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A friend asked me to meet him in Leh, Ladakh. Leh, Ladakh (“Land of High Passes”) is far far away from where I am, but the moment I understood what it was, my heart longed for it. Yet, I paused at the thought.

Perhaps sensing this, he explained his very simple approach to life:
“I know how to travel 12 inches. The distance between my heart and my head.”

“That’s an important distance to travel every day,” I responded.

In fact, I feel like it’s the longest distance in the world sometimes.

But I make the trek, step by step. And it rewards me every time—not all in ways that I can fully describe to you.

But maybe you already know what it’s like because you’re trekking too.

When was the last time you traveled the distance ?
Have you ever regretted traveling the distance ?

“Half of them think things will never work out. The other half believe in magic. It’s like a war between them.”

2011 was The Year of Delight. It held my hand, and taught me to fly. It came along and I learned that there are few things more important than aligning your life with what’s alive in you, that you should forgive yourself, that there is beauty and treasure hiding in the unexpected, that kindred spirits are rare and so must be cherished, that not all adventures are loud but each of them are valuable, that making space for what matters isn’t all that hard, that I discovered far more about life and the human spirit in this one year of living on my own terms than all the years I worked under someone else’s vision.

A selection of magic in 2011:

1. Celebrating the first day of the year atop the Great Wall of China, looking down on the vast expanse of our beautiful world.

2. Facing my fear of heights and jumping from the highest legal jumping point in North America.

3. Launching my first online class, “Takeoff: Travel More for Less”, taking off on Jan 5th. (Join us !)

4. Falling asleep in an attic painted in clouds, waking up to hummingbirds on a cottage by the sea.

5. Reading at least 1 book a week, as part of “Kym’s Life MBA Program.” Hee.

6. Creating and illustrating a book now on display at the Brooklyn Art Library.

7. Living through and documenting 100+ perfect days, starting on my birthday, a book I’m working on.

8. Donating my once very, very long hair.

9. Eating raw for days on end.

10. Being swept off my feet and feeling butterflies again, thanks to a few good, fascinating men.

11. Helping write a script and film a comedy in 72 hours.

11. Pulling my first official all-nighter in fantastic company, followed by a 2-hour nap, delicious dinner-and-a-movie.

12. Participating in the World Domination Summit with 500 of the most fulfilled and self-realized people I know.

13. Spending a perfect week with a lovely soul whom I’d previously only known through his beautiful writing and photographs, and was until then faceless.

14. Hiking at sunrise in upstate New York on no sleep, and throwing ourselves into full-on dance mode at the top.

15. Landing in the hospital on account of an as-of-yet unknown, and extraordinarily painful condition that continues to leave me and the hospital staff perplexed.

16. Falling in love with walking again, averaging a distance of 100 blocks per day in Manhattan. I am this close to having walked every block of the island.

17. De-cluttering my life: my Manhattan apartment, relationships, clothes, shoes, books, the contents of my laptop, what I put in my body, what I allow to hold my attention.

18. Dancing in the rain. In the Hamptons. In Central Park. On the streets of the Lower East Side.

19. Reuniting in person with Julien, puppy love from France, after finding each other on FB after 18 years.

20. Mastering the art of my two favorite Vietnamese soups, Bun Rieu and Bun Bo Hue.

21. Surviving a hurricane with hurricane friends.

22. Writing in hundreds of coffee shops, restaurants and hotels across the world.

23. Finding myself on a boat to Manhattan and a limousine through Midtown on the same day.

24. Taking my first long-term solo overseas trip to Spain, and falling in love with slow travel.

25. Escaping death while climbing a mountain alone in Montserrat, through thick fog and an unexpected downpour.

26. Running through East Village in another downpour and laughing through dessert, soaked to the bone.

27. Leafing through a used book and finding an old handwritten letter, dated June 1984.

28. Selling my first creative catalyst session, my first photograph and my first piece of writing.

29. Meeting Lala the elephant near the beaches of India.

30. Waking up every morning to do what I love from anywhere I choose to be in the world. (I teach you about the “anywhere in the world” part in “Takeoff” on Jan 5.)

31. Doing one new thing a day for 100 days.

32. Spending the last weekend of the year quietly, lying down in the darkness with my family and looking up together at the breathtaking Milky Way, the vast expanse of universe in which we are a mere pale blue dot.

The year that began with me looking down, ended with me looking up. How magical.

I am writing from the Arabian Sea. I am literally in and surrounded by the sea right now, perched on a rock, my bare feet in the cool, shining waters, pen and moleskine in hand. This trip has jolted my inspiration—thoughts flying with exciting projects and adventures, and I can’t wait to share them with you.

Around me, the waves are blue-green, the sun catching the waves like a blanket of diamonds. The foam gathers white, soft, and sparkling at the edge of an endless shore—as if the clouds had fallen from the unblemished sky, preferring the earth to heaven.

Today, this is the place I live in, and work in.

When you are at peace, or thrilled even, taking your work to the places you live in, and living in the places you work in, that’s a good feeling.