171 – Travelling and Not Quitting – Microdose U

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Hey there it’s Dr. D the “V!” What’s going on? Welcome back to The David Madow Lifestyle Show! I’m Dr. Dave. And I welcome you. Thanks so much for being here.

Right now I am recording from my outdoor studio right smack in the middle of Manhattan. That’s right New York City. I’m actually right in the middle of a lot of action. You’re gonna hear cars, you’re gonna hear trucks, you’re gonna hear buses, you’re gonna hear horns, you’re gonna hear loud people, but this is where the action is and I love it. And sometimes I like to be totally in solitude like on a 7 day backpack trip where no other human beings are around.

Figure this out. So what is it that I like. Do I like solitude? Do I like a busy city? I normally don’t like cities all that much except there are a few favorite ones that I just love traveling to. I happened to be here for a meeting yesterday and New York happens to be one of my favorites in the world. So when I get a chance to come here, I try to stay an extra day or so and combine it with some pleasure. I would recommend it. If you are listening to me from anywhere on this planet, if you have not visited Manhattan ever in your life or its been a long time, I recommend that you come take a look. There’s so much going on. So many cool people.

But there’s anything you want. And as you know I am trying to minimalize my life. I don’t go shopping anymore. You could come here and spend a fortune on shopping and get some great deals. But the only thing I have bought here over the last 2 1/2 days is food. No clothes, no electronic gadgets, no shoes, nothing. Nothing except food.

I am able to save extra money like that. When you don’t have that lifestyle where you’re always worried about buying something such as a new car or jewelry. I do make an exception for jewelry but the only jewelry that I wear are my beads from Desmond. I wear 3 beads that are full of energy – 3 beaded bracelets. And those are the only jewelry that I wear. I have no gold on, no expensive watch. Oh I have a Fitbit watch. So the only jewelry that I ever wear are my beaded bracelets on my right wrist and my beaded bracelets on my left wrist.

How’s your year coming so far? Can you believe that it’s already the middle of January. Things are going to go fast. I’m warning ya. So if there’s something that you want to do. Including visiting Manhattan. If there’s something that you want to do, whatever it might be; taking a trip, starting a new hobby, writing a book, writing a blog, whatever it might be. I’m going to give you some advice. Don’t hesitate! Don’t procrastinate! Just do it! Nike made millions with that slogan and I hope it’s ok that I stole it but just do it! Don’t worry about making mistakes. You will make some mistakes! Maybe if you’re starting something at the beginning, whatever it might be. Be really bad it. I was bad at so many things. I’m bad at things now as well. But the difference is I just did things.

I want to share a little story with you. I don’t think I’ve spoken about this on a previous episode. But sometimes they just run together and I forget what I talked about a few months ago. Not that I forget the podcasts but I forget if I’ve said something. So I don’t think I’ve said this before.

So here’s what I did. This goes back to the mid to late 1980’s. So a long time ago. I was a practicing dentist and I had an idea that I wanted to do something else. I wasn’t really sure what but I wanted to start another business and I truly had no idea what it was going to be.

Back in those days you had to go to the printer if you wanted to get cards or other stationary made up. These days anybody with a computer or online access can have business cards made up or letterhead or whatever with a logo. But back in those days you had to go to the printer.

So I went to the printer and I had a 1000 business cards made up with a totally made up business name. I still remember what it was to this day. I called myself DMM Management Consultants. It stood for David Michael Madow. I had my address and phone number on them. Back then there were really no fax machines yet or email, so I just had DMM Management Consultants, my name, my address, and my phone number.

Now if you were to ask me what the heck DMM Management Consultants did, I had no idea. But this is really weird. I started handing my card out to people. I didn’t even know what I wanted to do but I knew it was something. So management consultants is kind of a vague enough term. You can do a lot of different things. You could just be a consultant and help people with a lot of things. And remember I was a practicing dentist and I was pretty good with business as well.

So I started handing my card out, and as I started handing my card out and people asked me what I did, I started coming up with different things that I could do in this DMM Management Consultant business. As it turned out I had an idea a few months later to start selling a business form which I did and I started selling them by direct mail. That was like the first thing that DMM Management Consultants did. It worked. It’s the most bizarre thing because like I said when I first started I had no idea what I was going to do. This led to more things and different businesses. And that was kind of the start to my entrepreneurial career. Learning that if you want to do something, don’t flippin’ procrastinate. And don’t worry about if you’re good at it or not.

Back when I was younger, I tried my best to play the guitar. I just sucked, I was horrible. The biggest problem was that if someone said to me “Dave, you’re not good” or something like that, I took it very personally and I put the guitar down. And same thing with singing.

I think I told you this story before but I remember one time somebody told me that my singing always sounded too high. And I didn’t like that so I stopped singing. This is when I was a little kid. I picked up the guitar here and there a little bit and tried to take some lessons but I always kinda sucked and I never did much with the guitar. And I never really did much with singing until I became much older.

I tried it again when I was with my brother Rich. At first I totally sucked. I am sure I sounded horrible. To this day I have sung on stage solo, or with Rich, or with people in front of tens of thousands of people. Some small audiences and some audiences with as many as 5000 people.

The point is, I tried this. I tried it and I was not worried about how much I sucked. And now I do it for a living partly. When I speak at seminars and conferences with my brother Rich, I am on stage playing guitar and singing. And when I do my “10 Ways to Supercharge Your Life” at vegan conferences and veg fests, I oftentimes play my song that I wrote called Vegan on A Jet Plane and I play the guitar. And no I am not fantastic, and no I’m not a great singer, but I get standing ovations for this thing. So my point is not to talk about me and my guitar and my singing.

And by the way, when I first became a public speaker, I was horrible. I had no confidence. I was reading from slides. I was reading from cue cards and notes and it was horrible. I am surprised audiences didn’t get up and walk out. I’m really surprised. But they were courteous and they gave me extra energy to get better and better and better.

So what is it that you want to do? You know in your heart. What do you want to try? Whatever it is. A business, a hobby, a writer, a speaker like me teaching others, whatever it is; please just do it. Please don’t hesitate.

But this isn’t what I was going to talk to you about today. Since I am in New York, I was going to talk to you about traveling, how easy it is, and how you can do it for cheap.

So let me just share with you a few things that I always bring with me when I travel. First of all, when I travel generally it’s to someplace like New York. I will go on some place like hotels.com and find myself a good deal. Like I said during my Hippie Road Trip, you can go to hotels.com or use the app called Hotel Tonight. You can find some really good deals. I am not saying its 100%. Where I am staying in the middle of Manhattan, I got a room for $67 per night. You heard that right. I know there’s a lot of noise in the background here so you may have thought I misspoke. But no, you heard that right. And it was a nice room. Was it a 5 star hotel? Absolutely not! But was it clean and nice and in a good location? Yes! You can do this. You can’t do it all the time. Sometimes the city is sold out and it’s more difficult. But you can do it.

I carry a lot of my own food. Granted when I am here in New York, I love to go to the vegan restaurants and check them out. Which I’ve done so far here. But I also save a lot of money on food because when I first get to a city, I find a good natural grocery store. Here’s what I do for breakfast. I’ll get some strawberries and carry them back to my room. I wash them off and cut up the strawberries. I will then get my shaker bottle. I usually carry packets of organic instant oatmeal with no sugar added. I’ll open up a packet or a packet and a half and put it in the shaker bottle. I’ll then add a little protein powder. If you’ve been listening to me for a long time, you’ll know I love MRM Protein Powder. I’ll add that to the mix. Just a couple of tablespoons. I’ll add some chia seed, flax seed, or hemp seed. And I’ll top it off with a nice portion of almond milk. About 8 to 10 ounces. I shake that all up and let it sit for about 10 minutes. The almond milk will soak into the oatmeal really well. You don’t have to cook oatmeal. I never knew this. But you can have oatmeal totally raw and it’s fine. So I let it sit for about 5 or 10 minutes. Then you’ve got yourself a nice breakfast. And it’s really inexpensive. And it’s healthier than anything you’re going to get at a diner. I promise you. I promise! It’s great!

And I bring rice crackers and almond butter. But there is something that I always carry with me that is indispensable. I am going to urge you to get this. You can get this on Amazon or at a local Asian market. Locally, in the Maryland area, check out HMart. Look for a Korean spoon. Korean spoons are longer than the typical spoons we are used to [in the U.S.]. They come in either metal or wood. I prefer wood just because it feels really good in my hand. And I carry this Korean spoon so that I can scoop out a big thing of almond butter and put it on a cracker or I can eat anything with it. I actually just used it for my breakfast that I just described to you because as it gets down low sometimes you have to use a longer spoon sometimes. It’s an instrument that I use all the time when I travel, even something that you normally need a fork for. You can use this as a fork. I love it! Go on Amazon or if you’re fortunate enough to have a really nice Asian market, especially a Korean market.

Something else that I love is that I will go to a Wegman’s or someplace like that and get these chickpea snacks. They are dried chickpeas that are seasoned. They come in bag. And I know in the past I have said to beware of anything that comes in a bag because chances are it’s processed. I guess you could probably call this processed. But they are whole organic chickpeas, they’re just dried and spiced up a little bit. Picture that as a snack you put your hands into, it is wonderful! I carry these wherever I go. I carry almonds. You can also carry break if you like. I’m kinda on a gluten free kick. And I’ll explain why in a future episode. I’m not a 100% gluten free but I’m eliminating wheat and things like. I’m going to see if it makes a differences guys and I will report back to you. I’ve got a couple things that I want to see improved so that’s why I am kinda eliminating the bread, the wheat, and the gluten for now. I’ll get back to you and let you know how it goes.

I used to carry like a whole briefcase that had my connections, and little gadgets, and wires but now I carry one REI backpack. I’ve used a lot of backpacks for travel and this is the best one I’ve ever had. I’m thinking it was probably in the $80 to $90 range. It holds a really nice container of water. It has 3 sections. One I use for food, and I use for electronic type gadgets like this portable microphone and recorder I am recording on now. I always have it with me in my backpack. Always. And another thing I always carry with me is…? You know! What am I going to say? It’s my book of goals. It’s always with me in my backpack or my back pocket. It’s in a small pocket sized notebook. I have my book of goals and I read them every single day.

As I started off the show, I said if there’s something you want to do in your life don’t procrastinate. Put it down on your list of goals and read it every single day. I’m sure it’s going to make it easier for you to get it going.

Those are some of the things that I carry when I travel and I really am able to save a lot of money. Because again I eat a lot of food and snacks in the hotel room or when I’m walking around. But I do like to go to dinner if I’m in a different area and sample vegan restaurants. But I do not go to very expensive ones either. I just don’t feel the need to have to spend a lot of money. Last evening, I was down in Chinatown in a place called Buddha Bodai for dinner. I was by myself. I ordered a main course and it came with tea and the whole thing cost me like $9.95. I also left a tip so it came to a few bucks more than that. You can eat healthy and not have to spend a lot of money for it. You can do it. I am doing it. I’m saving the difference. I’m putting it away. I’m investing it.

And I think we’re due pretty soon for a financial show especially since we are at the beginning of the year. I want to share some things and reinforce some things about money and finances. Because again it’s all about the lifestyle. And if you’re not stressed financially, you’re healthier generally. And your marriage is better generally if you’re not stressed financially. You’ll be setting yourself up for a better life as things come up so I want to help you with that as well. I don’t want to see any of you stressed over finances. And I see a very very high percentage of people in first world countries that are stressed over financial concerns. And it’s funny how I said that – first world countries. But we’ve got our own set of problems. We have a lot of wonderful things here. Think of all the convenient things we have in all these first world countries. But somebody in a third world country is most likely not stressed out over paying off a credit card bill or how they’re going to pay their mortgage or their cable. They’re stressed out over other things like where am I going to get clean water but they’re not stressed out over going bankrupt.

Isn’t it strange? Isn’t kinda weird the way things work? Isn’t it kinda crazy? But I am going to say it’s good. Know what else I am going to say? I am going to say…see you next week! I’m Dr. Dave, Dr. D the “V” with The David Madow Lifestyle Show. I really appreciate you!

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