mytropicalescape.com

Design the life you want to live

Living on a Caribbean Island I run into visitors and tourists on a daily basis and almost without fail someone will always say to me - “You live here? I would love to live on an islands, travel the globe, or live in a different city but I just can’t because of my job.”

Within today’s workforce there is a major paradigm shift underway with respect to the concept of employment and individual career pursuits.

Unfortunately, many companies in the global marketplace no longer maintain any semblance of loyalty toward its employees. (The previous statement is not meant to be a criticism, nor earth shattering news, but it’s stated for the record.)

People who need to work and generate income are left with a couple of choices. They can maintain a focus on a more traditional corporate career and hope for the best. Or, for people who don’t necessarily want to pursue a traditional path, MANY people are now choosing to design their life, career, and living style based on what they believe will bring them true happiness and fulfillment. This post is meant to highlight certain individuals who have removed themselves from the cubicle, seized control of their destiny, and are successfully carving out their niche online.

The Online Option

The emergence of new technologies is making it easier for people who would like to be entrepreneurs, whereas, before they might have had to pursue a job within a structured company.

Truly, the realization that a life in the corporate world might not be the only way to generate income, coupled with the fact that many people are now successfully creating their own livelihood these days, should be enough of a catalyst to help would be skeptics (due too fear, etc) into pursuing a style of life that they choose. As such, I think during the coming years we will see exponential growth in the number of people who will attempt to create and fashion their living working for themselves via the internet.

Some Examples Please

Editor’s note: Not wanting to mislead anybody, the people that I know who are running a business online, blogging for profit, or dabbling on the net part time for extra income work VERY HARD. When I last checked, I don’t think I knew of any online entrepreneurs who were magically waking up on a bed of de-thorned roses every morning (Well, maybe Darren Rowse, the original six figure blogger does?).

A “designed lifestyle,” for the purposes of this post, would encompass any person who has decided to try and make a living [online] based on their rules, and not one that has been pre-programmed for them via some employment norms that have always been accepted. Of course, there are many other methods that can be employed to help aid in the cubicle escape (innkeeper for one), but I will discuss that topic in a later post.

Below, I have spotlighted five different people (in no particular order) who are actively pursuing the online career lifestyle and YOU CAN TOO.

Naomi Dunford of IttyBiz.com - who provides “work from home tips to help you stay sane”

Naomi is truly one of the most unique voices on the internet today. Her website, IttyBiz, was developed to help promote her marketing and copywriting business that she runs from her house, but her blog has taken on a life of its own. If you are looking to startup an online marketing business you should definitely peruse Naomi’s blog. For starters I would recommend reading Entrepreneurship: What To Do When You’re Scared Sh*tless and if you would like to find out about the less glamorous side of trying to work from home then read this little gem Moral Of The Story: Violent Snuggling Edition.

Christine OKelly of SelfMadeChick.com - her site title says it all, “Make Money Online, Work From Home, and Take Back Your Life - One Entrepreneur’s Journey”

Christine’s story is quite the inspiration. According to her blog, “Several years ago I quit the cubicle cold turkey to take more control of my life. With 2 kids and no savings, there was a lot at stake. At first it was damn hard. But once I unplugged from the cubicle mindset, the opportunities and money began to flow.” While I was reading her site a couple of weeks ago one post about holding yourself back really caught my attention. The article was great but it was the information that Christine included at the bottom about her ebook sales that really made me think about the possibilities that exist to make money online. You see, Christine’s book, “How I Built A Profitable Freelance Business for Under $50 (And How You Can Too!)” had only been on sale for twelve days and she had already made over $1,000. That’s incredible. 

Skellie of AnyWired.com - “Work Online, Work Anywhere, Live Free”

For those of you who read this site but do not follow the online publishing community, Skellie is one of the most talented writers online. She quickly became an authority in the “blogging about blogging” niche with her first site Skelliewag. AnyWired is Skellie’s recently launched blog about pursuing personal freedom while earning a living freelancing. With such categories as making money, working anywhere, and your digital office AnyWired is sure too become a must read site for those looking to escape the cube. You might even wish to check out this little article Taking Your Show On The Road: 10 Tips To Help You Escape the Office by some Caribbean based guest poster.

Lea Woodward of LocationIndependentLiving.com - “Who says you should live by the rules?”

I am quite lucky to live in the Caribbean, but for those of you who are interested in going almost completely off the grid and traveling the globe then Lea’s site is a good place to start. Lea and her husband, of Project Woodward, focus mainly on consulting and freelancing as a means of generating income. One particular post that I found useful was “Three Fears I Had About Leaving The Rat Race That Actually Came True (And How I Overcame them)” so if you would like to become truly location independent go have a look at Lea’s site.

Dan Clements of Escape101.com - “How to Take a Sabbatical or Career Break”

Dan is a published author and for those more conservative folks out there who would like to travel, or maybe move towards personal freedom slowly, he is an advocate of sabbaticals. Dan’s extended travel approach in Escape 101 is an excellent way for those interested in finding out if the overseas life is one that they want to pursue. Some of his greatest advice comes at the beginning of his book when he quotes a fellow traveler on why people are afraid to pursue their dreams, goals, and aspirations, “Leaving is the easy part, it’s the thinking about leaving that is hard.”

Besides the obvious (Tim Ferris, etc), are there other people out there that you know of who are designing their lifestyle? I would like to hear about them.