Scott Stoll logo world traveler. A bicycle wheel and the globe symbolizes Scott's journey around the world on a bicycle.
The Argonauts 20th Anniversary Masthead. If you could do anything, what would you do? Bicycle-shaped kids, sphinx, bicycle ride across a river and around the world.
Here is the banner that celebrated my 20th anniversary as an adventure-travel blogger.

About

My vision and mission of life

Welcome. My name is Scott Stoll, and here:

I explore how to live a more meaningful and joyful life. And I invite you to join the journey.

That’s my passion and my vision — the why. My mission — the how — is to create a website that is entertaining, inspiring and educational.

It took me a long time to feel confident saying my life had any purpose whatsoever.

My life of adventure began with this question: If I could do anything, what would I do? It may seem like an innocent or obvious question, but to me, it was the most awesome (literally meaning: frightening and inspiring) question I had asked myself. This question drove me around the world on a bicycle seeking the meaning of life and the secret of happiness. “If I could do anything…” is a question that never ceases to amaze me. It essentially asks: How can I live the best life possible? How can I be the hero of my own story?

The sphinx asking a riddle: "If you could do anything, what would you do?"
Can you answer the Sphinx’s riddle? In the hero’s journey, the Sphinx was one of the threshold guardians. If you weren’t prepared, you weren’t allowed to pass. In some legends, if you fail the question, you get eaten. This metaphor reminds us that we have to be willing to change. When Scott asked himself this question — If I could do anything?— that led to the Aha! moment that inspired his journey around the world on a bicycle and has become a guiding philosophy ever since.

We are all on this journey through life together

A fundamental principle I’ve come to believe is that everything is an adventure. Furthermore, when I traveled the world, I learned that, though I was a solo traveler, everyone I met was partaking in my adventure, and I was part of theirs. I realized my words and actions inspired others. And I learned that I could never have accomplished my journey without all the kind words and helping hands in return. When I teamed up with other people, not only could I go further and faster, but the journey became more joyful, and life became richer as our perspectives combined to paint a more complete picture of the world.

I believe we can all help each other on our journey through life, so I created this forum to share our hopes and dreams and pass along the boon of our adventures, like new ideas, lessons learned and stories of our common struggles.

I think the key difference to this website is that rather than me standing up on a pedestal to tell people how to live their lives, I invite people to join my journey. I prefer to learn through play, which makes me more of a guinea pig than an authority. For as long as I live, I hope never to have all the answers; instead, I hope to summit each peak of life and find many new adventures and misadventures lying ahead. 

I hope by sharing our misadventures, discussions or just armchair travels, we can grow together. My end goal is to create a legacy that can outlive me, whether that be this website, my books, or simply my ideas becoming reality and helping to make the world a better place. One idea that I’m very proud of and that I believe will help you live your best life is my formula for turning dreams into reality.

I think that’s all you need to know about the big picture. Please poke around the new website, and let me know what you think. 

  • Go here if you want to know more about what makes me, Scott Stoll, tick.
  • Go here for a quick overview of how this website works and how to turn dreams into reality.
  • Or just browse and have fun.

Thanks for riding alongside me on this adventure we call life.
Scott

A bicycle on top of the world. Well, relatively speaking if you live in the Southern Hemisphere. This is Scott Stoll's variation of a Japanese hanko seal that artists use to stamp their art.
How to turn dreams into reality: Dream It! Map It! Play It!

Visit Our New Kid-Friendly Website

Because I believe everything is an adventure, I created a kid-friendly website teaches kids (and adults) how to dream and how to turn those dreams into reality using our simple 3-step formula 1) Dream It! 2) Map It! 3) Play It! Dreamaplay is full of free, evidence-based resources for kids and their parents, teachers, homeschoolers and health care providers.

History of this website

This website goes way back to 1999. It was first modeled after one of the first adventure stories in Western history: Jason and the Argonauts. Our website was a blog before blogs existed. We shared stories before sharing was a thing. We innovated new standards. We won a few awards along the way. And, we inspired thousands of people to follow their dreams. The stories they have told us about their courageous leap into a new life have been our greatest reward. Most amazingly, my dream to see people share stories of their adventures — in real-time as they happened — did come true. Here you can read the history of our old website and our original mission statement, which still remains much the same. I’m proud of what we had accomplished. We were true pioneers in what has become the world of social media.

Celebrating over 20 years online. Anniversary logo.
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