for myself and I fear it for those around me who could be affected. I fear it so much that I craft my stories of my childhood sexual abuse around an enigma, instead of the real person. I claim, "the cast and characters don't matter," when in fact, they do matter. I struggle with working to get those battling with demons of the past to speak up, talk about it, and reach out for help, all while leaving out one very disturbing part of my own story. Why? Because I don't want those in my family who love me to stop loving me. I don't want those in my family who believe in me to stop believing in me. I don't want to be perceived as "out to get anyone," and worse, I don't want to make things potentially difficult for family members who really didn't ask for any of this.
In the end, this appears to come full circle. You could easily scroll all the way back up to #1 to easily solve this last fear to make this essay far more comfortable and fall in line with the intent. But then again, when I have I ever "fallen in line" with anything?
That's Right, I Was Sexually Abused.
My name is Christian Griffith and I was sexually abused by a number of individuals, in a number of disgusting ways, throughout my teens. I am no longer ashamed, embarrassed, nor fearful of this discussion. My goal is to make the taboo, no longer taboo.
It's 3:30 a.m., and my new friend Damien is 30 minutes behind me. My even newer friend, Darren, is within eyesight up ahead of me, but is choosing to be alone, and I totally get it.
Three dudes, suffering through tremendous sunburn shivers, blistered feet, and banged-up bodies, running 130KM around the entire Island province of Phuket, Thailand. Past the elephant babies, tourist beaches, and 10,000 massage parlors. Climbing straight-up mean mountain roads, and pounding down muscle-cramping descents, heat and smog so brutal and stifling there were times I wanted to throw in the towel, only finding hope in the upcoming cooler night temperatures.
Why were we doing this? I dunno. I guess because we could. Because we each had our own individual demons we wanted to challenge.
Doing extreme challenges is nothing new to me, but this was different...
Meet Damien & Darren
Christian Griffith, Darren Sherbain, and Damien Rider, Founder of PACA
I met Australian, Damien Rider, at Survival Run Australia in October 2015. When this beast of man moved past me in the race, both of us struggling with 50+ LB rocks, carrying them uphill for 7 KM, I never knew that we'd soon be connected at the hip. Instant homies for life - despite the fact that he lived halfway across the world from me. Damien is a survivor of tremendous, and I mean TREMENDOUS child abuse; however, wanting to break the cycle of the effects of the growing demons inside, he set out to change. I won't tell Damien's full story, you can see his amazing story in the National Geographic documentary, Heart of the Sea.
When I met Damien in Australia, we connected in this weird sorta way where I knew I had to be part of what this man was doing. He runs an organization called PACA - Paddle Against Child Abuse - and is turning traditional ways of dealing with life PTSD on its ear.
Darren Sherbain was Damien's friend. A hilarious, well-liked, and well-respected personal trainer on the Island of Phuket. I liked him instantly. I think it was the compression socks :) Darren's struggle was substance abuse. I don't know as much about Darren's deeper struggles, but it's sure to come out when we all tell our stories to the world in the second Documentary, RISE ABOVE, launching this year.
Look out for HEART OF THE SEA: RISE ABOVE, in 2016
Stop the taboo. Start talking!
On my flight home from Survival Run Australia, I texted Damien. I sometimes wish I still had the text. Maybe he does, but I just opened up like a faucet. I admitted years and years of sexual abuse in my teens. Sexual abuse that has haunted me for 30 years. HAUNTED. Effects of which playing out in every relationship in my life. Only a very small handful of people knew about this, and even they only found out when it was exposed a bit during my divorce. It was like once I started telling him, though, I couldn't stop. Details. Graphic details. It all flowed with a total lack of fear of outcome, as if it was just hovering there, expanding, forcing itself out and then just exploding.
I felt free. I didn't quite know how all this would manifest itself, but I knew I was moving in a direction of freeing myself from these lifelong shackles of shame, embarrassment, self-blame, low self-esteem, and really just feeling like a sexual freak.
The Challenge that changed my life
It came as a calling. A simple statement from Damien, "Hey bro, why don't you come and run 130 KM around Phuket, Thailand with me?" and that's all it took. Decided in minutes. It wasn't even a question.
The days previous to me hopping a plane to Thailand were pure Hell - I was running from a relationship that was growing toxic for me, and crushing my family. In parallel, I was losing the greatest friendship I ever had in this world in my ex-wife, and lastly, had been scammed by a fake Spanish school, with my next few days including two robberies, one non-violent, and one where a gun was held to my head and the weapon fired at me.
Shockingly (and luckily), he missed. But, barely, 'cuz I felt the dirt kick up where the bullet hit the ground.
I went straight to the airport right then, bought a full-fare, last-minute plane ticket for $1000.50, and flew home, landing in Atlanta, shaken, rattling, and crying in the bedroom of my ex-wife.
"Holy shit, man - I got f*cking shot at! I should be dead."
The universe sent me home with my tail between my legs. Was #LIVEFORALIVING going to be too much for me? Did I bite off more than I could chew? Was I crazy to think this could all work the way I envisioned?
But Damian's challenge saved me.
After so much discussion and sharing and brotherhood, I realized that Damien was me, and I was him; but even more than that came the powerful self-realization that WE WERE NOT ALONE. The way we found each other was expanding - so many admissions being thrown at us from all around our individuals circles. People were hurting. Struggling with deep wounds, and they wanted freedom.
So, back to 3:30 a.m., limping towards the end of the beginning
Making our way through a tropical downpour in Phuket City, about halfway through the challenge.
...so as I watched Darren way up ahead on the dark street, fighting off the many dogs that would try to attack our beaten bodies, a huge smile spread across my face.
I wanted to live for a living, right? Well, when you find yourself halfway around the world, rolling deep in self-administered suffering through the streets of Thailand, in the middle of the pitch-black night, pondering ways to join others in the personal fight for freedom from demons so taboo no one wants to touch them, and you are doing so through extreme physical events designed to get people to pay attention - you are definitely living for a living.
So what's next? Where do we go from here?
That's easy. More exposure. More challenges. More attention to the cause, and most importantly, working on ways to implement real-life programs allowing others to experience alternative ways of exercising their demons in a positive way.
Not therapy. Not just awareness. Instead, we want to teach people to attack the demons. Face them, admit them, then put on the gloves and prepare to go to battle with them. During our next challenge, to be announced very soon, we are opening it up to all-comers. Anyone who wants to fight their demons, or support those who do, is welcome.
We couldn't have done it without Charlie, our crew chief. A man who was inspired by us, but who in turn inspired us more.
It really does take a village
As a worldwide culture, we have to stop making child abuse a taboo subject. It happens everywhere, comes in many flavors, and no one is immune. Past or present, whether you see visions of an angry parent with raised hands, or feel the chills of someone you trust exercising creepy sexual gratification against you, or you're wallowing in a seemingly, never-ending pool of shitty self-esteem because you are told you aren't good enough, pretty enough, or smart enough, fight back. Tell someone.
Your past does not need to define your future
Choose to free yourself from this crap.
Until you do, you will never escape it, and it will be with you, and play out in your relationships for as long as you let it.
My name is Christian Griffith and I was sexually abused by a number of individuals, in a number of disgusting ways, throughout my teens; but I choose to not let these experiences define who I am today, nor into the future.
How about you? Ready to be free?
Shunning Security
I have found that chasing money and career status has never fulfilled me and material things carry very little value in my life. The greatest fulfillment in my life has come from the places I've been, the people I've met, and the variety of experiences I've encountered throughout my life.
From the get-go, LIVE FOR A LIVING was meant to be more than just a hashtag. It's about throwing caution to the wind. It's about stomping out fear of change or judgment, and living the way we want to live.
LIVE FOR A LIVING is about wealth through experiences. The positive vibe. Inspiration. Encouragement.
I have found that chasing money and career status has never fulfilled me and material things carry very little value in my life. The greatest fulfillment in my life has come from the places I've been, the people I've met, and the variety of experiences I've encountered throughout my life.
I believe in it so much, I've decided to dedicate my entire life to living for a living. To prove that one can chase his raw dreams for pure happiness doing exactly what he or she truly loves, and still get by in this world, despite what a majority of society will tell you.
Going out on my own. Defining my own career
I have no idea what's around the corner. I have no idea what I will do next. I only know that I will only work for people and causes I believe in, nothing more.
Example: GORUCK. I love GORUCK, and believe in the company's products, missions, events, and people. And, while I cannot serve GORUCK in the full-time capacity in which I had originally intended, my love and dedication to the brand and the people make it a no-brainier for me to include in my digital marketing portfolio. It's up to GORUCK to decide if they see value in me.
I will never work just to have "a job." Never. I'd rather be homeless, but living life by my own rules and definitions.
Reckless? Maybe. But, the calling is so strong, I can no longer fight it.
I will keep my skills sharp, continuing to work my craft as digital strategist, but will also branch out to other ways of earning an honest wage that are unfamiliar to me such as labor jobs and serving others. I want to experience life from all angles, without preference to wealth, race, age, religion, sex, or whatever.
Go big or go home
I can promise you this: I will work with some cool people, and I will achieve some great things. Professionally, I will attack personally-chosen projects with intensity, and socially, I will chase huge dreams and bucket list adventures. I will run across this great country of ours. I will participate in challenging physical events all over the world. I will skate, surf, train, climb, pedal, paddle, run, walk, hike, crawl, and experience life through movement while meeting new, unique and interesting people.
I will document the entire thing via social media and this website. No fear. No apprehensions. Just a belief in people, relationships, and life experiences.
And so it begins...