The World of Travel Hacking with a Touch of ADHD

Picture this:  It's winter.  Cold outside.  Most people are scrambling to get to work through the sleet and the grey slush.  There's traffic.  Rushing around, many people are late... morning coffee barely cracking the sleep fog which still has a light grip on the mind.  Until they arrive at the office.  Now it's different.  Panic and deadline takes over the blur of sleep and it's now high alert.  Around lunch, exhaustion has already slipped in.  And it's like this every day.  And sometimes people dream of just getting away.  Traveling.  Taking the time to plan that moment where you can let it all go.

As someone with ADD, my mind doesn't work like yours.  Unless of course you have full blown ADD, hitting 17 of the 18 of the markers necessary to give an adult the diagnosis.  If that's the case, welcome home; you'll like it here.  Otherwise, you're gonna wanna have a firm grip on your handrails, new friends.

If you did an MRI scan of my brain right now, it doesn't look like the average person's brain.  Parts of my brain are lit up where normal brains are not... giving access to something different.  Also parts of my brain are unlit, like a dull lamp not even practical for reading.  That mostly happens in the frontal lobe.  This is the part of the brain that regulates short term memory and regulates impulse.

Have you have ever read about someone who has had a brain injury that turns into a math wiz, or someone who is autistic who can do some amazing things, but then can't do some seemingly normal things?  Well, these people and the "average" person are like night and day.  We now know from the blossoming field of brain science that people with ADHD have less in common with most people as a "man" has in common with a "woman."

Where am I going with all of this and how does it relate to Travel Hacking?  Sit tight, my attention depraved friends, we'll get off the chair lift soon enough and head down the mountain.  Just humor me for one more moment here.

When you have what they officially entitle: Adult ADHD, you have these bursts of thought.  At the time they happen, it cripples the person.  For instance you could be talking to me and saying "when are you going to talk about travel?" And that could make me suddenly remember: "oh wow, I have to finish plans for my Caribbean Trip."  At that moment, I can no longer function or pay attention to what the person is saying from then onwards.  The new thought becomes the most important thing in my universe.

Until the next one comes.  And this scene of incoming bursts of thought, busting in like Cosmo Kramer blasting through the door... with a total sense of urgency... is endless.

I have a theory (and it's probably wrong) that if someone normal had to use my brain for just a moment... they would literally go insane, because they wouldn't be able to adapt.  The biggest proof that this is true is the fact that I try probably 300% harder than anyone I meet on a daily basis.  I try to get to places on time, I help people endlessly, I'm always giving people gifts... and yet... people are often frustrated with me, wondering why I was late and why I "don't give a shit" or why I don't "try harder."

When someone has ADHD, asking them to "try harder" is like teaching a child to walk by saying "Blue is Green on a Yellow Day" over and over again.  It's the opposite of logic.  In fact, brain science and measured energy levels suggest that when someone has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), they have to try 2-3 times harder to get to the same goal as someone without these issues.

A great book to read on the subject if you would like to get educated and would like to understand why someone with ADHD seems to "hurt" you or "Not care" about you is the following: "ADD Friendly Ways to Organize Your life."  Another is "Delivered from Distraction."  You see... the problem isn't that someone with ADHD doesn't care for you or doesn't try to do what you ask of them... they just have to do so much more than you could ever imagine to make those things happen.

And, in truth, thinking that they "don't care," is actually quite the opposite of reality.  Focus groups of study using patients with Adult ADHD show a 9 out of 10 personality type where they are "people pleasers" and often are trying to help so many people at once that they never for a moment do anything for themselves.  And they go crazy wondering why no one appreciates them.

The cherry on top is... Travel hacking.  How does it relate?  In the beginning we reviewed a story about how most people live their lives... in the hustle and bustle of modern work, never taking a moment to go on vacation.  Living from paycheck to paycheck, thinking to themselves: I don't have the time, energy, or planning available to travel anywhere.  I would fall behind, and I don't have the money.  What if I were to tell you that you were dead wrong?  What if I were to tell you... that I belong to a loose "group" of travel hackers all over the globe that have been traveling for pennies... like an elite tribe of people who live just on the outskirts of society's rules?

Maybe you've read about Best Rate Guarantees and air miles and how to take advantage of them.  And maybe you know a touch of how to plan for a trip.  But where do you start?  Well, my kittens, I'll bring the milk bottle right to you... that's the purpose of this blog: to entertain and to share travel related stories.

Sure,  I  comedy, because its the only career that helps my ADHD.  It's the only thing that I can possibly do to work "With" my ADHD and not "Against" it.  Otherwise I'm just a farmer trying to program... it doesn't work.  But, because I do comedy... and have ADHD... I travel... and  because comedians don't make much money (most of us are not Chris Rock or Louie CK, believe it or not)... that means I don't have the money to survive and live.  In fact... I live in hotels.  I have been staying in hotels because I have to do comedy in New York.  And because I have to be in New York .. and don't make 100,000 dollars a year... I can't survive.  And so I do this... because I have ADHD... a choice that I didn't make or want.  I was born this way as Gaga says... I didn't pick it out of a book, this is just how I came out.  Given a choice, I wouldn't pick it.  But this is my curse, and so I spin it as a blessing and be thankful.  And I am.  I love life and I embrace how I am... but because my mind is spinning like a top at million RPMs and firing off all of these processed ideas... and I write them all down and use them... and because I only think about travel and how to survive being constantly on the go....  there is no one single person as qualified to teach you how to get around the world... for pennies.  I'm the modern equivalent of a trip hopper.  Not because I want to... but because I have no choice.

I now invite you to visit me every week... Fridays at 3PM... because I want to share.  Some of you won't like what I teach you or will not feel comfortable with grey areas.  But you can go, no one's begging you to stay.  And the rest of you... slow down a bit... take a day off.  That project can wait.  It's time to look at life different and ask yourself what you really want out of it.  Welcome to your new club.  You are very welcome here.