Big Blue Marble Mission. Goals for 2005

In my last postcard, I enumerated all of my plans for the future. Several readers advised me to get rid of this feature because my plans would change over time. They were right. My plans kept evolving making many of my promise obsolete.

After giving this suggestion a lot of thought, I decided that I would instead let my readers know my mission for the business and prepare an annual list of goals that will help me realize this mission. So here goes

Mission

With your help and guidance, the Big Blue Marble will help its readers:

• find new ways to travel that are more inexpensive, safe, and meaningful than conventional tourism.
  
• discover that travel is the world's most effective classroom.
  
• connect to other people across borders.
  
• understand that they can make their dreams to see (or live in another corner of the planet) our world come true.
  
• enjoy our planet's tremendous hospitality, beauty, and kindness.

Goals for 2005

• Continually add new information, book reviews, and links that help readers to get a glimpse into the strength of travel to transform themselves and the world around them.
  
• Go out and seek more firsthand information to help my readers discover ways to travel better. Publish six editions from Northern/Central Mexico of the Big Blue Marble newsletter. Tell stories about people there whose lives have been transformed by traveling and living abroad.  Provide up-to-the-minute reviews of intriguing opportunities to travel like a local rather than a tourist in Mexico. Integrate these stories into my future seminars and publications.
  
• Develop a new feature on my website called "Where in the World is Paul?" that will allow readers to follow my trip around the world on a map. Readers will see where I am, where I am going, and the places I've visited while reading journal entries about my adventures.
  
• Expand my travel seminar series in 2006 to include my first seminars outside of California (some places under consideration include Boston, Providence, New York, Washington DC, Chicago, Toronto, Minneapolis, Denver, Seattle, and Portland, OR).
  
• Start a whole new website www.californiatourguy.com which will highlight the great tours in the Golden State and help readers to discover all the wonderful travel treasures in their own backyard.
  
• Finish a draft of two books (for release in early 2006): Travel like a Local: A Whole New Way to See the World Inexpensively, Safely, Comfortably, Joyfully and Purposefully and Escape the Rat Race: The Ultimate Guide to Living, Retiring, Traveling, Working, and Studying Abroad.