Dan's Travel Log: Vietnam | Dan’s Personal Development

June 03, 2005

Vietnam | Dan’s Personal Development | April 2005

After my month of holiday time in Vietnam, the time came to try to pay for it all… Having taught in Cambodia (and having CELTA tucked in trusty tool-belt) I was well prepared for English teaching, although it was not my preferred choice of work. Brandon, who had taught in Cambodia also, was working at a couple of schools in Saigon and told me it was pretty easy to get work there.

But, teaching English would have been a means to an end, the end being finance – paying my way to stay there – not exactly what I was looking for. One reason I had chosen Saigon was that there seemed to be a reasonable amount of IT work available (based on the online ads I was seeing). Unfortunately, upon applying, most of them seemed to be seriously targeting Vietnamese only, or perhaps those who were willing to work for Vietnamese wage rates. This was really disappointing, and quite ironic that I could only get a salary of about $500-600 a month doing 40+ hours of qualified IT work, whereas any foreigner that could speak English could earn $1500 a month doing 20-25 hours a week! Clearly the benefit of being a foreigner doesn’t translate into IT work, doh!

So, after a couple of unsuccessful applications and interviews, I decided IT in Saigon wouldn’t be for me. It was around this time that I achieved my ‘crisis’ point in my personal life. I spent my days sitting in my guesthouse room, watching cable TV, barely bothering to go out for food then maybe going out for some social drinks with Brandon et al. After 3 days of this, I got really bored and shitty – duh. Having spent anxious nights in Cambodia concerned about my direction in life, this was the ultimate bottom of the pit for me. I remembered the satisfaction I gained from the first week of listening to an Anthony Robbins ‘motivational’ audio program (I don’t like to use the word ‘motivational’ because ‘motivational speakers’ have serious stigma associated with them in society), and started listening again.

This was THE turning point in my life.

To an external observer, it could be possible to have seen the next 3 weeks to be as self-centred, unsocial and boring as the previous three days (holed up in my room most of the day), but it was an incredibly concentrated period of personal development for me. I listened to three of Robbins’ audio programs in their entirety, including doing all the exercises (this ‘can’ take more time than the listening), I put the tools and techniques into use in my own life and I have now taken control of my life and its direction.

Anyone that hasn’t listened and is cynical should open their minds and try it. Anyone that HAS listened and didn’t gain anything from it – sorry to hear it!

I’ve learnt many techniques to master myself - my psychology and my emotions. From the way your physiology affects your mindset (and how to control both) to turning disempowering emotions into learning directions to learning new time planning techniques, everything I heard has made some kind of impact on the improved Dan.

If anyone’s interested in mastering their psychology, or even fine tuning that control if you’re happy where you are, I’d recommend looking into some of this stuff – and I’m more than happy to help guide you as to what to specifically listen to if you don’t feel you have the time/motivation to go through a full 10-30 day program!

Anyway, that’s enough of my rant about the program, as I’m sure not everyone reading will be as excited about it as I am :)

In net effect, I turned my life around. I started exercising my body and mind every day. I exercised my body 45 minutes (as part of an hour of psychological warm-up) every morning for more than 3 weeks straight (before making my way home – see later logs), and even if this was all I had done, it would have been a single beneficial act – getting my body going – switching on my mind as well.

I started to think about what it is I might want in life, WHO do I really want to be, WHERE do I want to be, WHAT do I want to be doing and HOW do I want to act.

For the first time in a many years I created visions for my life. From these came specific goals and results/outcomes I want to achieve. More importantly than the goals themselves, however, is ‘who’ I become in the process. It’s easy to think of people that achieve great things but are not happy or fulfilled, so it’s important to be grateful for what you have already, as well as aiming for greater things.

I decided that I’d had enough ‘drifting’, which is exactly what I had been doing in Asia – ‘paying my way’ to holidaying… There’s nothing wrong with drifting, I enjoyed myself, enjoyed the experience of different cultures and environments, I met some incredible people and had wonderful times. BUT, I wasn’t ‘getting anywhere’ in my life. I wasn’t aiming for anything, so how could I be getting anywhere?!

I decided that I wanted to get a real IT job, give it a real effort, as opposed to ‘avoiding’ the big bad real world of work. I spent many hours deciding what to do and where to go… Asia? UK? US? I came to the conclusion that in my present state of passion and motivation, I really wanted to make the most of all the resources available to me in order to achieve my short and medium term goals. Most of these resources are in Australia, many of them in Sydney (resources such as family/friends, as well as things like my motorbike, exercise equipment, IT equipment, housing, jobs, etc), so that became my decision – go to Sydney.

Once I had made this decision, I almost wanted to get on the next plane home, to get started on next part of my journey in life. However, I also wanted to enjoy and appreciate the region I was in while I was still there, so I planned to travel to the remaining Vietnamese cities that were musts, as well as planning to visit people in Cambodia before I left.

I continued the programs and learned more tools and techniques (the Rapid Planning Method has really good concepts behind it) while planning (and enjoying) my remaining time in SE Asia and my journey back to Sydney.

It was sad to say goodbye to Brandon, Tim, Ele, Karen, and all my other Saigon friends, but for me there was a great deal of excitement for the future.

Posted by Dan at June 3, 2005 12:47 AM

Comments

Wow! It is always moving to read the passion of a persons account of their 'turning point'. Pleased for you and proud of you!

Posted by: lozza at June 3, 2005 10:26 PM

I know what this has meant to you Dan and I think it's great... keep running Dan, running toward the rest of your life! ;) xx. (Glad you're able to enjoy the present moment too!)

Posted by: Kirrilee at June 8, 2005 12:18 AM