Currently...

What began as a desire to escape for a while has turned into an adventure lifestyle focused on exploring the people, culture, and landscape of the entire world.

In just over a year, I have ridden unconventional vehicles across Peru, Bolivia, India, and all of North America (into the Arctic Circle). I've trained combat sports in Thailand, travelled across Nepal and Cambodia, and raised thousands of dollars for charity. Soon I will return to South America to complete an unfinished trip with the goal of exploring the entire continent on three wheels.

Throughout all these adventures I've taken tens of thousands of photographs, hundreds of hours of video, and engaged with people over the internet through my http://whoispete.com" rel="nofollow">blog, http://facebook.com/trackpete" rel="nofollow">Facebook, and http://twitter.com/trackpete" rel="nofollow">Twitter. Ultimately my goal is to inspire others with the truth that things are often so much easier than we think.

Before I escaped...

Before I walked away completely, I was a high level information technology architect and manager in charge of technology strategy for a large software services company. At the forefront of my field in large scale datacenter automation and virtualization, I spoke at technology conferences and advised many on the challenges and possibilities of pushing the envelope of new technologies.

Ultimately I became dissatisfied with the amount of effort and emotional investment I was making towards large scale corporate bottom lines with little personal fulfillment, finally deciding to put that same investment into my own personal happiness for a time.

My moment of truth...

I was on a two week vacation in Europe (the longest I had ever taken at the time), when I met a guy who had spent many years worrying about only making enough money to pay for that day's food, lodging, and skiing. It blew my mind that he saw this as a liberation, rather than a struggle.

How long my dissatisfaction with the struggle for higher salary, longer hours, and intense emotional investment in my work had been heading towards the breaking point I'll never know... but that conversation tipped me over the edge and within hours I began to re-arrange my life towards the ultimate goal of letting things go for a while.

Planning for it...

I live in the middle of Washington DC and I enjoy good food, wine, and beer. When I started paying attention I was shocked to realize how much I was spending on alcohol every month, from hitting bars with friends twice a week to bottles of wine at dinner on dates. I switched to showing up at happy hours with a single $20 bill for that night's drinks and started doing nice dinners more often at home. This alone saved me nearly enough money each week to fund weeks in Asia or South America.

I also started taking a more long-term view of my spending, limiting myself to only one 'toy' every few months and halting the annual unnecessary upgrades (computer, TV, laptop, etc.). Overall I'm lucky in that I made a great salary to begin with, but over a year and a half I saved more than half of my take-home pay by focusing on the reward of freedom, all whilst never really feeling I was restricting myself.

The worst and best bits...

It's intensely personal to share, but the largest negative of this experience has been my inability to commit to a long-term relationship. I've met some incredible women who I've chosen to leave behind as I take advantage of the current opportunities I've created for myself (I've only been home for a couple months of the last year). It's truly the only negative of this experience that I've yet noticed.

The positives, on the other hand, are innumerable. One of the coolest positives of this experience has been the massive improvements to myself, my attitudes, my understanding, and my confidence. I have learned to overcome physical and mental hardships that I would never encounter in an office and been challenged in ways I never imagined existed. This has become the focus of my addiction towards adventure: seeking situations where I know I will be uncomfortable to find how I respond.

The greatest positive, however, has been the changes in the way I see other people around me as living, breathing, true people. It's hard to describe this, but much of American society - especially in the corporate realm - teaches us to look to ourselves first, to go for what we want first. It's all so selfish, "my way or the highway."

Finally, being willing and able to consider the impact of mine and others' actions and opinions on those around me may not ultimately improve my career trajectory if I return to a normal career, but it has already considerably improved the quality of my life and I have zero doubt it will continue to.

Best advice...

Don't worry, be happy.

Seriously. The ability to avoid stressing yourself (and others) out by worrying too much is the single most important one to have if you want to be happy. Any time you find yourself worrying, instead dwell on your confidence in yourself and the nature of others around you.

People have a hard time understanding when they ask if I'm afraid of mechanical problems in the middle of nowhere and I respond, "I look forward to it!". There's always an interesting result when something goes wrong, so why worry about it?

Our fear causes us to make such a big deal out of things we then easily deal with. Be chill.

Useful resources and information...

The best resources are always people, in my opinion. Talk to them! Don't use a GPS when you're traveling, don't worry about maps and routes, and use a guidebook as a guide (not an instruction manual).

And don't just stick to the locals, either - ask other travelers about anything and everything as well.

I got the idea to train Muay Thai in Thailand from a drunk guy at a bar; I found out how easy it was to travel in Nepal from a guy I met training in Thailand; then I ended up seeing a ton of awesome places in Nepal with a random woman I met along the trail.

It's all connected, the human guidebook.