Hello there.

I’m going to interrupt the stillness of this site — and the aesthetics of this page — to tell you where we’re at. Or more specifically, where I’m at because, honestly, I don’t know where you’re at (should I?).

As of this writing, it’s 2025 and I’m still alive. Still learning. Still doing my own thing. Life has presented me with many challenges, but I love it. Of course, I don’t always love it at the time — sometimes things are awful, stressful, and overwhelming — but I do think life is a gift and I love what I learn from life experiences — even the tough ones.

I eventually plan to take what I’ve been learning and share it — Either in a revised version of my first book or more likely, an entirely new book. We’ll see. It took me 8 years to publish my first book so don’t hold your breath.

Making a positive difference in the world in my own way is more important to me than selling books or competing with the countless others saying the same things while vying for your attention, sales, and likes on social media.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise, but life lessons tend to be universal in their message — whether they were written 2,000 years ago or 2 days ago. We may think we’re coming up with novel new ways to say things, and maybe that’s true, but really no one is coming up with entirely new solutions.

What’s different about all the books and people out there sharing lessons is the messenger. Some messengers put more emphasis on some things over others, and some speak to us in a way that helps us really get what they have to teach. For some people, that’s me. For others, it’s AI.

In any case, a lot has happened since you last heard from me. One of the things that happened is I stopped posting to my blog. If you want to check it out, go ahead. There’s still some good content there, it just hasn’t been updated or added to in a while.

What is likely more noticeable at this point is that I also started limiting my exposure to social media to just “Adventure Season”. Which, for me, runs for about four or so months over the summer in the United States. During adventure season my #vanlife dog and I go off to travel to beautiful places in nature and climb mountains. And it is amazing. In 2024, we hiked nearly 1,000 miles of some of the most beautiful trails in the United States.

I mainly share my experiences on Instagram. But this year I plan to share videos on my Youtube channel as well — and aim to upload at least some of last year’s content before I start making new stuff. If you’re interested in that sort of thing, you can follow me (or not).

I still have a lot planned in life and many planned projects that I still have an interest in (but maybe not a passion for?) were put on hiatus. To be honest, I’m figuring things out. The world is changing so quickly these days — and sometimes in extreme ways — that it can distract us from what we really want or what we want to give our attention to.

Sometimes it’s important to take a step back and “reset”. And sometimes you need to reinvent yourself — if only for yourself. What does that mean? For me, I think it means I’m in the process of rediscovering who I am and how I want to expend my time and energy moving forward.

With compassion & kindness,
Zero Dean

February 12, 2025

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Welcome.

You’ve probably heard stories about people who — despite being comfortable in life — were brave enough to abandon the path they were on to seek something else. I’d heard about those people. I just never thought I’d actually become one of them. Until that one day I looked my fears in the face, took a leap of faith, and did.

See, despite being engrained in comfort — or perhaps because of it — I’d begun to feel like a robot just going through the motions of life. I could project forward from the path I was on and I realized that, somewhere along the way, I’d started to live someone else’s version of the ideal life, not mine.

So I took a calculated risk by bucking the status quo and disrupting the life I had in order to bring my life back in line with what I truly wanted — knowing full well it wouldn’t be easy or comfortable.

And thus began an intentional & unconventional journey beyond my comfort zone — a journey that would not only turn into the most challenging experience of my life, it would become the most rewarding as well.

As I faced challenges and overcame them, I became an experiential learner — someone who accumulates knowledge through direct experiences and from reflecting deeply upon those experiences.

I began sharing the lessons I was learning from my new life — and 8 years later, I published my first book: Lessons Learned from The Path Less Traveled Volume 1.

You can see what some of the kind people who have read my book have had to say about it in the video below (or youtube).

Where I am & what I'm doing...

I restarted my Youtube channel in July 2021 and am currently traveling across the USA and documenting the experience. I am also working on the follow-up to my first book.

Additionally, I will once again interviewing people across the United States for a video documentary series (and podcast) about resilience & hope (FTPLT.com has the details). I’m also providing photo shoots (when I have time) and am also available for speaking engagements and book signings.

If you’d like to meet-up (for any reason) while I travel, be sure to get it in touch.

The last time I updated my location is represented by the red marker on the map below. I update this often, so I’m probably pretty close to it (zoom in if necessary).

The map below showcases some of the stops I’ve made during my 2021 travels. The red star is a rough approximation of my location when I updated the map.

For a map of my travels for The Path Less Traveled Project see FTPLT.com

My story...

What are you supposed to do when you realize the life you have no longer fits the life you want?

I don’t know.

Because what works best for one person doesn’t necessarily work best for another. I can, however, tell you what I did — and what I learned from it.

I overhauled my life. I quit my job, terminated my lease, and sold everything that wouldn’t fit in my car. And this was only the beginning. A short time later, I began a multi-faceted project incorporating five of the things I was most passionate about pursuing at the time: writing, photography, travel, adventure, and connecting with people in a meaningful way.

This project — which would become known as ZDXP — would lead me to become the protagonist in a real-life choose-your-own-adventure where the internet would tell me where to go and what to do when I got there. I spent nearly 2 years criss-crossing the United States on an epic road trip covering over 60,000 miles.

**It was supposed to be fun —**

— and some of it was — but it was also far more challenging than I ever expected in ways that I could never have anticipated. It changed my life, my relationships, and my view of the world. In short, it changed everything.

When my cross country travels finally came to an end, my journey along the path less traveled continued. And it did so in ways I didn’t expect. Because, when it comes down to it, life is a journey. And when you take the path less traveled, you are far less likely to know what you’ll get than you will by following the footsteps of others. But one thing you can almost be certain of, the challenges you face beyond your comfort zone will trigger personal growth beyond anything a person typically experiences living in the confines of comfort.

Ever since embarking on a journey along the path less traveled in 2010, I’ve been using real-life experiences as a foundation for learning and then sharing what I learn with others.

Follow @zerodean.photography on Instagram

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Zero Dean

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